NIGHTINGALE HOSPITALS
London Nightingale project: team spirit ‘shone through’
Eugene Conroy CEng, FIHEEM, MIET, managing director of consulting engineers, Eta Projects, reports on the personal experiences of the professional team in the delivery of the NHS Nightingale Hospital London. His article is based on feedback and personal experiences from fellow team members, and other professional partners, with whom the firm worked in close collaboration for several months.
Not since the Second World War has the UK faced a national crisis of the magnitude of this year’s COVID-19 pandemic. No one expected to see a war with a common front across the globe in the fight to defeat the coronavirus. The Eta Projects specialist HV/LV infrastructure team played a small part in this fight, with collaborative working with some of the UK’s greatest estates management personnel, project managers, and engineers – including the Royal Engineers – many from the famous Gurkha Regiments.
Day 2
We arrived at the Nightingale Hospital London on Day 2 of the largest NHS project this century, with the ambitious plan to deliver an acute 4,000 bed ITU facility already underway. The project was already under construction, with mock-up bed spaces completed, and a roll-out agreed between the project manager and the Principal Contractor, CFES, plus the lead architect, BDP. The project team, led by Andrew Panniker, managing director of Royal Free London Property Services, tapped into the vast resources within the various MOD regiments, i.e. logistics, and a team from the Royal Engineers.
RSP, the MEP design team, had already set out a scheme design, which commenced with the early procurement of key elements of equipment, including UPS systems and supporting generators. Our initial perception of the established professional team was that there was actually no requirement for us, since the project appeared fully resourced. However, a chance introduction by our AE/ Authorised Person, Rick Seymour (an ex-Royal
Engineer himself) to Eugene Nel, Warrant Officer 1 with the Royal Engineers team on site, established that the complex HV/LV infrastructure was posing a challenge to the design / construction team, and that it would welcome any help we could give.
MoD & Royal Engineers’ support The relationship with the Royal Engineers developed over the following days, with the service personnel made available at a moment’s notice to undertake any task required. This relationship was incredibly rewarding, as the Royal Engineers were passionate about engineering, and fully embraced our explanation of engineering in the provision of an acute healthcare environment, highlighted during team briefings given by my Eta Projects colleague, Neil Fitzjohn, and I. These meetings were underpinned by the MOD
approach to challenges experienced in conflict zones, aptly put by Captain Stuart Silvester, whose approach to any project is to focus on three questions: n The objective: What do we want? n The ‘how’: How do we do it? n The ‘who’: Who do we need to do it?
With clear communications lines established at each daily communication meeting, solutions to every problem were presented. The MOD Logistics team also ensured that both resources and material were made available to resolve every challenge. With ExCeL London over a kilometre long, the logistics of moving a tonne of batteries were resolved with a quick telephone call to the team. Little did we know then that those initial weeks would be some of the hardest we have experienced in a very long time. For the first three days there was little or no food, and a lack of sleep.
HV/LV Infrastructure- Utilities
Eugene Conroy (left) and Kim Shelley of Eta Projects on site with WO 1 Eugene Nel of the Royal Engineers.
52 Health Estate Journal August 2020
At the close of Day 2, Eta Projects entered the project delivery team with a lead role in the delivery of the HV/LV infrastructure and utility supplies, with clear instructions to deliver the integration of the new HV/LV electrical infrastructure. The duties including testing and commissioning the new UPS and secondary standby generator systems. Our lead engineer, Bill Reeves, himself an ex-UKPN HV network planning engineer, led on negotiations with the local District Network Operators (DNOs), Scottish and Southern and United Kingdom Power Networks (UKPN), with the focus being the capacity and resilience of the existing utility supplies. The DNOs’ response was equally committed to the
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