NHS Nightingale Hospital
- Location
- United Kingdom
- Client
- Vinci Construction UK Limited
- Size
- 14,500 Sq m
The conversion of the Grade II* listed Manchester Central Convention Complex (formerly known as G-MEX) into an NHS Nightingale hospital, during the COVID-19 crisis, delivering 18 wards, 750 beds and a large-scale new gas system providing patients with oxygen.
Working under main contractor, IHP, BDP collaborated with clinicians, consultants, sub-contractors, Manchester Central and the British Army to meet a two-week deadline for completion.
The venue is part of Manchester Central’s exhibition and conference complex, a former railway station opened in 1880, which closed in 1969 and reopened as an events venue in 1982. The building’s main hall is divided into 18 wards, underneath a 64m wrought-iron single-span arched roof, one of the widest unsupported iron arches in the world.
The hospital is designed with 750 beds and uses a modular panel cladding system to form bed-heads and service corridors. The existing electrical system of the venue has been expanded and a large-scale new gas system for providing patients with oxygen was installed.
This joint venture between VINCI Construction UK and Sir Robert McAlpine under the ProCure 22 Framework, also was a collaboration alongside NHS staff, the Army, Mott MacDonald, and NG Bailey and it required an incredibly collaborative team of 1,000 people working 24-hours a day to achieve.
Further Reading
2020 – Delivering six Nightingale hospitals
We undertook a study proposing the conversion of large scale event venues into temporary ICU facilities.