SUPPLY INFRASTRUCTURE
complex logistical plan. It was all hands to the pumps to meet the allocated timeslots, with even members of the Armed Forces unloading the company’s pipes to ensure that they got to their destination on time.
The Nightingale Hospital at the National Exhibition Centre in Brirmingham required a precise logistics operation on its own, with vast oxygen tanks installed a safe distance away from the building, allowing for truckloads of oxygen to be brought in. In some instances, oxygen had to move 10 kms along pipes, so we came up with a tailored solution that saw us supply six metre-length tubes and a vast quantity of copper fittings, pipe-hanging supports, and silver brazing rods.
The results
Nine months from the first order being placed, and Lawton Tubes has successfully delivered 120 miles of medical gas copper pipes to the NHS – if laid end-to-end, this is the same length as Phase 1 of HS2. All of the 100% recyclable product was delivered on time and to budget, ensuring that vital oxygen supplies were in place in time for the Nightingale openings, and to provide additional capacity in other hospitals across the UK. In total, more than 200 deliveries left the company’s Coventry manufacturing facility carrying tonnes of specialist copper to over 70 different destinations. Work hasn’t stopped there, with continuous upgrading of medical facilities keeping the team at Lawton in demand.
It’s quite an emotional feeling knowing that our family business in Coventry has played a small role in helping save thousands of lives here in the UK and overseas. Copper is the preferred choice, as its antimicrobial. In our offices, even our door stair handrails and light switches are made of copper. Our copper pipes were also in place at St Thomas’ Hospital in London, just prior to Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, being admitted with his fight with COVID-19 last year.
International efforts
Lawton Tubes’ role in the COVID-19 pandemic wasn’t purely restricted to the UK, with our pipes also supplied to 35 different countries, including Ghana, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, and Vietnam. The greatness and high standing of the NHS, and its foresight in having its own written step-by-step guidelines, incorporating product standards and best practice, has seen the UK medical industry taking the lead in medical gas pipeline systems. This is something Lawton Tubes is all too aware of, which was factored into our manufacturing requirements and how the product was supplied.
Then there were shipping lines and Medical gas tube marked, and ready for dispatch.
international customs/banking arrangements to consider, and a worrying global imbalance when it came to the volume of parts being transported with the number of ships/containers available. Fortunately, our recent growth in export (Lawton Tubes is a holder of the Queen’s Award for Enterprise International Trade) had given us the connections and experience to meet all of these challenges head-on, and to deliver the same level of service, quality, and delivery performance, enjoyed by customers in the UK.
Feedback from partners/clients Some of the comments we have received from those we have worked and partnered with or for include: n “We have watched Lawton Tubes’ growth with great interest, first helping it secure the Queen’s Award for International Trade, and then brokering
introductions to Government officials leading on the fit-out of the Nightingale hospitals. While demand for its products was global, the company consciously and patriotically opted to hold back stocks to supply the UK market first. Coventry & Warwickshire is lucky to have such a high-quality manufacturer representing our region.” – Louise Bennett, Chief Executive, Coventry & Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce.
n “Lawton Tubes comply fully with HTM 02-01 regulations for the design, installation, validation, and verification of medical gas pipeline systems. The company goes way above this as well, offering a unique post-production manual inspection process, and conducting improved identification to avoid confusion with similar sizes of water services fittings. The latter pleases me, as crossed services constitute a serious risk to patient safety.” – Geoffrey Dillow, Healthcare technical consultant, and author of HTM 02-01.
Automated marking in progress on the copper tube flowline at the Lawton Tubes factory.
n “We received a phone call on Saturday morning, and by 5 pm that day we were designing one of the most complex medical gas systems we’ve ever looked at for the proposed Nightingale hospital in Harrogate. This was the most demanding job we’ve taken on, and needed every member of our supply chain to come with us on the journey to achieve a project in 18 days that would normally take between 12 and 18 months. Lawton Tubes was instrumental, supplying 7.5miles of specialist copper tube, over 100,000 Munsen rings and brackets, and 2000 degreased copper fittings within a matter of days of us ordering. As throughout the previous 28 years I’ve worked with the company, all of its products were supplied to outstanding quality, ensuring that we didn’t have to
March 2021 Health Estate Journal 59
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