Kingston Hospital MRI Building

Hospital sites do not pause for construction. Patients still arrive. Clinics still run. The courtyard still matters to the people who use it every day.

At Kingston Hospital, M&O Building Contractors delivered a new four-storey MRI building and associated works in the middle of that live setting. Roundtable Projects provided project quantity surveying and commercial management throughout, in association with M&O. We were not the main contractor. Our job was the commercial discipline that keeps a live-campus scheme explainable from first package to final account.

The brief sat in a tight courtyard on an operating hospital. Alongside the new MRI building came outpatient department refurbishment, a new sub-station and infrastructure, and enabling works so temporary staff relocation could happen without the hospital grinding to a halt. Specialist clinical space, temporary works and day-to-day hospital operations all had to stay in step. That mix is where healthcare projects usually lose time and money: not in the big idea, but in the sequence of small decisions that nobody owns.

Our role was the commercial thread. We ran full supply chain procurement with M&O so packages were tendered, compared and awarded with a clear paper trail. We assessed and agreed subcontractor valuations and accounts, prepared client valuations, and managed change as design and site conditions moved. Extensions of time, monthly cost reporting and regular site attendance kept the commercial picture honest while work progressed. We stayed with the job through to final account, so the close matched the story told during construction rather than rewriting it at the end.

On a live hospital project, trust is not a soft word. It is whether the cost story matches what is happening on site, whether change is logged before it becomes an argument, and whether the client team can make decisions without waiting for last-minute surprises. That is the standard we work to: clarity first, then the numbers that follow it. The JCT Design and Build 2016 form (with amendments) rewards that habit. Design development and site reality move together, and the QS has to keep both visible.

The outcome is a purpose-built MRI facility and supporting works delivered through M&O’s contracting, with Roundtable holding the commercial line from procurement to final account. The hospital kept operating. The new accommodation came online with a commercial story that could be explained to the people who needed to hear it.

We build trust first. Projects second. On Kingston, that meant protecting the commercial relationship while a live campus kept serving patients.