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Being rushed into hospital alone can be frightening, but 84 year-old Marjorie Carter has a message to reassure people after her stay in the NHS Nightingale North West.

Marjorie, from Levenshulme, was the first person to be admitted to the Nightingale after being transferred from Manchester Royal Infirmary where she was being treated for coronavirus, but she says: “I was treated like royalty.”

“Everyone was very kind,” says Marjorie. “The nurses all came to say goodbye when I was leaving. I want people to know how good the Nightingale is.”

She spent four days in the hospital and is now back home recovering.

It’s no surprise she has such a positive experience because staff from Interserve, who set up the hospital’s facilities management at the Manchester Conference Centre – formerly known as the G-MEX –  in just 11 days, have been working round the clock to deliver the best service possible.

Former Royal Marine Steve Francis is Interserve’s site manager at the Nightingale and he had the privilege of wheeling Marjorie in.

“It was a nice feeling to go to the back of the ambulance, receive Marjorie from the paramedics, to see her on to the ward and to walk away knowing that she had the best care that she could have,” he says. “We chatted and she remembered this place as a dance hall – and she remembers dancing and courting here as a young lady.”

Interserve are one of many private companies working hard to provide support to the NHS and communities during the coronavirus crisis. Working with the private sector has been a vital part of the government’s response and many companies have adapted and redeployed staff to meet challenges such as manufacturing ventilators, delivering PPE and distributing food boxes to people who are shielding.

Cabinet Office Minister Lord Agnew paid tribute to their work. “The way we have seen many large organisations and their staff move from their normal day-to-day work into projects to help tackle coronavirus has been remarkable,” he says.

“They have been able to turn around projects very quickly, such as delivering hundreds of new ventilators to the NHS and setting up systems to deliver much needed resources, including food parcels and PPE equipment, to those who really need it.

“Their work is a tribute to their organisations and a wonderful example of their commitment to working on behalf of the public.”

For Steve, making sure the Nightingale runs smoothly is all part of the job, but he’s full of praise for his hard-working, enthusiastic team. “Everybody’s just pulled and pulled more than their own weight to work together. The atmosphere at the Nightingale is tremendous, with everybody mucking in,” he says.

But there’s no better job satisfaction than knowing he’s making a difference to patients’ lives. “Marjorie was really, really lovely to speak to and it was a nice moment a few days later knowing she was being discharged as a healthy 84 year old going home after being in hospital.”

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