Kajima-managed facilities assist pandemic recovery through COVID 19 vaccination centres

On behalf of Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service, Kajima Partnerships oversee the operation of four fire stations within Cheltenham and Gloucester. The services provided include the provision and management of all cleaning, general and grounds maintenance, which are delivered via facility management contractors Tascor, as well as overseeing the facilities’ energy consumption and monitoring. With the assistance of Kajima’s asset management team, two of these facilities were recently set up as COVID vaccination centres to assist the pandemic recovery.

In December last year Cheltenham East and Gloucester North fire stations were adapted to use as COVID-19 vaccination centres. No physical adaptations were required to set up the facilities but rather temporary vaccination tents are brought into place when needed, along with socially distanced waiting areas so as to eliminate any impact on the fire stations’ day-to-day operations and ability to respond to emergencies.

Gloucester North fire station is now a dedicated site for vaccinating key workers, of which around 500 have been vaccinated daily, since the start of the programme. The site, whose facilities include a ‘SkillZone’ comprising a range of everyday, hazardous scenarios such as; a railway crossing, shop, road, moving car and double decker bus, is usually a key resource for educating local school children about hazard awareness, but has been closed since the outbreak of the pandemic last March.

Richard Barnett, Asset Manager at Kajima said: “All stakeholders involved in these two projects have worked hard ensuring whatever is needed to make the temporary sites work has been put in place in a timely and cost-effective manner. Whilst there are of course contractual obligations involved we are working together to ensure that the vaccine centres operate effectively without any unnecessary difficulties. As part of the setup of the facilities Kajima provided some items of equipment that were needed, such as matting and some small electrical works, at no additional cost to the project – and all parties are doing their bit to ensure that key stakeholders incur no financial penalties in regard to the adaptations of use.”

Both sites are due to continue to operate as vaccination facilities until the full roll-out is complete.