The Borders General Hospital in Melrose, Scotland is run under the auspices of NHS Borders, the single health care organization for the Scottish Borders.

As an expanding facility serving the people of the Borders region, the hospital is keen both to optimize the effective use of its property and provide the best possible environment for its patients and staff.

They planned to turn a 132m² former windowless internal storage area into a pleasant working environment.

The hospital initially installed a pilot Solatube Daylight System and even those who were sceptical of the effect that it would have, were so impressed by the amount of daylight brought in that more were soon fitted.

"We looked at ways we could get daylight into these new offices and determined that tubular skylights could be an option. Having compared different suppliers' products, we decided that Solatubes were better at transferring more light from roof to room than competitors' products and its diffuser would enhance this effect even further."

"Without the Solatube systems, this area would have been unusable as offices. Now staff are happy to work there. The amount of daylight brought in by the tubular skylights is so impressive that not only do staff rarely have to turn the lights on in the main office, but the glass fronted offices off of this area are able to "borrow" light from it too so that they also benefit from access to natural daylight."

Matt Hall, Estates Officer

Solatube Products used: Solatube 21-C with patented round-to-square transition box to fit existing 600 x 600mm ceiling grid.

Words and images reproduced with kind permission of Borders General Hospital NHS Trust