Fifteen members of the East Midlands branch, plus family and guests, recently visited the Royal Derby Hospital as a guest of IHEEM member Charles Harrison, general manager of Skanska Facilities Services, where they were treated to a short presentation on the £334 million, 1,159-bed facility’s seven-year construction, a visit to the hospital’s elevated helipad, and a tour of the main engineering services.
Simon Marriott, Skanska Facilities Services building and projects manager, had also arranged for the landing, on the rooftop helipad, of the local Derbyshire, Leicester, and Rutland Air Ambulance, giving the members and youngsters present the opportunity to sit in the helicopter. Charles Harrison said: “The helipad, which is manned 12 hours a day, 365 days a year, only became fully operational early last year, and part of the remit of the Skanska Facilities Services estates and facilities team is providing eight maintenance assistants who are responsible for fire and rescue there. This requires a five-minute response from the duty team should we be notified that an air ambulance is shortly to land, for instance in the event of a nearby major road accident or other incident, but the team can actually make ready in around three minutes.” The Civil Aviation Authority-trained team’s responsibilities include not only remaining alert to any fire or safety risk during landing, but also helping hospital porters with off-loading patients and accompanying the air doctor, air paramedic, porters, and their patient, to the hospital’s’ accident and emergency department. “We believe we are one of only about six large English hospitals with an elevated helipad,” added Charles Harrison. “We can typically get the patient off the helipad, down a ramp, inside the hospital, and to A&E, within minutes.”
