The initial phase of the development will have capacity for 800 patients as of this weekend within the Birmingham National Exhibition Centre (NEC). The site will be able to accommodate up to 4,000 patients if required.
Working on behalf of the NHS and the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB), Interserve Construction delivered the first phase with a team of more than 400 employees and contractors working on site 24 hours a day for the past seven days.
And it was achieved in line with the social distancing guidelines set out by the UK government, the company says.
Also joining the effort were 60 Gurkhas from the army, providing labour and distribution delivery, as well as helping to put the beds in place.
The project has required more than 64 miles of cable to be laid, 10 miles of copper piping, 15,000m2 of plywood and 82,000 m2 (or 11.5 football pitches) of vinyl flooring.
The new Birmingham hospital is the second to open of several emergency field hospitals under development in the UK to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic.
NHS Nightingale Hospital London was first to open. Others are under construction in Manchester, Glasgow, Harrogate, Bristol and elsewhere.
Interserve Construction managing director Paul Gandy said: “The NHS Nightingale Birmingham has been built at a remarkable pace and with huge discipline. Our 400 employees and contractors have worked over 40,000 hours since Saturday to build this hospital, employing great logistics and project management skills. The NHS Nightingale Birmingham shows what can be achieved when people come together across the construction sector to protect the NHS and save lives.
“As the principal contractor working with UHB, our key supply chain partners and the NEC, our people have been working on site 24 hours a day to create this lifesaving medical facility.”
David Rosser, chief executive of the UHB Trust, said: “The extraordinary effort in creating the Nightingale Hospital Birmingham is a total team effort. Without this collective purpose we would not have been able to make the staggering preparations to deliver this facility.”
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