Meilahti Bridge Hospital to start admitting patients in Jan

The construction of the Meilahti Bridge Hospital has been completed on schedule and the new hospital will begin admitting patients at the beginning of next year, said the Helsinki-Uusimaa Hospital District (HUS) in a press release.

The main contractor SRV handed over the premises to HUS on 30 June.

The largest construction project in the HUS history, costing EUR 305.5 million, was completed at the end of June.

“The construction proceeded according to the plans and schedule for the most part. Issues that emerged along the way were solved together with architects, building technology designers, facility users and contractors. Now that the long project has been completed according to the objectives, I can say that I feel relieved,” said Marita Perälä, Project Manager for Construction at HUS Kiinteistöt.

After the hospital building has been completed, the work will continue for several months with facilities, furniture, equipment and information technology installations and careful testing of all equipment and building technology.

The Bridge Hospital will include an emergency department, a surgery department, an intensive care unit, outpatient clinics, a pharmacotherapy unit, inpatient wards and MRI facilities. There will be 58 intensive care places, 16 operating rooms, 4 inpatient wards, 215 inpatient beds and 69 day hospital beds.

Teaching and lecture facilities as well as a lunch restaurant, a café and pharmacy facilities have also been built in the new hospital.

The Bridge Hospital was named for its bridge connecting the two sections of the building. The two-level bridge houses stepped seating and meeting rooms. The artworks will be installed before the hospital opens.

The Bridge Hospital has been designed in close cooperation with HUS personnel. The starting point for planning was the patient's needs and experience.

“More than 40 user members were actively involved in the planning of the Bridge Hospital, including representatives of both medical care and support services. Our unit representatives have played an important role in the planning. In addition to the patient's needs, one of the goals of the project was to implement optimal working conditions for the personnel,” said architect Salla Itäaho from the HUS Facilities Center, who led the program planning of the Bridge Hospital at HUS.

“Seamless cooperation between the users and the customer's representatives and designers was critical for the operationally challenging planning site to succeed,” said Matti Anttila, main designer of the Bridge Hospital, Architect at the AW2 Architects, who is part of the Team Integrated Silta work consortium that won the architecture competition.

In January 2023, the current functions of Töölö Hospital will be relocated to the Bridge Hospital, including orthopedics, traumatology and neurosurgery, and most of the functions of the current Comprehensive Cancer Center.

The Bridge Hospital introduces completely new types of treatment facilities, such as the RAPTOR operating room, which is the first specifically equipped operating room in Europe, with equipment that allows the treatment of a patient suffering from life-threatening bleeding in one location.

The new neurosurgery operating room is also one of a kind. There the MRI unit will be available during surgery.