Whiteabbey Hospital Nightingale Facility

As part of the local Government response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the urgent requirement for a Covid Step Down Facility, Dowds Group were approached directly to transform the existing infrastructure at the Whiteabbey Hospital Complex into a specialist facility. Acting as Principal Contractor, Dowds Group delivered this critical £3m project within an accelerated three-month programme, providing vital bed capacity for patients across Northern Ireland.

The project involved the comprehensive refurbishment and alteration of several wards over 3 floors within the hospital complex. The scope of works was extensive, encompassing the full strip-out of existing services and the installation of new room layouts, medical gas systems, and advanced nurse call technology. Delivered at the height of the pandemic, the project required Dowds Group to manage the design and coordination of all works from a standing start in September 2020 to handing over a completed facility, 3 months later. This necessitated a seven-day-a-week working schedule to meet the immovable handover date in December 2020. The complexity was further heightened by the requirement to operate within a live hospital environment, demanding rigorous segregation of site operations from patient areas to ensure the safety and continuity of existing healthcare services.