1992 to 2005
December 2005
A 65-year-old Burnley man who chose to have his cataract operation carried out on a mobile unit has his full sight restored in time for Christmas. Angling enthusiast, Mr William Pilkington, was full of praise for the Netcare team who carried out the NHS-funded procedure on one of Vanguard Healthcare's mobile operating theatres. Mr Pilkington was one of the first NHS patients to choose where he wanted to have the surgery under the new Patients' Choice charter.
December 2005
The Secretary of State for Health Patricia Hewitt is "hugely impressed" by Vanguard Healthcare's mobile endoscopy unit after touring it on December 2nd. The Minister was welcomed on board the unit - British-built and the first of its kind in the world - by Gary King, Director of Strategy, and Karen Rickards, Director of Nursing. Mrs Hewitt made a beeline for the endoscopy unit, stationed for the day in the Leicester Nuffield hospital car park, as she began her visit to the hospital in Scraptoft Lane, Leicester. The mobile is part of a fleet of 24 Vanguard mobiles which are enabling the NHS to offer better services to patients.
August 2005
Vanguard Healthcare's ultra-modern mobile surgical unit is hired by NHS Lothian to ensure patients needing straightforward operations get quicker treatment. The pilot scheme - only the second of its kind in Scotland - will be located at St John's Hospital, Livingston, from Monday 15 to Friday 26 August. Up to 100 Lothian patients needing minor operations such as tonsillectomies will be treated to help NHS Lothian ensure it can meet the target that no patient is waiting more than 26 weeks for treatment by the end of 2005.
July 2005
Hundreds of Indian children born with severe facial deformities are given a new lease of life thanks to the dedication of a team of British medical volunteers. The group spend a week of their holidays each year, working without pay in stifling conditions, to carry out the free cleft lip and palate operations. The team is organised by Vanguard's Michael Ward, a 51-year-old senior theatre manager, and anaesthetist Dr George Teterswamy from Blackburn Royal Infirmary.
8 April 2005
The first mobile operating theatre to treat patients in Scotland is hailed as a great success at Woodend Hospital in Aberdeen. Since its arrival, the mobile theatre has completed nearly 100 of the 150 operations scheduled to take place during its six week commission. The theatre, providing orthopaedic surgery, arrived on site on 15 March for 6 weeks. The procedures undertaken by NHS Grampian consultant orthopaedic surgeons in the unit range from minor operations requiring local anaesthetics to arthroscopies, right through to complex procedures, including total hip and knee joint replacements.
14 March 2005
The first mobile operating theatre in Wales arrives at Singleton Hospital, Swansea to carry out extra day surgery sessions on patients with general surgery needs. Up to eight patients a day are receiving their surgery in the theatre which has a covered link to ground floor hospital facilities for easy access.
2 March 2005
In one of the first tests of the NHS 'Choose and Book' system, a large number of patients elect to be treated on a Vanguard Healthcare mobile operating theatre. The result of a 'Choose and Book' trial for East Lancashire patients requiring cataract surgery shows that 230 out of a total of 442 elected to have their procedures on one of Vanguard's mobile cataract units.
10 January 2005
Government announces that fast-track surgery centres are treating people up to eight times quicker than other NHS providers. In an interview with the BBC's Today programme on Radio 4, Secretary of State for Health Dr John Reid described the two Vanguard Healthcare mobile units involved in the national cataract chain as "revolutionary".
9 October 2004
Nuffield Hospitals, the UK's largest not-for-profit independent hospital group, announces the acquisition of Vanguard Healthcare. Vanguard now has a dozen £1million state-of-the-art mobile operating theatres, three eight-bed recovery wards, and two mobile outpatient units. Vanguard Healthcare - now based at Cheltenham - fits perfectly with Nuffield Hospitals' mission of making independent healthcare more affordable and more accessible to all.
21 August 2004
Scotland gets its first look at a mobile operating theatre when a Vanguard unit makes its debut at the Edinburgh Conference Centre today. The £1 million state-of-the-art unit rolls off the production line near Colchester yesterday and by early afternoon was on the road for Scotland. It impresses delegates at the annual Scottish conference of the British Institute of Facilities Management.
6 August 2004
Chelsea & Westminster becomes the first top teaching hospital to bring in a Vanguard mobile operating theatre as part of a modernisation programme. The hospital's specialist hand management unit will be based in one of Vanguard Healthcare's mobile operating theatres located at the rear of the hospital for six months while works are carried out.
March 2004
The world's first Healthport is in operation at Plymouth, alongside the NHS Derriford Hospital. Owned jointly by Vanguard Healthcare and a group of NHS surgeons it is the first of a new generation of community-based units that is bringing low-cost day surgery closer to communities in Britain.
26 February 2004
Eastleigh and Test Valley South Primary Care Trust becomes the first PCT to use a mobile operating theatre to provide surgery cover for their patients. Over four days, award-winning surgeon Dr Raj Dhumale performs carpal tunnel surgery (wrist surgery). The unit, based outside Romsey hospital, accommodates a team of four including the surgeon, a ward sister and theatre nurse both from Romsey hospital and a nurse liaison representative from Vanguard Healthcare.
