How do you build a 650-bed hospital in two weeks? Garry Bowker, Regional director of Integrated Health Projects (IHP) and VINCI Construction UK, tells the ‘behind-the-scenes’ story of the NHS Nightingale Hospital North West in Manchester.
IHP (the VINCI Construction UK & Sir Robert McAlpine joint-venture) has extensive healthcare experience and capacity in the north-west of England delivering ProCure framework projects out of the VINCI Construction UK offices in Widnes. On 27 March this year IHP was advised by the Department of Health & Social Care and NHS England/NHS Improvement (NHSE/NHSI) that the new Manchester Nightingale hospital emergency facility was to be delivered under ProCure22, and Alan Kondys, IHP Framework Director, offered our services for immediate mobilisation. The NHS Nightingale Hospital North West experience began for me at 11 am on Saturday, 28 March, when we were given the green light by NHSE/I to by deliver the project, and we were ‘all systems go’.
An unprecedented experience
What followed was like nothing else I have ever been involved with, in all my years of healthcare construction and support services. We needed to address three priorities – sorting out key experts, lining up our supply chain, and organising a team to manage the design and installation of the works. The weekend became a blur of phone calls, organising colleagues and partners to put together the right team.
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