HOSPITALS & HEALTHCARE
IN THE HOUR OF NEED
One of the UK’s responses to the coronavirus outbreak was to turn London’s ExCeL Arena into a temporary hospital fit with 4,000 beds. ISS Healthcare was asked to lead the soft services FM operation. Here, Tomorrow’s FM looks at what that entailed.
The global Covid-19 pandemic demanded that conventional thinking be suspended. The sight of China building a new 25,000m2
hospital in Wuhan in just six days stunned the world but soon others were having to consider similar measures.
In the United Kingdom, a team of senior clinicians started to consider how best they would cope when the pandemic reached its height in London. From the time the general concept was first formulated, to having a 4,000 bedded temporary hospital ready for operation took less than six weeks, but this depended on some incredible teamwork, with the NHS working in perfect partnership alongside the military and selected contractors.
ISS Healthcare was contacted by NHS England and asked to lead the soft services FM offer. Chris Ash, MD at ISS Healthcare, didn’t think twice. He immediately accepted the challenge and within hours the mobilisation team swung into action. Senior team members from both ISS’ commercial and operational businesses led from the front and on the ground at east London’s ExCeL conference centre.
Precision planning The initial task was to take a completely blank piece of paper and start to work up realistic procedures that would enable the whole place to function effectively. This took everyone back to basics. Where should the access points be placed? How should ‘clean and dirty’ segregation, staff numbers and timing be managed? What equipment is
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essential? Considerations about medical gas installation and logistics as well as implementation and timing of the infection control procedures were also high priorities. The lists kept growing.
Endless meetings took place, with individuals working night and day, but within an extraordinarily short period of time, an effective plan emerged with everyone adopting a ‘we can do it’ attitude.
ISS Healthcare was invited to provide the overall soft FM lead, delivering professional healthcare cleaning, portering, linen, waste management, pest control, and helpdesk services. Whilst the incumbent caterers of ExCeL, Compass, were to provide the food, we would deliver it to the patients. Both ISS and Compass dietitians worked closely to agree the basic menu offering.
Whilst the physical space was being prepared, the ISS team started the herculean task of preparing rosters, work schedules and identifying the equipment that would be required – everything from microfibre cloths to large scale floor cleaners. Some 80 recruits were required for the starting phase of 500 beds, increasing to an estimated 450 staff when the full 4000 beds are utilised; all these recruits had to be fully trained and equipped before being allowed to start their work.
Initially, the volunteer workforce came from existing ISS Healthcare contracts from around the country, but it was
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