Providing solutions to maintaining capacity during refurbishment
Planned refurbishment projects can be carried out easily and reduce the impact on budgets thanks to mobile healthcare facilities which provide instant extra capacity. When halting patient care is just not an option, hospitals up and down the country have turned to Vanguard Healthcare.
Mobile units can be phased in seamlessly to ensure patients have unbroken access to services in locations which are convenient for them. Vanguard Healthcare works with Estate teams and Capital Planners to solve the challenges associated with short-term refurbishment and/or build projects.
Vanguard provides an innovative approach to delivering healthcare solutions to NHS Trusts across the UK and Ireland. Their mobile healthcare facilities enable clinicians to carry on providing services in cutting edge and highly advanced surroundings, while their own theatres are temporarily out of commission. This means patient services and waiting times can be maintained during periods of refurbishment, avoiding downtime and ensuring continued revenue generation during the project.
Read on to learn how Vanguard Healthcare’s mobile units have assisted conception in Scotland and provided much needed additional capacity at The Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital in Dublin.
Patient care continues while £10.5m refurbishment project presses ahead
Two state-of-the-art mobile operating theatres helped a Warwickshire hospital to solve a surgery challenge – and make history at the same time. The two mobile facilities - each weighing 28 tonnes – were driven into position at the Nuffield Health Warwickshire Hospital in Leamington Spa to provide additional theatre capacity.
The capacity was needed while the hospital undertook a £10.5 million build and refurbishment programme, which included a complete upgrade of its existing operating theatres.
It was the first time in the UK that two mobile theatres were deployed together, enabling the hospital to continue to provide high-quality surgical services for its patients while the refurbishment work was carried out.
Edward Goldsmith, General Manager of Nuffield Health Warwickshire Hospital said: “Quite simply, we could not have carried out this huge investment in local healthcare facilities without calling in these two mobile theatres.”
“We prepared a special walkway to the two mobile theatres which allowed patients to be transferred to them exactly as if they were going into one of our regular theatres.”
“When the two theatres arrived they then opened out to provide a large clinical area complete with anaesthesia, operating rooms and recovery area. It is hugely impressive and I am pleased to say that our patients had their surgical procedures on time as planned.”
Mobile operating theatre helped some Scottish couples realise their dream of having a child
Embryologists attached to Nuffield Health Glasgow Hospital’s Assisted Conception Service were able to continue their pioneering work thanks to the sophisticated £1 million mobile unit which spent six weeks at the hospital.
The temporary solution chosen to maintain its capacity was a Vanguard mobile theatre to enable the hospital to upgrade its air quality systems to Grade C within its established embryology laboratory. Air systems on board Vanguard mobile theatres are equipped to this high standard so could provide immediate cover.
Alison Kennedy, Assisted Conception Service Manager, said: “The absence of any form of lab facility during the refurbishment project would have prevented the hospital from continuing treatment for those patients already started on a fertility treatment cycle.”
The mobile theatre provided the ideal workplace solution to relocate the embryologists and lab equipment during the refurbishment project.
State-of-the-art mobile facilities brought in while Victorian hospital estate receives a facelift
Since 2003, hospitals in the island of Ireland have been calling on Vanguard’s national fleet to provide solutions to capacity issues and keep services local during refurbishment.
The renowned Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital, Dublin needed state-of-the-art facilities to provide relief cover while its own theatre and outpatient department underwent a €1.6 million refurbishment.
As a hospital which treats more than 6,000 inpatients a year in its 90 beds, plus more than 80,000 outpatients, continuity and quality of patient care and facilities is vital. It was to Vanguard Healthcare that the health managers looked to provide their temporary-cover solutions.
A mobile theatre was installed in 48 hours despite the challenges thrown up due to the access of the Victorian hospital estate. Moreover, so successful was this facility that the original 13-week contract was extended by a further fortnight allowing the hospital to carry out procedures on hundreds more patients who would otherwise have had to wait for treatment.
Aida Whyte, former Chief Executive of Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital, said: “It was important that we continued to provide high-quality operating facilities for the surgical team while our own theatres were temporarily out of use. We were able to arrange surgery for some of our patients at other hospitals in the area but we also needed cover here.”
She added: “The mobile operating theatre suite opened out on arrival to provide an anaesthetic room, operating room and recovery area all under one roof. It is quite space-age and it arrived with a great deal of high-tech operating theatre equipment on board.”
The unit treated ENT, head and neck and ophthalmic patients such as those suffering from detached retinas.
All Vanguard mobile healthcare facilities can be installed on site with minimal disruption. Working closely with the estates team, Vanguard’s logistics team will assist to project-manage the mobile unit from conception to clinical delivery. The experienced team includes Biomechanical Engineers to maintain a compliant facility, a Transport Manager to provide advice on delivery, access and installation and a dedicated transport crew who deliver the units at the customer’s convenience.
By using Vanguard’s highly sophisticated turn-key mobile solutions, healthcare providers can benefit from uninterrupted services enabling continuity of care with patients still able to have their procedures on time during planned refurbishment work and minimal disruption.
