FACILITIES MANAGEMENT
Paul Jackson commented: “I found the fancy dress Fridays very amusing. As quite a lot of us joined in from both hospitals, the atmosphere was very laid back, and added a completely different meaning to meetings. It was a time to relax a little after an incredibly challenging week; this brought the teams together really well.”
Be Kind and Be Safe
None of this is normal, but we make the best of it. We start with coffee mornings at 8 am, maybe a bit of PE with Joe Wicks. One of the best things is we are talking to each other more than ever. The motto is: Be Kind & Be Safe. Helen Knight VINCI Group Health and Wellbeing manager, said: “Our people are the heartbeat of our business, and we know that by supporting them with their mental health and wellbeing, this in turn contributes towards making VINCI Facilities a great place to be and work. Throughout COVID and beyond, we dialled up our ‘kindness and compassion’ – supporting and listening to our workers, recognising that it was completely normal for people to have anxieties about their work, their families, their loved ones, and themselves. Everything was strange, and there was a big element of the unknown – both for our workers and potential impact to our projects.
“We recognised that many of our workforce were working extra hard on our projects, such as at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, helping to keep the frontline services going on behalf of us. Louise and the team did a great job of supporting everyone, ensuring that people who were able to work from home could do so, for example, to give them a break from being on site.”
Seeing a different side
One of the many positives is that the NHS Trust is seeing a different side to VINCI Facilities. We work well with the Trust anyway, but the shared response to COVID-19 means that it’s more than just a PFI job. It’s obvious we are an embedded partner, and the feedback from the client team has reinforced that. Morag Campbell, General manager of Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust’s Estates team, said, “VINCI’s FM team did an exceptional job; they have been very reactive and totally engaged, and it’s a real pleasure to work alongside them. They did – and still are doing – a great job.” Paul Jackson added: “I would like to add to this by saying that due to the commitment, and especially that of Alex Boyd (Medical Gas AP), who worked every day during the pandemic, and all our colleagues at VINCI, we covered everything possible, and they kept all services running during this demanding time.”
We made it through this peak, but things 36 Health Estate Journal October 2020
who have been extra busy over the last few months, supporting and listening to colleagues’ anxieties and concerns, while signposting them through to professional support if required. We encourage workers to be open and honest about issues that may be impacting their mental health, which helps to create an environment which promotes positive mental health.
“We have provided additional sessions for our Mental Health First Aiders during COVID – ‘supporting our supporters’, to enable them to check in with a psychologist and ensure that they were able to share any thoughts, feelings, and worries, that they may have from carrying out their role during such a challenging time.”
In more ‘normal’ times, VINCI Facilities says it sees its role as ‘keeping off the wards as much as physically possible, and allowing the clinical teams to deliver their vital, skilled care to patients’.
have not really slowed down. We have been undergoing checks, and more checks, and constantly reviewing stock levels. No one knows enough about the virus – but we have learned how to manage a hospital in a major public health crisis, and we believe we are in a much better position now to cope with the risk of a second wave as we move into winter.
Awareness and team spirit The thing that has not changed is our team spirit. We definitely need to look out for each other. There is far more awareness around each other’s wellbeing and our own self-awareness. It sounds like a mixed message, but I genuinely think it is a good thing that our mental health first aider is busy; her room is often booked out. Helen Knight added: “We have a network of trained Mental Health First Aiders across the business, many of
An altogether different challenge Like other FM teams in healthcare, our frontline staff are used to adapting to and responding to the day-to-day needs of clinical teams and support workers across the hospitals that VINCI Facilities supports. They are used to working within the complex, sensitive, and at times distressing, situations they see day in and day out. But the COVID-19 pandemic was (and continues to be) different to anything any of us has seen before. It has brought into sharp focus the vital role that VINCI Facilities plays to the NHS’s delivery of capacity bed planning and critical care. It has been a tough learning curve for us, and for anyone in FM working in healthcare, let alone our colleagues in clinical services, but we are stronger together. That team spirit is crucial. It might sound like a cliché, but in the NHS, no matter what your role – cleaner, porter, nurse, doctor, or FM – you play a part in patient outcomes. Right now, we are all, together, gearing up again for what the virus might deliver over the autumn and winter. The journey is not over yet.
hej
VINCI Facilities worked with colleagues at its Coventry Hospital contract, and the VINCI Technical Engineering team, to share joint understanding of the hospital infrastructures and the complex oxygen ‘flow rate’ calculations.
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