Background

Replacing the former Old Church Hospital, Romford’s new 939-bed Queen’s Hospital, was handed over to the Trust on 16 October 2006, following a 39 months’ construction period.

Containing 4,500 rooms over 4 floors, the hospital was built by Bovis Lend Lease under a £261m PFI agreement. Catalyst Healthcare (Romford) Limited a consortium of Bovis Lend Lease, Bank of Scotland and Sodexo funded the construction of the hospital and Catalyst Lend Lease is responsible for managing its day-to-day upkeep and long-term maintenance under a 36-year concession. A Managed Equipment Service is provided by Siemens Healthcare.

The assignment

AF Consulting was engaged in July 2008 to review performance the Facilities Management (FM) services manager and work to achieve the following objectives:

• Maintain working relationships
• Achieve a complete understanding of the contract mechanisms and obligations
• Accurately measure current service delivery against contractual specifications
• Establish whether there had been any service creep, by way of variation or ad-hoc deviation
• Compare standards against the contract requirements
• Validate work requests for delivery of value for money
• Identify opportunities for cost savings and improving efficiency

AF Consulting’s approach

Having assembled a team having appropriate legal, commercial and operational experience, AF Consulting then undertook (as part of its 7-step approach) a process which included:

• A systematic desktop review of the Project Agreement and principal sub-contracts to ascertain the respective obligations, entitlements and reliefs.
• A workplace review of service delivery standards and charges.
• Preparation of proposals and recommendations. These were then presented to the Trust and an Action Plan agreed.
• Implementation of the agreed Action Plan.

Benefits to the Trust

The following financial benefits were received by the Trust up to 1 December 2009: