Commercial lighting manufacturer, Whitecroft Lighting, has won the Added Value & Contribution Award at the ProCure22 Framework Awards, in recognition of its work on the emergency COVID-19 Nightingale Centres.
The company received the award for its ‘outstanding contribution’ to the NHS ProCure 22 (P22) framework, and in particular in recognition of the speed and cost-efficiency with which it supplied critical specialist healthcare lighting as part of the NHS’s rapid response to COVID-19. Whitecroft says it not only ‘met the exceptionally short deadlines dictated by the potential rapid spread and impact of the virus’, but also did so within the Framework’s usual capital and operational budgets.
The Nightingale Centres were emergency large-scale healthcare facilities constructed inside existing buildings, such as Manchester Central and the ExCeL Conference Centre in London, as well as emergency wards set up in existing hospitals. Converted in just a matter of days and weeks at the height of the pandemic’s first, the Centres were designed both to treat COVID-19 patients, and support mainstream NHS hospitals with the hope of isolating the spread of the virus.
Whitecroft supplied lighting to eight of the 10 centres: Harrogate Convention Centre, Glasgow Conference Centre, Manchester Central Convention Complex, Cardiff Principality Stadium, Royal London Hospital, Christie’s Hospital, the Royal Preston Hospital, and Alderley Park Conference Centre. It said: “A number of the venues selected were large, cavernous spaces never intended for clinical use, which created a new set of challenges for us. However, as a UK manufacturer, we hold lighting inventory in stock, and were able to quickly review what was available, and draw on our long experience of lighting healthcare spaces to select and adapt products accordingly.”
Three lighting solutions that incorporates wall fixed uplighting, as opposed to the usual hospital ceiling down-lighting, were adapted, giving the NHS and its contractors some flexibility for each Nightingale environment. Some of these adaptations included customising lighting brackets and bodies to aid access for disinfection for infection control, and LEDs with a high Ra number for truer colour, which assists in the diagnosis and assessment of patients as it presents a truer, more natural skin tone. In all, 5,000 bespoke bedhead luminaires were designed, approved, released into volume manufacture, and installed on site, within just five days of the initial enquiry.
Karen Bramman, Healthcare director at Whitecroft Lighting, said: “Industry recognition is always appreciated, but to win an award specifically for the speed and cost efficiency of our work at The Nightingale Centres is particularly satisfying. The unique set of circumstances and deadlines were in many ways the ultimate test, and on reflection it’s clear that Whitecroft’s specialist knowledge and experience in the healthcare sector enabled us to react so effectively at the time. Crucially, Whitecroft is a UK lighting manufacturer with an in-house design team, so we could quickly respond to the unique design challenges presented by each of the Nightingale spaces.
Sarah Ricketts of BAM Construction, and Chair of the P22 Framework working group, said: “We continue to be amazed by the dedication our recommended suppliers offer the framework, especially through these extraordinary times. They consistently step up to all the challenges brought by the pandemic, and remain proactive and enthusiastic, delivering a superb service.”
