Estates & Facilities Team of the Year
Avrenim
This award recognises a team working in the healthcare sector who can demonstrate outstanding achievement, performance and delivery of estates and facilities services, giving examples of how practical or technical obstacles have been overcome, cost savings have been made or innovative ways of working have been introduced.
How it all started Avrenim’s estates and facilities management journey began in the healthcare sector in 2016. We were immediately tasked with taking over the delivery of the estates and facilities services to the largest hospital in Merseyside – the Royal Liverpool University Hospital – along with Broadgreen Hospital, and the Liverpool University Dental Hospital.
This responsibility meant securing a reliable, local supply chain. We ensure at least 80% of our supply chain is based within 30 miles of Liverpool. This supports the local community and has allowed us to innovate and invest in work practices from the start, ensuring a strong business foundation. Overcoming challenges together One of the unique challenges we have faced is maintaining a hospital that was supposed to close five years ago.
The Royal Hospital opened in 1978, and we have had to preserve a lot of the existing equipment and systems. We pride ourselves on our vast range of knowledge and expertise, from understanding 50-year-old equipment to the takeover in December (2021) of a new building, which as part of the new hospital was fitted with brand new kit and equipment.
These challenges, however, have not undermined our outstanding performance. Covid-19 also brought many challenges, particularly within a healthcare environment, that were still having an impact in 2021. We have supported the Trust in meeting new standards and legislation. This included installing a new ventilation system in the dental hospital, social distancing screens, and an additional CCTV system within the infectious diseases wards, to monitor patients without exposing nurses to disease.
We also turned single patient bedrooms into negative pressure rooms by installing extractor fans with HEPA filters. Despite circumstances, our KPIs remained the same and we continued to work together to meet and surpass expectations. Strong performance Our performance KPIs include a 30-minute emergency response time, with a 4-hour rectification time for emergency tasks, and an 8-hour completion time for urgent tasks. The longest period our engineers have to complete a task is under 48 hours for routine tasks. Although circumstances made things tough at times, we maintained a high level of performance, averaging 97% of reactive tasks being completed within the expected SLAs, and 100% of statutory PPM tasks completed when due.
In May 2022 we completed 2,435 tasks, with only 68 completed outside of the SLA, again maintaining the 97% performance target. We received 2,978 calls to the helpdesk; 88% of those calls were answered within 15 seconds, meeting another of our KPIs. Royal Liverpool University Hospital*
• Number of reactive/PPM tasks reported: 2,435
• Percentage completion on time (PPM): 100%
• Percentage completion on time (reactive): 97% Broadgreen Hospital*
• Number of reactive/PPM tasks reported: 535
• Percentage completion on time (PPM): 100%
• Percentage completion on time (reactive): 97% *May 2022
We believe that these challenges – from building a new business model, our agility through Covid-19 and keeping up high standards despite the challenges of maintaining the old hospital – make us unique and particularly deserving of IHEEM Estates and Facilities Team of the Year.
BCHC Estates & Facilities Team
Last year our E&F Team:
• Implemented a food waste stream
• Introduced uniform recycling
• Introduced new waste receptacles that are recycled at end of life
• Implemented waste recycling stations
• Produced a waste training package
• Introduced energy module software and sub metering across our 21 freehold sites we can see how much energy is being used, building by building or block by block
• Completed biodiversity plans for all community sites and are working with rehabilitation patients teaching them to build bird boxes and flower planters
• Supported a patient’s family after the bereavement of their loved one by assisting them to plant a tree at Moseley Hall Hospital. The family wanted to plant the tree in memory of the patient and the to say thank you for the help they received from staff at BCHC
• Installed and upgraded the low voltage infrastructure at West Heath Hospital to provide greater resilience
• Introduced a contractor’s data base with remote log in for contractors attending any of our community sites, remote induction, and ability to upload critical information such as competency records
• Worked with BCHC Charities on various projects that supported the health and wellbeing of staff and patients
• Developed design and tender documents for a medical gas piped system to be installed at Moseley Hall Hospital. Throughout the pandemic the Trust supported patients utilising cylinders
• Realigned our Accommodation Request Programme with increased patient and stakeholder consultation to further improve assurance in our decision making, which is essential to provide evidence based, value driven decisions.