16 February 2004
Angela Smith, the Minister with responsibility for Health, Social Services and Public Safety in Northern Ireland visits the recently-installed mobile theatre suite at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast. The first visit by a mobile theatre to Northern Ireland it is provided under a Public Private Partnership to carry out primarily cataract surgery. After viewing the suite the Minister said: "This new unit is a real example of how new and innovative thinking can help to improve services and reduce waiting lists".
9 February 2004
Secretary of State for Health John Reid tours one of Vanguard's sophisticated mobile operating theatres and gives it an enthusiastic thumbs-up. Dr Reid was visiting the theatre and its recovery ward at Maidstone Hospital where it was treating patients as part of the Government's contract with Netcare UK to provide more than 40,000 cataract operations over the next five years. Describing the mobile theatres as "state-of-the-art" and "first class", the Health Secretary told journalists that the point about mobile treatment centres was that they could go to where the waiting lists were.
18 November 2003
Vanguard announces the world's first laminar-flow mobile operating theatre which uses a 'vertical wing' hood assembly to achieve incredibly low particle counts and air changes of between 600-800 per hour. It goes straight to work on a long-term contract at Heatherwood Hospital near Ascot.
21 October 2003
Vanguard unveils the Healthport, a highly-flexible version of the Diagnosis and Treatment Centres (DTCs) which are being rolled out across the country to help cut waiting lists. Using a modular fast-track build design, Healthports incorporate a number of aircraft-style 'docking bays' which enable mobile theatres, diagnostic imaging vehicles and other mobile health units to become part of the building as and when required.
28 August 2003
Dublin's Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital becomes the first hospital in Ireland to use a mobile operating theatre to provide surgery cover as work began on refurbishing the hospital's own theatres. The theatre is kept busy until November treating ENT, head and neck and ophthalmic patients such as those suffering from detached retinas.
30 July 2003
A six-month trial in Australia of a Vanguard Healthcare mobile operating theatre produces excellent results, according to a senior member of the New South Wales Government. NSW Minister for Health, Morris Iemma, says: "The mobile operating theatre is a genuinely innovative way of bringing better healthcare to rural communities". The $2.6 million trial sees the mobile travel to Narrabri, Moree, Walgett, Lightning Ridge and Gunnedah over a six-month period to perform procedures such as cataract surgery, gynaecological and general surgery and endoscopies.
9 May 2003
Mother-of-three Kay Mitchell, a patient at Harold Wood Hospital becomes the 10,000th patient in Britain to be treated in a mobile operating theatre. To mark the achievement Mrs Mitchell, of Brentwood, Essex, is presented with chocolates and flowers by Vanguard Healthcare managing director Gary King and the Trust's Director of Elective Services Stephen Walsh.
24 March 2003
Barking, Havering and Redbridge Hospitals NHS Trust becomes the first in London to install a mobile operating theatre to provide additional operating capacity for day case and short stay surgery to help it shorten waiting times. The modular unit is installed at Harold Wood Hospital in Romford.
7 January 2003
The Bristol office of 3i, Europe's leading venture capital company, announces its backing of the £5m Growth funding for Vanguard Healthcare, enabling the company to provide more support to the NHS in its plan to reduce day surgery waiting lists. "It is the perfect time to step up the pace of growth", said Gary King, Managing Director of Vanguard Healthcare: "Structural changes within the NHS are creating a new landscape for day surgery and community health services and we intend to carry on leading from the front in this developing market".
1 July 2002
The world's first Visiting Hospital - a fully mobile operating theatre combined with an eight-bed recovery ward - is launched at Hinchingbrooke Hospital, Cambridgeshire, enabling surgeons to continue working through their operating lists while two of the hospital's own theatres are converted to "super clean" laminar flow.
13 May 2002
A mobile operating theatre is seen in the capital for the first time when a unit goes on display at Edgware Community Hospital. The theatre had travelled up overnight from Princess Margaret Hospital, Swindon where it is helping surgeons to reduce waiting times for patients.
23 April 2002
Cardinal Healthcare is acquired by InHealth Group - Gary King and Andrew Allen leave to create Vanguard Healthcare, a new company developing mobile operating theatres. Vanguard begins with a fleet of three mobile operating theatres and contracts with a few NHS hospitals.
December 2001
Cardinal Healthcare now operating nationally with seven cardiac cath. mobiles and three mobile operating theatres
29 September 2000
Burnley General Hospital becomes first hospital in the North West to use the mobile operating theatre, to carry an additional 600 operations. "This is good news for the community of East Lancashire and an excellent use of public funds", says Trust Chief Executive David Chew.
4 April 2000
West Suffolk Hospital, Bury St. Edmunds, becomes the first hospital in the country to use a mobile operating theatre to help cut waiting-lists. Cardinal Healthcare's ground-breaking unit treated 400 day case patients including hernia repairs, arthroscopy and minor oral surgery - and featured on the BBC's Tomorrow's World programme.
2000
Gary King and Andrew Allen buy Cardinal Healthcare in partnership with Transatlantic Capital, aiming to develop a national mobile cardiac catheterisation service, based in Bristol. Soon, they see the potential for a mobile operating theatre and begin the first design.
1992
Cardinal Healthcare set up with one mobile cardiac catheterisation unit.
