The Project
The new facility housed the emergency, urgent and patient transport control functions (previously split between five sites) covering the entire Greater Manchester area.
Our Solution
Robert Whetham Associates (RWA) have been previously been tasked with investigating the resilience of standby systems across the whole NWAS estate (Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Lancashire and Cumbria) and agreed a standard and common approach across what had been a disparate estate. We were commissioned directly by NWAS to carry out the full detailed design of the mechanical and electrical services and instructed to work alongside the design team headed by lead consultants AEDAS. The UPS system had to be installed into the existing building, which had major space constraints and we appointed a Structural Engineer to ensure that the UPS system could be safely delivered and installed into the building without the floor collapsing. In addition, our design incorporated the resilience standards that we had set on our previous appointment with NWAS to provide the centre with resilient standby power arrangements (generators, UPS systems, etc) to minimise the possibility of the centre’s closure due to power failure.
Solution Benefits
The project was finished on time and within budget.
RWA’s design provided the centre with a resilient standby power arrangement, minimising the possibility of the centre’s closure due to power failure. It has also created a centre that is people-friendly, but with the flexibility in design to cater for changes for future expansion.
The North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) received a fit-for-purpose building providing a modern working environment for 250 staff working shift rotations operating 27 desks in the Patient Transport Suite, 57 emergency 999 call desks, 18 ambulance dispatch desks, a training room, major incident suite, and a reflective practice suite. Staff started to relocate to the refurbished building in April 2012 and the control centre was formally opened by HRH Duke of Gloucester in May 2012. Parkway is now one of three NWAS control centres, handling around 600 calls a day primarily for Greater Manchester.