7th July 2005 is a date likely to be remembered for many years to come. It was a day when, as the tragedy of the London bombings unfolded, many people were faced with extreme situations where their reactions could make a real difference to the lives of others. Interserve staff were deeply involved in two of the most critical areas: at University College Hospital (UCH), to which many of the casualties were rushed; and with the Metropolitan Police, handling the aftermath of the events on the streets and below ground.

The new UCH building has recently been completed as part of a PFI contract in which Interserve provides comprehensive support services across the medical campus in existing facilities as well as new. At the time of the explosions Interserve and the NHS Trust were undertaking a phased transfer of the various departments from the old premises to the new.  Maria Kitching was Interserve's general manager at UCH.

"We were in the middle of a highly complex migration programme," she explains. "If you consider that we have over 300 staff in seven disciplines, most of whom were adapting their working methods to a completely different environment and to the associated changes in medical practices – while always staying on top of the service we were delivering - you'll begin to see the scale of the management task. About half the departments had moved across at that stage. Accident and Emergency was the first and had been running in the new building for about four weeks when the bombs went off.

"We'd been through several dry runs as part of London's emergency planning exercises and had handled a number of smaller incidents but this was the biggest real one we'd dealt with, as well as being the first in the new building – and we were still moving in. Fortunately, we've always regarded disaster planning as a fundamental part of our operations, and the plan was already in place.

"The first we knew of the attacks was when our Duty Manager received a 'Majax' alert on his duty pager." (Majax is the term used for a major incident.)  "We alerted key staff through our emergency bleep procedure and they then attended the new hospital for a briefing from the Trust's Majax co-ordinator. Following the meeting we immediately implemented our disaster plan and adjusted our response continually as the nature and scale of the tragedy became apparent.

"We deployed an extra 25 porters to deal with the influx of around 90 patients to A&E on the morning of the crisis. They helped the new arrivals as well as managing the discharge and transfer of some existing patients to the Middlesex Hospital to make space for the casualties – that's also part of the Trust's estate and we provide the services there, too.

"As the news spread, many of our people who were not on duty came in to add their support. And as shifts ended many who could have left stayed on, which was a huge help since it meant they could cover for those who'd been unable to get to the site due to the travel restrictions. The suddenly increased numbers placed an extra requirement on our catering staff who delivered an additional 1,000 meals for patients, staff and on-site emergency services.

"We organised an extra 30 staff to cope with the significant increase in cleaning and laundry requirements, and our waste services function, meanwhile, had to deal not only with an increase in waste but also with the constraints imposed as a result of the potential for further explosive devices having been placed in waste bins and loading bays. Logistically the hospital required the ongoing delivery of sterile services – that's everything surrounding the provision of sterile instruments and packs and their collection and sterilisation once used – and the rescheduling of just-in-time deliveries to meet the spike in demand."

Interserve is also responsible for security at the hospital, and as the city remained on high alert an additional 50 security staff were deployed to manage the establishment of checkpoints and barriers at the hospital, undertake searches, remove individuals without security credentials and control the traffic to accommodate the high number of "code blue" ambulances.

Meanwhile Interserve staff operating with the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) were equally busy. Since 1999 Interserve has delivered an exclusive service to the Metropolitan Police in support of all major operational activities associated with scenes of crime and major incident response.  The Special Events team of highly trained staff works on a 24/365 basis to support all the MPS's major operational activities, whether these are planned events, such as Wimbledon and the London Marathon, or in response to crimes, accidents or disasters.

The team became aware of the terrorist attacks on 7th July through the radio. As soon as it was clear what had happened they loaded two 7-tonne lorries with the kind of equipment they knew from experience would be needed - tarpaulins, emergency lighting, tents, body bags, masks, traffic cones and much more - and sent it to the location that would be co-ordinating the MPS's operational support.

"By the early afternoon it was obvious that this was a major incident and we'd be heavily involved," comments Paul Starkey, Interserve's General Manager on the MPS contract. "One immediate issue was organising sufficient staff to support the police over such a wide area while maintaining our cover for all the more normal incidents – which, of course, continue to occur regardless of whether there's been a major incident.  We brought in 20 additional staff who are usually responsible for maintaining the MPS's properties and set up a 12-hour shift system with them working alongside a similar number from our Special Events core team."

The MPS uses various buildings around London to help manage such events. In this case it was also necessary to co-opt other properties and sites near the bomb locations, and Interserve needed to set these up and run them for the duration of the alert. They ranged from command-and-control centres to bereavement centres and casualty bureaux providing information and comfort to relatives. "In effect we had to create about 10 fully-functional offices from scratch," continues Starkey. "Tables, chairs, paper, pens, boards, fridges, kettles, air conditioning, fans, computers – and it all needed to be assembled, wired up and working.

"Then there were the incident locations themselves – our teams were working in conjunction with the police officers at the four incident scenes within hours of the blasts, providing water supplies, rubble sacks, gloves, masks, goggles, body bags, lighting towers, generators, brushes, disinfectant, footbaths, tents, cutting tools and more. We keep a lot of these items in stock, but the scale of this incident was such that we had to hire and procure a considerable amount on top of that. As the days progressed we found ourselves exhausting local supplies of the more unusual equipment and had to look further afield. I think the furthest source was a supplier in Liverpool for some special-purpose head lamps. We established a rolling programme for the replenishment of fuel supplies to generators – and they got through a lot of fuel.

"Our key role was the managing the logistics of sourcing, delivering and deploying all this equipment, in addition to dealing with the rapid response for day-to-day emergency work." The nights were very busy initially and the pressure kept up for almost two weeks as the focus moved from dealing with the casualties and the bereaved to running the criminal investigation.

Throughout this time Interserve worked very closely with the officers and staff of the MPS. Malcolm O'Connor, the MPS's Assistant Director of Operational Support, summed up his appreciation for the dedication of those involved, saying, "Thank you to you and your staff for your help in this policing challenge. Throughout the crisis Interserve remained at its core providing vital technical support and solving procurement problems."

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