FCC has received the Silver Green Apple Award in the Built Environment and Architectural Heritage category for its construction of the new South West Acute Hospital in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland.

The Green Apple Awards for environmental best practices are given out by the Green Organisation, an initiative launched in the United Kingdom in 1994. They are conferred each year in recognition of building projects that improve the built environment or protect our architectural heritage. FCC competed with another 200 candidates for the Green Apple Award in the national campaign to choose the greenest companies, councils and communities of the United Kingdom. The Green Apple Awards were first given in 1994 and have since become the environmental distinction that companies, councils, communities and countries most prize. Former winners include the United Nations, the BBC, Balfour Beatty, Lafarge, Cemex and Jaguar.

The Green Apple is the second award to go to the hospital. ‘Engineering News Record’, the industry publication that has its own picks for the best global projects, gave FCC its ENR Global Best Projects award of merit for 2013 in the category of health for the South West Acute Hospital. The project was also tapped for the PPP Bulletin Awards as the best-designed, most operational project in London in May.

The Enniskillen hospital is Northern Ireland’s first PPP and the first hospital with single rooms to be built in the United Kingdom. It has the facility to house employees, and it has its own energy demand management centre, making it one of the most modern hospitals in Europe in terms of energy efficiency. FCC completed the project on time and on budget in May 2012. The hospital was opened by Queen Elizabeth II in June 2012.

Rafael Foulquie, FCC Construcción country manager in the United Kingdom and Ireland, said ‘It’s an honour for our first project in the UK to have been selected as an example of best practices in health centre construction. Health is a highly specialised area of building where FCC has years of global experience. FCC is determined to expand its global operations in the United Kingdom, and the Green Apple Award is a solid push in that direction.’

South West Acute Hospital

The facilities have the most modern clinical resources and the latest in patient care technology. South West Acute Hospital also offers a wide range of specialities, with particular emphasis on maternity and emergency services, to round out the services already on offer at Erne Hospital, also in Enniskillen.

The hospital is laid out in three bands or lines of buildings separated by gardens or courtyards, for maximum natural ventilation and light plus an outdoor view to enjoy from every window.

Hospital-building expertise

FCC manages the construction of many health centres all over the world. Right now the group is building a 440-million-euro hospital complex in Panama, which will have 183,912 square metres of floor space, making it the biggest hospital in Central America. FCC is also building the 110-million-euro Luis Chicho Fábrega Hospital in the province of Veraguas, Panama.

The company has built many, many hospitals and health service buildings in Spain, such as San Carlos Clinical Hospital in Madrid, O’Donnell Maternity Hospital and the new Mataró Hospital in Mataró, Barcelona. It has also built the Esther Koplowitz Centre, Barcelona’s modern biomedical centre. FCC is currently engaged in building a hospital in La Línea de la Concepción, Cádiz.

FCC’s experience with hospital PPPs

FCC is an old hand at public/private partnerships, like Torrejón de Ardoz Hospital in Torrejón de Ardoz, Madrid, opened in 2011, and Southeast Hospital in Arganda del Rey, opened in 2007. In both projects FCC provided all services, including construction and equipment for 30 years.