Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Trust

Johnsons Lab Logistics – Just What The Doctor Ordered

The Situation

Liverpool Clinical Laboratories is the largest pathology service provider in Cheshire and Merseyside, formed in 2013 from the amalgamation of the pathology clinical services and laboratories of the Aintree University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and The Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust.

As of 1st October 2019, Aintree and The Royal have merged to become Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

LCL primarily work on the diagnosis of disease and evaluate the effectiveness of treatments and undertake research into the causes and cures of disease, processing over five million sample tests each year.

The relocation of the LCL labs from the Duncan Building was a critical component of the overall hospital relocation, and had to be planned in precise detail to avoid risks from losing the associated services:

• CAT 2 labs;
• COVID labs;
• Haematology;
• Immunology;
• Sample reception;
• Sepsis;
• Transfusion;
• Virology.

A meticulous planning exercise was needed liaising with service leads, OEMs, maintenance providers, and budget holders to create a robust move plan which enabled the core clinical testing services to operate with minimal – and in some cases zero – downtime.

The Solution

Our relocation programme encompassed:

• Initial cost consultation;
• Equipment validation;
• OEM and third party-owned equipment management;
• Phased relocation planning and project management;
• Relocation of live services over six-month period;
• Cold chain and chemical relocations including swing programme and resiliency plans;
• Dedicated project dangerous goods safety advisor (DGSA) to facilitate ADR moves;
• Post move support and helpdesk.

The Outcome

We completed the LCL programme with zero damages and zero downtime for clinical services.

Client Quote

A spokesperson from Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said:

“This was an extremely complex project which, if not managed correctly, could have had an extreme potential impact on the delivery of key clinical services.”

“The team from Johnsons Lab Logistics delivered the entire scheme with knowledge, professionalism, experience, and dedication quite simply second to none. In fact, we were so impressed with the results achieved that we appointed Johnsons to complete the second phase of works without going to tender.”