JLL undertakes major refurbishments for Bupa aged care

Challenge

Bupa is a healthcare firm with services including health insurance and community wellbeing. Aged care is at the core of its overall commitment towards a healthy Australia, and the company is dedicated to improving its services with regular upgrades.

JLL worked with Bupa over five years to refurbish and redesign a number of its aged care facilities across New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria with the aim of enhancing the experience of its residents.

The refurbishments had to be undertaken around residents in fully occupied facilities. Ensuring their convenience by keeping all amenities available and running during construction was a top priority. Some of the aged care facilities have provisions for people with special requirements, such as dementia, which added complexity.

In Bupa’s Clayton (Melbourne) facility dementia wing, which has secure self-contained units, we adopted additional safety and security measures to ensure the controlled environment of the wing was not compromised at any point during the construction work.

Approach

JLL analysed all the Bupa aged care facilities that need revamping, redesigning or new fit-outs and listed the client’s requirements to scope the work.

Projects involved adding rooms, new stations for nursing staff, modification of kitchen facilities and dining rooms, extra bedrooms for residents, refurbishing corridors, landscaping, and overhauling building façades.

As we committed to providing end-to-end services, our role expanded from planning and designing, to managing all projects, and supervising implementation on the ground.

All refurbishments, including technical due diligence, required a high-level of collaboration with Bupa’s development and facilities management teams. We worked particularly closely to co-ordinate the architectural surveying and fire safety on the Bupa Clayton façade remediation project.

Considering the sensitive condition of some residents at this facility, out-of-hours work was kept to a minimum.

Nevertheless, the project was carried out seamlessly so that all residents and their families had full access to all parts of all buildings during construction, with strict health and safety protocols top priority.

Result

We successfully delivered all the required projects, often as part of an accelerated program. This has not only strengthened our partnership with Bupa, but also provided us with invaluable experience in refurbishing and redesigning healthcare facilities.

Bupa has shown great satisfaction in the work and our ability to accomplish refurbishments without disrupting the routine functioning of its facilities. We are looking forward to working together again.

“JLL acts more as Bupa’s extended team than a contractor, which gives us confidence that the project’s objectives will be achieved,” Bupa’s James Heeks adds. “The team has consistently delivered Bupa’s projects according to program and budget, and I would have no hesitation to engaging them on future projects.”