Masons Moving Group: Supporting the NHS for over 30 years

It’s hard to think of a time that Covid-19 hadn’t impacted our lives and turned life as we knew it upside down. From social distancing to lockdown measures such as working from home, we are living in unprecedented times. 

Plus, we’ve seen the transformation of iconic monuments such as the Principality Stadium in Cardiff into Ysbyty Calon Ddraig or Dragon Heart’s Hospital, a temporary hospital as part of the coronavirus response, similar to Nightingale Hospital at the ExCel Centre in London. Thankfully, Dragon Heart Hospital only ever accepted 46 patients before being put on standby with careful monitoring of the R-number. 

Did you know that here at Masons Removals Cardiff & Wales, we have worked with the NHS for over 30 years, working on projects across Cardiff and the Vale? We were called upon again when it came to Dragon Heart! Over three weeks, our team moved 1,500 beds, monitoring equipment and furniture to a giant white tent that took over the pitch as Dragon Heart was put on standby. We then moved the remainder of the beds and the hospital equipment to off-site storage. 

 

The UHW Lakeside Wing

Recently, the brand-new Lakeside Wing at was unveiled! This new wing at The University Hospital of Wales has been opened with lots of anticipation as it offers a holistic approach to care and rehabilitation. At the moment the wing is primarily for patients recovering from Covid-19 but they will also treat patients recovering from a range of long-term conditions and illnesses. Their staff includes physiotherapists, occupational therapists, dieticians, pharmacists, healthcare support workers and registered nurses, to help patients get back on their feet!

 

Our team here at Masons Moving Group were working behind the scenes to establish the Lakeside Wing UHW!

Opening in two phases, with phase one being completed back in December 2020 in time to accept their first patients. As part of the first phase, we arranged the storage and moved 200 beds and equipment. Our team then moved an additional 200 beds between January and February this year, completing phase two. 

It was no small feat moving the beds and equipment from the Storage Facility to the Lakeside Wing which involved a total of 60 vehicle loads, over two phases with the application of rotating removal crews of 15 men each day.

   

The Director of Nursing for the Medicine Clinical Board at the Lakeside Wing, Rebecca Aylward, said that the multi-disciplinary approach at the Lakeside Wing will allow patients recovering from Covid-19 to recover and ultimately be discharged more quickly: 

Everybody thinks about the acute phase of care where medical intervention is vital, but when patients start to recover it’s arguably when they need the most support.

Construction on this amazing and modern U-shaped facility only began in September 2020 and is considered the fastest ever delivery of a large building, under 10,000 square metres, for clinical or education use across the UK to date! 

 

Covid-19 Vaccination Centres

In addition to Dragon Heart & The Lakeside Wing, we have also been helping to get vaccination centres ready to go here in the Vale, including at Pentwyn Leisure Centre, Star Centre Cardiff and Home View Leisure Centre Barry. We have organised the moving and storage of vast amounts of equipment such as chairs & tables, desks and PPE all through the start of 2021 to ensure that the Vale of Glamorgan is able to offer vaccinations and keep up with the rapid rollout process. 

Supporting our NHS

In charge of our NHS projects is our Operations Director, Richard Mason. It takes a lot of thinking and experience with logistics and thinking on your feet, but Richard has vast amounts of experience and there’s no one better when it comes to overseeing such time-sensitive and important projects, such as supporting the NHS and UHW! 

Over the past 30 years, working with the Vale NHS Trust, Masons Moving Group has been responsible for the moving and storage of some of our most vital NHS services here in the Vale. For example, we have been working with Whitchurch Hospital Archives since they opened, moving 40,000 archive boxes from the hospital when it closed in 2016 to their archive storage facilities. As well as moving the Llandough Maternity Wards to the University Hospital Wales.

We are incredibly proud to support our National Health Service and our local community in such an integral way. As many of you will know, here at Masons Moving Group, we are a family business with over 115 years working in the Vale and across South Wales! Our local community is incredibly important to us and we’re delighted to be able to support with the Covid-19 response.