Turnkey operating theatre specialists, Bender UK, has supported the urgent delivery of Nightingale and other hospital projects in the fight against COVID-19.
A trusted partner of healthcare prime contractors, and a major supplier to the NHS and private medical groups; Bender UK was earmarked early on during the outbreak as a potential supplier of critical care power for the high-profile emergency field hospital projects.
The company, which designs and supplies medical IT power systems and uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) for Group 2 medical locations, and state-of-the-art Merivaara surgical and AV equipment; has played a major role in ensuring there is adequate life support across the UK for critically-ill patients.
This involved specialist teams working on most of the NHS Nightingale hospitals, offering technical advice, design support and supplying and installing equipment.
The company has supported consultants, contractors and hospitals to help increase capacity, while Bender engineers have worked around the clock attending sites across the country for urgent repairs, callouts, maintenance and commissioning to expand treatment areas and prevent shutdown of critical areas.
In addition, Bender has also carried out major power refurbishments at several existing NHS hospitals that required further capacity to cope with the increased demand.
Bender has successfully delivered almost 15MW of Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS), supporting approximately 10,000 additional bed spaces, and all in a timeframe of six weeks.
The fact that we were the go-to company when the pandemic was in its rapidly-evolving stages, represents how well known and trusted we are as a company to deliver healthcare power systems of this magnitude, especially in such tight timescales
Gareth Brunton, managing director, said: “As a company that works extensively in the healthcare sector, Bender UK takes immense satisfaction and pride knowing that we are able to help these amazing people carry out their work, delivering world-class medical intervention and saving so many lives.
“It is extremely gratifying to have been able to contribute in what we see as a fairly-small way.”
He said that Bender mobilised its highly-skilled and dedicated workforce to work from home before lockdown began with direction and support from the head office based in Germany, and a strong UK leadership and management team.
The company already had a reliable IT and phone infrastructure in place supported by a robust business continuity policy, which took effect immediately.
The company also has a solid supply chain with long-standing trusted and approved suppliers and partners, as well as an efficient stock policy which enabled it to respond quickly to hospitals’ needs and meet demands.
Brunton said: “We were contacted personally to help with these urgent projects.
“The fact that we were the go-to company when the pandemic was in its rapidly-evolving stages, represents how well known and trusted we are as a company to deliver healthcare power systems of this magnitude, especially in such tight timescales.
As a company that works extensively in the healthcare sector, Bender UK takes immense satisfaction and pride knowing that we are able to help these amazing people carry out their work, delivering world-class medical intervention and saving so many lives
“Our team worked day and night, including weekends, to facilitate the completion of these unprecedented projects, and I am extremely grateful to everyone involved for their commitment and resilience during these difficult times.
“Working on the Nightingale projects has been a major achievement for us.”
Gerry Connor, lead electrical design consultant for the critical power infrastructure at NHS Nightingale London, added: “With the facility being urgently required to handle a potential surge of patients requiring life support due to the coronavirus outbreak, we were tasked with getting the first 500 beds up and running within a nine-day period.
“Failure to meet this deadline was not an option.
“We are very grateful to Bender UK and the rest of our supply chain for their commitment and contribution to the successful completion of the Excel Nightingale Hospital.”
