Nightingale London
Case studies > Capital projects
In response to national emergency in March 2020 RFLPS were appointed as estates and construction lead for the conversion of the ExCeL centre in London to a fully functional COVID-19 hospital facility with 4,000 acute ITU beds, delivering the first 500 in just nine days. Returning in December 2020 to convert the EXCeL to a fully equipped COVID -19 rehabilitation hospital.
Scheme highlights
Delivery of 500 intensive care beds fully equipped with ventilators and oxygen in 9 days supported by imaging, CT, pathology, pharmacy, mortuary, administration, staff facilities, general imaging; final facility had 4000 bed bays.
Nightingale project team came up with the layout solution within a matter of hours and worked alongside the military, clinicians, nurses, doctors and AHP’s to ensure the patient flow worked and risks were mitigated.
Speed of delivery was unheard of in UK construction market and was achieved via single common vison and trust in the teams specialist knowledge with rapid decision making concurrent with build, working to a set drumbeat with clear accountability for solutions and delivery.
Collaboration between various agencies NHS, private and military was a critical element to the success; rank and company badges were left at the door; the Collaborative delivery was only effective when supported by an effective governance regime to ensure transparency, certainty, confidence and support confidence for decision making and avoidance of surprises.
Challenges
On the 21 March 2020 the world leading disease data analysts predicted the nation was facing a national emergency. Given 48 hours notice at the start of the first lockdown RFLPS had to assemble a team of technical expert consultants, contractors and suppliers considered necessary and to source all essential plant, infrastructure and medical gases and interpret design guidance to build an emergency ITU hospital in an exhibition hall at unprecedented speed and at a scale never seen before as an insurance policy for the NHS within an exhibition centre ….there was no blueprint!
Specific technical challenges medical oxygen, ventilation, power, resilience in event of utility failure and infection control.
“It’s nothing short of extraordinary that this new hospital in London has been established from scratch in less than a fortnight. The NHS, working with the military, has done in a matter of days what usually takes years.”
NHS Chief Executive
Key Details
90,000sqm exhibition hall conversion
4,000 beds first 500 in 9 days
7.2MW UPS; 19.2MW stand-by generators
63,000 litre oxygen capacity; 20kM medical gas pipework
Services Provided
Project Management
Architectural and engineering design
Cost management
Compliance & resilience
Commissioning
Construction procurement
