UK hospital survives equipment and UAE contractor failure
St Lukes Hospital in the UK county of Leicestershire finally has its endoscopy unit open again, ending a series of failures including faulty equipment and problems with a UAE prefab contractor. The construction of the unit was beset with a series of problems after the hospital turned to Modcon to supply ten prefabricated units. These […]
The new unit was beset by a series of delays
St Lukes Hospital in the UK county of Leicestershire finally has its endoscopy unit open again, ending a series of failures including faulty equipment and problems with a UAE prefab contractor.
The construction of the unit was beset with a series of problems after the hospital turned to Modcon to supply ten prefabricated units. These were shipped from the UAE and were reportedly damaged in transit. The units were delayed for weeks at the port of Tilbury Docks after the damage was spotted.
The UK arm of the Jebal Ali-based contractor was later wound up with the UK High Court claiming that it owed money to HM Customs and Revenue tax collection service. Modcon UK was paid $2.2 million for the contract (with completion set for the summer of 2010) to supply prefab units but was taken off the project after it folded.
A second contractor Hallam Contracting was then brought on to complete the installation. Having opened in January 2011, the hospital unit was then closed after rust was found on a decontamination machine in September last year.
A local subcontractor claimed to the local press that it was owed $64,500 from Modcon. Leawood Builders also claimed that payment problems led it to walk off site three times before forcing to stop work completely.
Local newspaper, Leicester Mercury, spoke to former Modcon UK Ltd director Gerhard Theis, from the UAE.
“It is true we owe Leawood Builders,” he said last July. “I have employed legal representatives to see if we can restructure to sort things out in the UK.”
In April last year, the Daily Mail newspaper reported that a new sign for the hospital misspelled the word hospital as Hospitral.
