John is praised for his crucial role in hospital development

The opening this autumn of Brighton’s new £25m Montefiore Hospital has been greeted by much fanfare…and rightly so.

There were many who had doubted the wisdom of Spire Healthcare, the UK’s second largest provider of private healthcare, taking on the challenge of converting one of the city’s old landmark buildings into a state-of-the-art private hospital.

But now that it’s completed, the plaudits are being handed around to all concerned, not least to EMC’s John Packer who was Spire Healthcare’s project manager throughout the development.

The Montefiore’s commercial manager James Dempster said: “I want to take this opportunity to reflect on the enormity of the project and the role that EMC has played in helping us to reach our goal.

“The existing building at 2 Montefiore Road couldn’t have been less suitable for a private hospital unless we had bought an ice rink, so the job has been huge. It simply would not be at the stage it’s at now without EMC and, in particular, John Packer.

“To put him in context I’ll quote a conversation that I had with a colleague the other day. ‘Imagine trying to set up a hospital before PCs were invented,’ he quipped. ‘Don’t worry about that,’ I replied. ‘imagine trying to open a hospital without John Packer.’

“His efficiency, attention to detail and highly affable manner makes a stressful job an awful lot easier and more enjoyable.

“We’ve even adopted one of his sayings. When distracted by tasks not as pressing as the one currently being worked on, we now say: ‘Sorry, I can’t look at that right now, it’s a parallel activity’.”

* EMC has been involved with the Montefiore Hospital development from the beginning. Our CEO Nik Askaroff and director Michael Pay were instrumental in bringing Spire Healthcare into the project and assisted throughout with the strategic and financial development. Nik now sits on the Board of Montefiore Hospital Ltd.