Pickfords helped Treliske Hospital, located in Truro, to relocate its oncology ward to a new building.
Background
Part of Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust, the Oncology Department within Treliske Hospital provides health services for patients with cancer, blood diseases and other conditions, throughout Cornwall.
Requirement
Following a £30 million extension to Treliske Hospital, in Truro, Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust decided to relocate its oncology ward to a new building at the three-storey extension in Trelawny Wing. The new ward would allow for an increase in specialised isolation rooms, and overall bed provision.
Challenges
The hospital needed to continue running during the relocation, so meticulous planning was needed to overcome the logistical limitations that comes with working in a live hospital environment.
Also, given the treatment being administered on an oncology ward, a high level of sensitivity was required, so the Pickfords team worked quietly, patiently and compassionately to ensure minimal disruption.
Solution
Pickfords' Truro depot was perfectly based to support Treliske Hospital with its move requirements, and has significant experience and expertise in hospital relocations.
Communication was critical to achieve exactly what the Trust needed, so a pre-move survey by Pickfords was arranged with key hospital stakeholders to assess the requirements of the move, and create a move plan.
The plan included agreeing where Pickfords' vehicles would park to be loaded/unloaded, and the routes staff would take to ensure minimum disruption to the hospital's day-to-day operation. It also identified items to be moved, and the number of crates that would be required for hospital staff to pack. A labelling strategy was agreed and included in the plan to ensure minimum disruption to hospital's day-to-day operation. It also identified items to be moved, and the number of crates that would be required for hospital staff to pack. A labelling strategy was agreed and included in the plan to ensure items were placed correctly at the new location.
As well as moving furniture, IT, crates, equipment and stock as part of the move, Pickfords also delivered essential items that had been held in storage at their warehouse and were now required in the new location.
Approach to health and safety in a 'live environment'
All Pickfords staff allocated to this project were fully aware of and complied with the site rules of Treliske Hospital for contractors working-on-site; including Health & Safety, creating bespoke COVID-19 social distancing processes, alarms, fire precautions, and entry and exit points from each site.
Summary
Working within an environment with a high risk of immediate change, meant there were technical challenges. This included numerous breaks in working to allow patients to be moved. The large team deployed by Pickfords meant that the timeframes were not impacted, and the project was completed on time and within budget, whilst also helping keep the hospital fully functional.