Pickfords was contracted earlier this year by Leicester NHS Hospitals Trust to handle the relocation of the Respiratory Medicine departmental laboratory at Glenfield Hospital to its new home at the Respiratory Biomedical Research Unit.

The Respiratory Specialties, Clinical Immunology and Allergy Business Unit at Glenfield Hospital provides specialised services for investigation and treatment of patients with respiratory conditions from Leicestershire, Rutland and the surrounding areas.  The Department has developed rapidly over the last decade and is the only respiratory facility for the 1m people living in the district served.

With a complex move planned involving relocation to the second floor of the new building, Pickfords Business Solutions was asked to develop a bespoke solution to move equipment including fume cabinets, glass-lined sample cabinets, and ten freezers and fridges weighing up to 400kg each. These last units could not be transported via the stairs owing to their size, so the team constructed a specialised external scaffold and crane to deliver them to the second floor.

The move itself was handled in two phases with the fridges and freezers removed and sited in the new facility, allowing clinical staff to transport samples to the new site promptly. The remainder of the equipment was transferred by the Pickfords team and sited according to a newly-developed floor plan, maximising space and efficiencies in the new site.

Photo: Pickfords craning a freezer up to the second floor.