Acoustic Advice for Healthcare Developments

For a new built or refurbishment of any healthcare development, it is important to set appropriate acoustic design criteria as soon as possible to avoid future acoustic related problems.

Many future operational problems could have been avoided simply by appointing an acoustic consultant at an early stage of the design process.

The acoustic consultant in conjunction with the client should, at an early stage, define what the specific uses of the spaces will be and what level of privacy and confidentially they will require. This can be the most important factor on setting the correct sound insulation between rooms, required internal noise level and any other relevant acoustic criteria that may be appropriate for each room. It is therefore important to design the building layout and room adjacencies carefully.

Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust have recently appointed Acoustic Consultants Limited to provide guidance on noise and acoustic aspects of building design following problems they have experienced at two recently completed buildings.

We were requested to provide a report with generic guidance and performance requirement for new and existing healthcare buildings in terms of internal ambient noise levels, sound insulation and reverberation time control based. The guidance provided was based on Health Technical Memorandum (HTM) 08-01, other British Standards and experience gained over the years by working in many healthcare projects.  In addition, general detailing, workmanship and verification required to ensure design criteria is met on site during the construction stage was also provided.

We are currently working on numerous large sensitive healthcare construction schemes including University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff, Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup and have recently finished other smaller projects including Woodland View Brentry, Bristol and Daisy Building, Green Lane Hospital, Devizes.

If you would like further information on the acoustic design of Healthcare facilities, and a competitive quotation please contact us at mail@acoustic-ltd.co.uk to discuss how we can help with your project.