2006 to present day
1 April 2009
Vanguard Healthcare has been acquired by its management from Nuffield Health. The original founders of the business have re-joined the management in order to strengthen and support the team. Vanguard Healthcare was acquired by Nuffield Health in 2004 and has benefited from significant investment, enabling the fleet to increase to 36 - the largest such fleet in the world. The management buy out will enable the company to explore additional areas of commercial activity, including international markets. Vanguard's core market will remain their partnership with the NHS.
20 November 2008
Mrs Madelaine Moreland became the 100,000th patient to have a procedure on a mobile operating theatre on 20th November 2008. A clinical team from Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust delivered the procedure on a mobile day surgery unit, stationed in a superstore car park in Stroud to enable the Town's Hospital operating theatres to be refurbished. The NHS Trust had received positive feedback from patients about the mobiles which have been used since the start of the year to allow hospital theatres to be refurbished. A big achievement for Vanguard but also a key milestone for the NHS which is learning to use mobile services in an imaginative way, creating flexibility in how they deliver healthcare to patients.
6 October 2008
As part of the Nuffield Health Group, Vanguard Healthcare Solutions changes its name to Nuffield Health Mobile Services and adopts a new brand identity. The first mobile operating theatre to sport the newly branded livery hits the road and goes on display at the annual conference of the Association for Perioperative Practice in Harrogate and a few days later takes to the floor again at the Healthcare Estates annual conference and exhibition.
9 September 2008
Two state-of-the-art mobile operating theatres are helping a Warwickshire hospital to solve a surgery challenge - and making history at the same time. The two giant mobiles - each weighing 28 tonnes - were driven into position at the Nuffield Health Warwickshire Hospital in Leamington Spa to provide theatre capacity while the hospital undertakes a £10.5 million building and refurbishment programme, including a complete upgrade of its existing operating theatres. It is the first time in the UK that two mobile theatres have been deployed together.
9 June 2008
One of Britain's most sophisticated mobile medical units has just made one of the longest road journeys in the country to boost the number of medical tests in NHS Grampian. Vanguard Healthcare's mobile endoscopy unit was just completing a contract in Worthing, on the West Sussex coast, when it got the call to travel to Aberdeen. Just 601.785 miles later it pulled into Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and after the statutory deep clean and clinical contamination procedures was soon providing additional endoscopy for hospital patients.
31 March 2008
A mobile operating theatre has been helping some Scottish couples to realise their dream of having a child. In what is thought to be a world first, the sophisticated £1 million unit spent six weeks at the Glasgow Nuffield Hospital providing embryologists attached to the hospital's Assisted Conception Service with a high-tech work area. The theatre was called in to enable the hospital to upgrade the air quality systems within its own established embryology laboratory.
10 January 2008
Thanks to a ground-breaking partnership between Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Vanguard Healthcare, hospital patients in Gloucestershire will benefit from a unique partnership keeping treatment close to people's homes. A mobile day surgery unit will be available at Tewkesbury hospital whilst theatre refurbishments take place. Similar facilities will then be used at Stroud General Hospital. “We have worked with more than 100 NHS organisations but this is the first time that we have worked with such a pioneering Foundation Trust to provide a flexible, local service that is built so closely around the needs of the patient,” says Mary Smallbone, Vanguard Healthcare's Director of Operations.
May 2007
Production of the UK fleet of mobile operating theatres is being stepped up to enable more NHS patients to be treated closer to where they live. This follows the publication of a Department of Health report which recommends that 80% of all planned surgery should be done locally. In his report, Professor Sir Ara Darzi, the national advisor on surgery, explains how routine procedures that previously required long stays in hospital, such as hernia operations, can now be done as day cases in local settings. The findings have been welcomed by Vanguard Healthcare, who have ordered a new mobile operating theatre, mobile endoscopy unit and mobile ward.
November 2006
A skilled, motivated and contented workforce earns the operator of the UK's largest fleet of mobile theatres the prestigious Investors in People (IIP) Standard. Vanguard Healthcare passes with flying colours the IIP inspection, which monitored how it trains, manages and values its employees. Maureen Neilson, Human Resources Manager at Vanguard Healthcare, said: "Staff are clearly our greatest asset, so it is important that we invest in them by focusing on their development, offering support and generally looking after them".
November 2006
A national health and social care watchdog rates the service provided by the operator of the UK's largest fleet of mobile theatres as excellent. Vanguard Healthcare's good quality nursing, well-trained staff and robust infection prevention policy are praised in a report carried out by the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI). Inspectors carried out an unannounced visit to Vanguard Healthcare's Cheltenham headquarters. Karen Rickards, Clinical Director at Vanguard Healthcare, said: "In the vast majority of areas we were awarded a maximum score and exceeded the required standard. We are also pleased to report that during the period under investigation, Vanguard Healthcare did not receive a single complaint".
August 2006
The University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay will be amongst the first Trusts in the country to use a mobile endoscopy unit to cut waiting times by treating an additional 800 patients. The fully-equipped mobile unit, provided by Vanguard Healthcare, is sited at Furness General Hospital and will be in place for approximately two months, throughout September and October, providing treatment for approximately 20 patients a day.
March 2006
In a first for NHS Highland, a mobile operating theatre from Vanguard Healthcare has been on-site at Raigmore Hospital, Inverness being used exclusively by NHS general surgeons over a three week period to help maintain and reduce waiting times. The £1 million state-of-the-art theatre, which arrived on-site at the beginning of March, is situated next to the hospital's Day Case Unit (DCU) and has enabled three different types of surgical procedure to take place - hernias, varicose veins and vasectomies.
22 February 2006
Mrs Mary Hyland, a 76-year-old lady from Eaton Wick, near Windsor, becomes the 50,000th NHS patient to have a procedure on a mobile operating theatre. Her knee replacement operation took place on a laminar-flow mobile stationed outside the day surgery unit at Heatherwood Hospital, near Ascot, on February 22nd. The UK's national fleet of 24 mobiles is operated by independent healthcare company Vanguard Healthcare. On Monday, April 24th, Vanguard Managing Director, Graeme McConnell, along with Sales and Marketing Director, Mary Smallbone, presented Mrs Hyland with an engraved antique silver rosebowl and a bouquet of flowers to mark this landmark occasion at a ceremony at the hospital attended by Evelyn Barker, Director of Clinical Services at Heatherwood and Wexham Park Hospitals NHS Trust.
January 2006
A mobile operating theatre and ward is to be sited within the grounds of Aberdeen Royal Infirmary as part of a drive to cut waiting times. It will be the first time that a mobile theatre with an associated ward - which together are known as a Visiting Hospital - has been used in Scotland. The high-tech facility will enable a significant number of case operations to be carried out by NHS Grampian surgeons.
