Polar has designed, fabricated, and installed specialist and bepsoke healthcare windows, doors, and curtain walling products, for Atherleigh Park, a new £40 m inpatient mental healthcare facility in Leigh, Lancashire for adults suffering with mental health, dementia, and memory conditions.
The company installed over 100 of its ‘Humber Secure’ healthcare windows across the site. It said: “These ‘reduced ligature’ windows provide high levels of safety and security, allow for comparatively high levels of natural light and air flow, and can allow complete patient functionality.”
The facility’s courtyards are accessible to service-users, but posed potential ligature risks, meaning that ‘unique design’ solutions were required. Various ‘anti-climb’ options were offered, and samples which included the following features issued for approval:
- Anti-climb frames needed to be fully openable for maintenance of the window behind.
- The system needed to be fully flush to the external wall finish, so the position of the frames in the reveal was considered
- External curtain wall face caps were sloped, and intermediate transoms removed where possible, to eliminate the climb risk.
Additionally, trickle ventilation was integrated into the Polar Secure windows (and indeed is now a feature of these ranges) to allow nighttime airflow into bedrooms; a specific requirement of the Trust and hospital, which Polar has now used at various other sites across the country.