University College London Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

PFI healthcare project, UCLH

Facts and figures

  • £422-million scheme, Interserve value: £17m
  • Opened in April 2005
  • 75,822 sq m hospital provides 665 in-patient beds
  • Interserve is a member of the Health Management (UCLH) Ltd consortium at University College London Hospital
  • Equity participant and Facilities Management provider in a consortium with Balfour Beatty and Semperian

Improving patient environments

The 38-year PFI deal with University College London Hospital NHS Foundation Trust was one of the largest PFI healthcare projects ever awarded.

The Trust selected Health Management (UCLH) Ltd in July 2000 to design, build, finance and operate the new hospital, with Interserve providing the ongoing facilities services.

Interserve worked closely with the Trust to plan the phased migration of patients and services prior to and during the transition phase of moving UCLH from the Middlesex Hospital to its new premises. Interserve now delivers a wide range of services designed to create a better patient environment both throughout the new hospital building as well as several other hospitals, residences and laboratories within the Trust campus. This includes serving over half a million meals per annum through patient catering and TimeOut, our restaurant facility. Preplanning enabled us to deploy extra porters and handle significant increases in cleaning, laundry and domestic services.

The scope of the contract continues to grow, with new hospital buildings being added to the existing UCLH portfolio, currently comprising of 80 buildings across four main sites, with offices, residential and large acute sites and dental hospitals on the estate.

Services

  • Catering (patient and non-patient)
  • Cleaning (including window cleaning)   
  • Helpdesk
  • Security and car parking
  • Portering
  • Estates management
  • Installations works
  • Engineering services
  • Materials management
  • Waste management 
  • Domestics
  • Logistics
  • Linen and laundry services
  • Project management
  • Environmental services

Awards

  • Gold RoSPA Awards for 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011
  • Won the Health Service Journal inaugural Efficiency Awards 2011 in the category of Energy Efficiency for the initiatives undertaken by The Carbon Reduction and Innovation Group (CRIG) to reduce the Trust's carbon footprint and for the policies, procedures and training put in place to address the challenging carbon agenda 
  • Awarded London Green 500 Diamond Award in 2010 and London Green 500 Award in 2009 in acknowledgement for the on-going progress to reduce carbon emissions at the hospital
  • Finalist '07 PFM Awards (Working in Partnership) and Gold RoSPA Award for Healthcare

Response to London bombings

7th July 2005: Vital support at a critical time

Interserve plans all its work carefully, but is also able to respond rapidly to crisis situations. This was seen at UCLH where staff were deeply involved in helping in the aftermath of the London bombings on 7th July 2005. Many casualties were rushed into UCH for the treatment, where Interserve provides comprehensive support services.

At the time of the explosions Interserve and the NHS Trust were undertaking a phased transfer of the various departments from the old premises to the new. This was one of the greatest tests of the partnership to date as it happened just six weeks into the contract.

We were heavily involved in two of the most critical areas at UCLH to which many of the casualties were rushed, and with the Metropolitan Police, handling the aftermath of the events on the streets and below ground. This had a massive impact on the teams at UCLH, across every service discipline, especially as the teams were in the middle of a highly complex programme.

Despite the hospital still being in a transitional phase, a disaster recovery plan was already in place, as we regard disaster planning as a fundamental part of our operations. It was implemented seamlessly.

  • 25 extra porters were deployed to deal with the influx of over 250 additional patients to A&E
  • 30 extra staff were deployed to cope with the significant increase in cleaning, laundry, domestic and waste services
  • Interserve worked hard to ensure the ongoing provision and delivery of sterile services
  • Interserve staff who were not on duty came in to add their support and as shifts ended many who could have left stayed on
  • Catering staff worked hard to deliver an additional 1,000 meals for patients, staff and on-site emergency services
  • An additional 50 security staff managed the establishment of checkpoints and barriers, undertook searches and controlled the traffic.

“I would like to express my appreciation to all your staff for the outstanding work that you have carried out in such difficult circumstances”, Secretary of State for Health.