The hospitals project is integral to wider plans for modernising health services across the City and east London, supported by state-of-the-art technology and facilities. We were the independent tester/certifier on this project appointed by Barts and the London NHS Trust and Capital Hospitals Limited (comprising the Skanska Innisfree joint venture).
We were responsible for assessing and certifying phased completion of the project. To enable certification, we provided ongoing monitoring of the quality of services and of the management systems adopted to deliver the project. This included regular site inspections, system audits and witnessing of completion tests for the various construction phases over the life of the construction programme.
As independent tester we received and commented on views of all stakeholders to the Project Agreement (Trust, Project Co and Contractor). We introduced monthly meetings with the clients to keep them up to date with our activities and proactively manage issues raised in monthly reports. These not only assisted them but also provided us with the opportunity to form stronger relationships.
To keep all major project parties (Trust, Project Co and Skanska) informed of independent tester sign-off progress, we introduced a series of informal meetings during the period leading up to phase completion. Making time for these meetings proved vital as it provided the stage for all parties to discuss openly matters which may have otherwise caused major disruption to the timing of the handover of the project's first two phases. We also introduced an observation log which has proven a valuable tool in tracking observations through to agreement/sign off.