Infection prevention and control (IPC) specialists, GAMA Healthcare, has opened new facilities in the UK and China to lower infection rates by training over 10,000 NHS staff members in 2021.
GAMA Healthcare has opened two new offices in the UK and China as part of its global expansion strategy. Each location features an infection prevention and control training suite designed to replicate an active hospital environment, as well as accompanying academic suites for tech-enabled learning.
The new facilities are built to accommodate GAMA Healthcare’s long-term rapid growth with completely agile designs as the company transitions to an entirely new way of working. “It’s an agile, forward-thinking space that’s fit for the future, not just for now,” says Laurence Shanks, Design Director at Oktra, the office design company behind the new locations.
Having trained over 32,000 NHS professionals in the last four years, GAMA Healthcare are looking to train another 10,000 NHS employees in 2021. The new infection prevention and control training suites provide the company with the space they need to train healthcare professionals in a hands-on hospital environment.
“Training has always been at the heart of what we do,” says GAMA Healthcare Joint CEO & Co-Founder Dr Guy Braverman. “The way you deliver training is really important – it needs to be interactive. A product is only as effective as the training behind it, which is why we believe innovative training is key to reducing infections.”
The suites contain a two-bed ward, private room with en suite and an equipment cleaning facility. The installation of X30, X50 and Director Level Poly video-conferencing systems throughout the workspaces enables remote workers to join training sessions, company meetings or other types of virtual learning programmes.
The UK medical suite was designed by LSI Architects while office design company Oktra is behind both the UK and China workspaces. Both locations have the same core design principles so as to create a strong sense of brand continuity, and have been built to reflect the company’s cultural pillars. Located in Foshan City in China’s Guangdong Province, GAMA Healthcare’s Chinese super hub is around 7,500 sq ft and boasts a product development lab.
The UK office was completed in March 2021 and is in the Maylands Building at the centre of Hemel Hempstead’s business district. In addition to the medical ward and academic suite, the 20,000 sq ft workspace features two floating boardroom-style meeting rooms, a central staircase that doubles as bleacher seating townhall space for 220 people, flexible workspace with fully modular furniture solutions, bespoke kitchens and a company games area. The workspace has also received a Gold SKA Rating.
The IPC specialists have been steadily bringing its staff to the new office with about 20 employees attending department inductions every day, working towards its new hybrid working strategy which specifies remote working for two days out of the week.
“The best teams work in innovative, collaborative workspaces,” Dr Guy Braverman explains. “An amazing workspace like this energises people, and that energy leads to innovation, collaboration and, ultimately, new products.”