Interserve Group, the international support services, construction, and equipment group, has been commissioned by the Government to provide facilities management services to the NHS Nightingale North West Hospital in Manchester that will be treating COVID-19 patients when it opens shortly.
Interserve is recruiting over 200 people to deliver the contract. The new hospital is one of several under development in the UK, and is the second that Interserve will be supporting. Interserve Construction is acting as the principal contractor on the NEC Nightingale Hospital in Birmingham, and is due to finish the first phase of the critical NHS facility in ‘an intense seven-day, around-the-clock building project’, in which the company says it has already delivered 40,000 hours of work. The ‘NEC Nightingale’ will initially take 800 patients, and will have full capacity for up to 4,000.
The NHS Nightingale North West Hospital is due to open on 12 April in Manchester. As part of the deal, Interserve pledged to mobilise ‘a full suite of FM services’ in 10 days for the new temporary healthcare facility, including catering, cleaning, maintenance, portering, concierge, and waste management services. Initially the hospital will house around 500 beds, with the capacity to expand to 1,000, and will be used as a ‘step down’ centre – so that intensive care beds at hospitals can be used for acute cases.
Ian Williamson, Project lead for the NHS Nightingale North West Hospital, said: “NHS Nightingale Hospital North West will provide the highest possible standard of care for COVID-19 patients from across the whole region, and will free up capacity in our hospitals.
“The professionalism and commitment of the people who have come together from a wide range of organisations has made it possible to build a new hospital in just a few weeks, and we are all proud to be involved in helping the NHS to save lives.”