• Arranged and managed a receipt, storage, and distribution centre with stock control for 100+ line items including all Trust PPE
• Implemented and managed the Trust Lateral Flow Test (LFT) programme across all staff including a full training and support programme
• Arranged and delivered a Trust-wide mask fit testing programme to support front-line staff with safe and effective wearing of vital PPE equipment
• Provided a training and advice service for all PPE and other supply items to staff including specialist health, safety and allergen information and advice
• Provided a procurement service for difficult-to-source items during the pandemic and identified new, high-quality, cost-effective supply partners
• Supported care homes, hospices, and personal healthcare budget holders with PPE city-wide
• Implemented support for female staff with free emergency sanitary care products, with replenishment ordering and stock management systems in place
• Resurfaced the carpark at West Midlands Rehab- £300k
• Refurbished Hobmoor Road – £1m
• Refurbished Brace Street Dental Facility -£550k
• New ventilation system at Oldbury Health Centre – £250k
• Designed and planned a new ventilation system for The Lyng Dental facility
• Installing Ultraviolet air cleaning devices to in-patient facilities
• Carried out Fire Stopping & Compartmentation across the various sites – £350k
• Carried out various Backlog Maintenance projects across the portfolio of building – £1.1m
• Worked with the ICS on redesigning facilities in various localities/neighbourhoods
• Worked with Landlords and other stakeholders in developing solution for a new Twin Dental Theatre and temporary Modular solutions to deal with the backlog in Dental care. We did all this and more……..
Impact of Appointment of a Welfare and Well-being Lead and other Interventions on Attendance Management
Our staff make up around 8% of the NHS staffing and are essential for our directly patient-facing workforce, many of whom also work alongside their clinical colleagues on the frontline, where seriously ill patients are treated.
Wirral University Teaching Hospital employs 763 Facilities and Support Services staff who were pivotal during the unprecedented challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of our dedicated staff worked additional hours over a long period of time to ensure vital safe and effective care was provided to meet the needs and expectations of patients, public and staff. We ensured high cleanliness standards with regards to infection prevention and control, moves of wards during the changing landscape, development, and cleanliness of new areas as we flexed patient capacity.
As normal activity resumed it was evident that the pandemic had severely affected the health and wellbeing of our large workforce, with staff feeling fatigued and strained. Staff absence was on the increase and there was a rise in the levels of staff presenting with stress, anxiety, and mental health issues. Trust policies and procedures to manage attendance were at times felt to be too formal and rigid, which caused staff to feel that this was impersonal and not personalised to their needs.
It was recognised that there was a need for change, to have an alternative approach managing the impacts of the pandemic that would change the culture, mindset of our staff and encourage them to opt into our wellbeing vision of care and support moving forward. As a foundation of this initiative a Welfare and Wellbeing Officer role was introduced to lead this more compassionate, considerate, and coaching style. This included regular contact through phone calls, emails and where required, face to face meetings. Thus, providing a non-judgemental individual support for all.
This was underpinned by Wellbeing Champions that we selected and trained within the different teams. Staff could approach both the Wellbeing Champions or the Health & Wellbeing Officer for a cultural change that supported an altered perception and mindset by within a safe environment to sign post staff on their first step of their wellbeing journey.
We used a software solution to develop a Return-to-Work App that allows the return-to-work discussion to be mobile, so it can be conducted in a more welcoming and informal setting. Whilst, following the policy, we also have the quality and accuracy of data through formulated mandatory fields, to support the recovery and health and wellbeing of our staff. We worked with the software company to develop a tool that had ease of use and provides key performance indicators which allow us to evaluate themes and trends that were particular to our staff and led to improved wellbeing outcomes.
Following the launch of all these initiatives, a consistency of approach and a more supportive culture has been reported with a substantial reduction in absence levels.
Innovative, caring, and respectful teamwork has improved staff attendance, reduced cost, and supported the patients through thinking outside the box and providing inventive solutions.
