coronavirus beds royal bolton hospital

A Worsley removals company has stepped in to create space for 150 life-saving hospital beds to cope with coronavirus.

Anchor Removals has helped Royal Bolton Hosptial turn office space into new wards filled with ITU beds.

The hospital was short of beds due to coronavirus and needed an area available as it is expecting an influx of cases soon.

Chris Smallwood, managing director for Anchor Removals Limited, said: “We were asked to go in and move all the office furniture out literally within 24 hours’ notice.

“They gave us a deadline of Wednesday to finish it by, which at the time seemed a bit optimistic.”

Copyright: Google maps

Anchor Removals started work on April 4 and was finished by the 6th – two days ahead of schedule.

All staff voluntarily put themselves at risk by helping create the wards in Bolton Hospital.

Mr Smallwood said: “It was a tremendous sacrifice for the staff. They knowingly put themselves in harm’s way to carry out this work, but did it voluntarily and there was no pressure on them at all.

“They were all prepared to sacrifice their furlough when it would’ve been just as easy to stay at home, so absolute credit to the staff.”

Copyright: Chris Smallwood

The company had 10 staff to help begin the removal on Saturday, but by Monday reduced it to six to help fulfil social distancing measures.

The hospital was thrilled that the space for more wards was created in such a short time.

Mr Smallwood added: “The response of the staff tells you how we run our business. We run it in a way that says we’ll all pull together. We’re a team.”

Chris Smallwood can be heard speaking about the companies success here:

He adds: “It’s something we’re really proud of being able to help the hospital.

“We feel like we’ve saved lives, and that’s what the hospital has told us.

“It doesn’t get any better than that really.”

At the time of writing, Salford has 273 confirmed cases of coronavirus.

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