The Chelsea and Westminster Hospital is a 5-storey, 430-bed teaching hospital which has been open since 1993 and is part of one of the UK’s top-ranked Hospital Trusts.

Typical of virtually all hospitals, the Chelsea and Westminster have a range of lifts to assist with the movement of patients, staff, visitors, goods and equipment including beds. Originally installed over 27 years ago, seven of the hospitals’ lifts had been selected for upgrading and modernising.

Liftec were awarded the contract to modernise all seven lifts across lift banks B, C and D, after a successful tendering process. Although won in competitive tendering, Liftec’s reputation for quality maintenance and modernisation services within other NHS Foundation Trusts played a part in Liftec winning this contract.

The modernisation work related to three lift groups, one a triplex group and the other two, both duplex groups.

All seven lifts had similar partial modernisations carried out which included new landing entrances, door operators, car operating panels, remote connectivity autodiallers, lift controllers, landing pushes and indicators.

Liftec were required to reposition the lift cars and move all seven towards the rear of the respective lift shafts to accommodate the new landing door systems. This required careful planning and repositioning of the drives, to ensure the roping in the lift shaft was perfectly aligned.

We also undertook the rewiring work needed and replaced each of the lifts’ guide shoes along with installing new overspeed governors.

During the project, our on-site team ensured that work was undertaken with high levels of public safety in mind and that the level of disruption was limited, as the building was fully operational throughout the process.