Liverpool Women’s Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
The Liverpool Women’s Estates and Facilities team led by Director Paul Fitzpatrick Director deserves to win this award for arriving at a clinical solution that has not just been about new processes and techniques but challenging the design and pre-conceptions of what is deemed the ‘right way’ to do something to improve patient pathways.
Liverpool Women’s is a recognised centre of excellence for neonatal care – providing care for babies born prematurely. They are the most vulnerable patients, facing the most severe medical challenges that require specialist treatment. Each year over 1000 families accompany their premature and critically ill babies to the Neonatal Unit, as they are in need of the specialist care that only Liverpool Women’s can provide. Improvements to the existing hospital were essential to respond to this demand and provide specialist care in the health of women and their babies.
This has been achieved with a modernised, dedicated Imaging and Colposcopy Department and Fetal Medicine Unit. The project transforms both the clinical functionality and quality of environment. The estates and facilities team collaborated with parents, specialist neonatal nurses and the design team to provide feedback that helped to shape the design and will provide an exemplar template and model of care for future projects.
Project delivery was also challenged with the Remembrance Day bombing at the Hospital. Estates and facilities worked together with the wider team to keep the project on programme without compromising the health and well-being of the Trust, patients and visitors, project team, and supply chain. Operating procedures were assessed to ensure they were safe if faced with a future attack.
The estates and facilities team worked as a conduit between Tilbury Douglas and clinical teams to coordinate the work constructed adjacent to live wards which remained operational throughout. Phased delivery and use of special noise reduction buffer zones enabled Tilbury Douglas to maintain a full and safe clinical service during the construction work whilst working alongside patient groups that are particularly vulnerable to noise. They engaged with Tilbury Douglas to identify and manage the specific requirements for any temporary service provision between each phase, this ensured the works were planned accordingly with no impact on day to day operations and blue light services.
The specially designed building sets a precedent for future developments by uniting the services in one location to improve service delivery. Every aspect of their treatment will happen in one place, saving time and creating a seamless and therapeutic hospital experience improving patient and clinical pathways.
Liverpool Women’s NHS FT is working in partnership with Alder Hey to replicate this approach to construction and share lessons learnt to improve how neonatal services are delivered to families across the North West.
UHDB Estates & Facilities and Patient Experience Team
We are the E&F team of UHDB and we look after a 1650-bed Trust, over one large acute 1050-bed PFI site, a 425-bed medium acute site of ageing estate and three community hospitals with a few wards on each, all this over a 40-mile stretch. As you can imagine over the past 12+ months over the COVID Pandemic our teams in all areas of the directorate have not only supported their own roles and teams, but have serviced the fluid clinical needs of the Trust.
We at UHDB are one of the only trusts in the county to have Patient Experience in the Estates and Facilities portfolio, which includes Chaplaincy, Bereavement, PAL’s and complaints, Interpreters, and other PE elements, as such our teams are really in touch with the patients view and the whole patient journey, constantly looking for ways to innovate and improve the their experience, and be the place of choice.
The we feel all our E&F team have really gone above and beyond during this period, for example, we have set up PPE hubs and Vaccination centres across the two main acute sites to service us and our community patients, and in some cases, helped staff them. when our in-house HSSU activity dropped off our staff volunteered to work in other areas like domestics, catering, the PPE hub, and vaccination centres to support even further our clinical colleagues, and help to hold up our colleagues. alongside this we have designed, accommodated, and orchestrated, moves, agile working, creative IPC segregation different ways of patient feeding, cleaning regimes, social distancing signage, Perspex screens and other dynamic changes to the services, along with Oxygen management and monitor on a daily basis.
All this of this put immense strain on our staff who rose to the challenge while facing a lot of personal challenges outside of work at the same time, they were doing 12 hours plus shifts, 7 day a week working, just to offer the best service and support to our patients and colleagues.
I know we will not we alone as all the E&F teams up and down the country have been in similar positions, and are of a similar makeup and will have strived to accommodate, but I feel our teams deserve the recognition for the in some cases literal blood, sweat, hard work, motivation and dedication that they all shown to keep the cogs turning within our trust and that they sill continue to do so into the restoration process.
I am proud to say that I am part of this family and we could have not have got through this without the unity shown during this unprecedented period.
