Meet the Leeds company Equinox designing and building the Elland Road vaccination site in a matter of days

The Leeds company building the first large vaccination centre in the city has spoken of how it is using its resources to help the country back on its feet.
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Equinox, based in Hunslet, is the principal contractor for the NHS Elland Road vaccination centre, which is expected to open at the end of January.

Traditionally an exhibition design and build company, Equinox quickly adapted its business when the pandemic took hold in the UK.

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The company moved its focus to commercial interior fit-outs, showrooms, innovation hubs and workspaces as well as producing hand sanitiser units for the NHS.

Elland Road's Centenary Pavilion is set to be transformed into the city's first large vaccination centreElland Road's Centenary Pavilion is set to be transformed into the city's first large vaccination centre
Elland Road's Centenary Pavilion is set to be transformed into the city's first large vaccination centre

Equinox has recently designed and built several vaccination sites across the north, including in Bury, Ramsbottom, Preston and Manchester.

It's now tasked with building the large vaccination centre at Elland Road's Centenary Pavilion, which forms part of the West Yorkshire rollout of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine.

Anyone eligible for the vaccine will be contacted by their GP surgery and people should only attend vaccination centres when they have booked an appointment through a national booking system.

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Managing director of Equinox, Dan Criscione, said: "We started to adapt the business the moment the pandemic set in.

"We’re full service, which means we’re very unique in our industry.

"A lot of businesses do one facet, whether that’s graphics, joinery, construction, installers or transporters, but we're able to do absolutely everything from start to finish."

The company's 40 years of experience in large-scale production meant it was well-positioned to design and build large vaccination centres, such as the Elland Road site.

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Mr Criscione added: "We are working with the NHS team as the designer and the builder.

“It’s our responsibility to design the site to get enough people through the door, which is the key objective.

“We have to turn it around in a matter of days. From start to finish for the Elland Road site, which is mass-vaccination, it will be turned around in about 16 working days.”

The vaccination programme is well underway in Leeds, with 17 vaccination centres now open across the city, and the Government has set the target for a vaccination centre to be less than 10 miles away from every resident in the UK.

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The Elland Road site is one of four large vaccination sites being set up in West Yorkshire, with Jacob’s Well in Bradford, The John Smith’s Stadium in Huddersfield and Spectrum Community Healthcare CIC at Navigation Walk in Wakefield also confirmed as vaccination centres.

The Yorkshire Evening Post has teamed up with sister titles across the country to urge Prime Minister Boris Johnson to go one step further - to deploy the country’s network of 11,000 pharmacies to ensure that every citizen is only a short walk away from a centre.

Our campaign also requests further reassurance for local communities from the Government and more easy-to-access information on the vaccine programme and its progress.

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