NHS eye hospital strengthens outreach programme
Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust continues to commit to taking eye care to the community by extending its ongoing partnership with mobile surgical services provider Vanguard Healthcare.
Vanguard, who design and operate the national fleet of mobile hospital facilities, have been contracted until December 2010 to provide the prestigious eye specialists with a mobile operating theatre and ward.
Deployed together at Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow, these units form a state-of-the-art ‘satellite’ treatment centre to serve NHS ophthalmic patients in North London, for whom the Moorfields’ main City Road facility is a considerable commute.
The temporary day surgery unit offers Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust a highly-sophisticated environment near to its patients’ homes – part of Moorfields’ commitment to its ongoing outreach services programme – while a refurbishment of two floors at Northwick Park is completed to accommodate a permanent outreach facility.
Ann Arnold, a general manager at Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust said: “The state-of-the-art units from Vanguard ensure that we can maintain short waiting lists and a high standard of patient care closer to the patients’ homes.
“With the extension of this highly beneficial relationship with Vanguard,” explained Ann Arnold, “we can continue to do this until the refurbishment of our permanent unit at Northwick Park is complete.”
Although situated at Northwick Park, these two units form a completely self-contained day surgery. Patients are admitted, prepared, operated on, received in recovery and discharged without requiring admission to the main Northwick Park facility, all the time being treated and supported by Moorfields doctors and staff.
Ann Arnold added: “It’s all about keeping treatment close to people’s homes while maintaining the standards expected of us.
“Those coming to the Vanguard day surgery facility have always been very impressed, not only with the state-of-the-art environment of the units but also in the standard of service that we provide there.”
Ian Gillespie, CEO of Vanguard Healthcare, said: “For the patient, the experience is no different to that of a permanent operating theatre or ward. We have the same clinical staff on board the unit, the same equipment, even similar dimensions for each room – the only difference is the flexibility that our units provide for the hospital’s managers.
“Since our relationship with Moorfields began in 2006, our units have offered flexibility that is simply not available with permanent builds or other temporary solutions,” Ian concluded. “I am pleased that we have been able to work together to create an innovative solution that is beneficial to the Trust and its patients alike.”
ENDS
For further information please contact:
Tom Short on 01242 211187 or email: tom@montpelliergroup.com
Notes to Editors
Vanguard Healthcare
Vanguard Healthcare Solutions Ltd supports the NHS and other healthcare providers with a unique fleet of sophisticated clinical mobile healthcare facilities. Our service consists of the mobile facilities, clinical staff and state-of-the-art equipment, all provided on flexible terms from 1 day to 5 years.
Working in partnership with the NHS, Vanguard creates mobile solutions to many modern healthcare challenges including:
• Providing capacity to meet changing patient demand
• Responding to emergency needs
• Taking care closer to the patient’s home
• Realising reconfiguration strategies
• Facilitating new service development
• Maintaining capacity during refurbishment
Vanguard Healthcare operates the UK national fleet of Mobile Theatres (including laminar-flow versions), Mobile Endoscopy suites, Mobile Wards, Mobile Clinics and Mobile Day Surgery units.
It has worked in partnership with the NHS for more than ten years and has completed more than 120,000 safe and successful procedures within its fleet of 37 mobile facilities.
Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
• Moorfields is one of the world’s leading eye hospitals, providing expertise in clinical care, research and education. We have provided excellence in eye care for more than 200 years and we continue to be at the forefront of new breakthroughs and developments. We are an integral part of one of the UK’s first academic health science centres, UCL Partners, and recently celebrated five years as one of the country’s first NHS foundation trusts.
• We treat the entire range of eye diseases, from common complaints to rare conditions which require treatments not available anywhere else in the UK. We dealt with around 400,000 patient visits in 2008/09 at our main hospital base in London’s City Road and at 12 other sites in and around the capital, enabling us to provide expert care closer to patients’ homes.
• With our research partners at the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, we run one of the largest ophthalmic research programmes in the world and have the highest measure of scientific productivity and impact in the world for our research activity.
• For further information, please visit www.moorfields.nhs.uk.
