Department of Health & Social Care - NHS Regional Test Centres

We built over 500 regional testing centres during phase one of the UK government's regional testing site programme, in order to provide safe testing facilities for NHS and essential frontline workers in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. By March 2021 we had delivered almost 290,000 assets to regional testing sites nationwide.

The Challenge

Boris Johnson, the UK Prime Minister officially put the UK into lockdown on 23 March 2020 in order to try and halt the spread of the covid-19 pandemic. London was at the epicentre of the virus, which was spreading fast.

In the evening of 25 March 2020 we were asked to provide equipment and expertise to the Government’s strategic partners, who were tasked with creating two NHS drive-through testing centres in Wembley and Greenwich within just 24 hours.

The Solution

We surveyed the site the next day, developed a bespoke solution and used all of our in-house capability to deliver both sites within 24 hours against all the odds. Our on-site Project Managers coordinated the build from start to finish, orchestrating the smooth delivery of not only traditional rental products, but a specialised ‘turn-key’ solution to build fully functioning secure sites for the operational teams.

This bespoke solution included: storm fencing and barriers, accommodation and welfare facilities, temporary power generation, plant, tools, powered access, lighting, WiFi networks, clinical waste, cold storage facilities, fire safety equipment and defibrillators amongst other equipment.

The Results

Following the success of the initial project we were asked to provide a total of 50 sites during phase one, located at:

Chessington, Nottingham, Manchester Airport, Cardiff Principality Stadium, Belfast Odyssey Complex, Edgbaston Cricket Ground, Glasgow Airport, the NHS Nightingale Excel London, Plymouth Seaton Barracks, Gateshead, Leeds, Haydock Park, Stansted Airport, Aberdeen Airport, Worcester Sixways Stadium, Birmingham Metropolitan Hospital, Edinburgh Airport, Derry Rugby Club, Doncaster Airport, Preston College, Ipswich, Twickenham, Portsmouth, Bristol Airport, Brighton AMEX Stadium, Milton Keynes, Enfield Lea Valley Stadium, Craigavon Hospital, Oxford, Exeter, Peterborough East of England Showground, Hull, Inverness, Penrith, Coventry RICOH Stadium, Lincoln, Ebbsfleet, Bournemouth, York, Manchester Etihad Stadium, Carmarthen Showground, Llandudno, Guildford, Perth, Bradford University, Leicester and Merthyr Tydfil.

As the sites became operational we were also asked back to provide extensions to some, in order to accommodate further testing lanes.

During phase one - end of December 2021, we installed:

Every month we will continue to provide after care services and more than 200,000 litres of fuel to keep the sites running.

Every Sunbelt Rentals team mate, from the onsite teams, the depots who provided the equipment and the support teams who co-ordinated the back office logistics were operating in unprecedented circumstances. We are all proud to have played our part in the national response to this ongoing pandemic and hope that our contribution will have gone some way towards protecting the public and saving lives.

In over 35 years of delivering crisis response programmes around the world, I have never come across a team such as yours, with such a can-do and make it happen attitude. Thank you for all you have done.
Senior Stakeholder

 

Greenwich:

 

Wembley:

Edinburgh Airport:

Plymouth Seaton Barracks:

Oxford Thorn Hill Park & Ride:

Penrith:

Manchester Etihad Stadium