The University Hospital (CHU) has released a statement about the delays in the availability of its new infrastructure. In essence, it is not that serious. In a while, this inconvenience will be forgotten, and we will appreciate the superior quality standard of this new healthcare facility.
However, one is entitled to wonder who devised a schedule that apparently holds no water and why no one noticed the defects in the construction of the parking lot (there are reports of water infiltration).
Are all the technical and administrative services myopic and asleep?
The future hospital is gradually being completed. However, two main reasons necessitate pushing back the relocations. More specifically, the 990-space parking lot, essential for Pasteur 2’s operation, reveals defects that make immediate use impossible. The qualification period, which allows testing of all networks for three months, is also postponed.
With nearly 1,500 staff members present at the Pasteur site and hundreds of patients per day, the ability to access a parking lot is a sine qua non condition for the opening of Pasteur 2 Hospital. However, defects have been reported by the CHU.
The responsible company must now make satisfactory repairs, allowing the CHU to then equip the parking lot, which should accommodate three zones (doctors, non-medical staff, users). Several months will be necessary to make the parking lot operable.
Additionally, the building’s testing phase, known as the “dry run,” must also be postponed from the initial schedule to ensure complete safety upon opening. The “dry run” allows for testing and verifying all networks: low currents (telephony, IT) and electrical, air and water treatment, medical gases, pneumatics… Given the building’s size, three months are necessary to test the production and distribution (outlets, fans, etc.).
Tests are conducted routinely but also simulate extreme conditions. Pasteur 2 comprises approximately 3,000 rooms, with over 20,000 terminals that need to be individually tested.
Initially, it was planned to perform this qualification during the Pre-Service Adaptation Works (PSAW) to save time. However, the scope of PSAW requires shutting down networks in almost the entire building, making the “dry run” impossible during the same period.
Taking into account the holiday season and the Nice Carnival, which results in a significant influx of people to the Emergency Services and mobilizes law enforcement, the rescheduled calendar leads to the transfer of services starting March 2, 2015.
