Milestones: 1999 - 2008
November 2008
Mrs Madelaine Moreland becomes the 100,000th patient to have a procedure on a mobile operating theatre. 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.
April 2008
Vanguard appoints Ian Gillespie as Managing Director. Ian, who joined from BOC Group where he held the role of Vice President, brought to Vanguard a wealth of experience and a history of innovation in healthcare, having been on the leading edge of healthcare developments since 1995 and run a variety of businesses in both the UK and the US.
March 2008
In what is thought to be a world first at the time, one of Vanguard’s £1 million units spends 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.
January 2008
A ground-breaking partnership between Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Vanguard Healthcare sees hospital patients in Gloucestershire benefit from a unique partnership keeping treatment close to their homes. A mobile day surgery unit was deployed at Tewkesbury hospital while theatre refurbishments took place.
May 2007
Production of the UK fleet of mobile operating theatres is stepped up to enable more NHS patients to be treated closer to where they live. This followed the publication of a Department of Health report which recommends that 80% of all planned surgery should be done locally.
November 2006
A skilled, motivated and contented workforce earns Vanguard Healthcare the prestigious Investors in People (IIP) Standard. Vanguard Healthcare passes the IIP inspection with flying colours, which monitored how it trains, manages and values its employees.
August 2006
The University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay is among 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 Vanguard unit is sited at Furness General Hospital.
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.
January 2006
A mobile operating theatre and ward is sited within the grounds of Aberdeen Royal Infirmary as part of a drive to cut waiting times. It is the first time that a mobile theatre with an associated ward – which together are known as a Visiting Hospital – is used in Scotland.
December 2005
The Secretary of State for Health Patricia Hewitt notes that she was "hugely impressed" by Vanguard Healthcare's mobile endoscopy unit after touring it on December 2nd. As she began her visit to the Nuffiled hospital in Scraptoft Lane, Leicester, the Minister made a beeline for the endoscopy unit, stationed for the day in the hospital car park, where she was welcomed on board the unit by Vanguard’s senior management team.
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 – is located at St John's Hospital, Livingston, and ensures that NHS Lothian can meet the target that no patient is waiting more than 26 weeks for treatment by the end of 2005.
April 2005
The first mobile operating theatre to treat patients in Scotland is hailed as a great success at Woodend Hospital in Aberdeen. 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.
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 per day receive their surgery in the theatre.
October 2004
Nuffield Hospitals, the UK's largest not-for-profit independent hospital group, announces the acquisition of Vanguard Healthcare. Vanguard has a dozen £1million state-of-the-art mobile operating theatres, three eight-bed recovery wards, and two mobile outpatient units.
August 2004
Scotland gets its first look at a mobile operating theatre when a Vanguard unit makes its debut at the Edinburgh Conference Centre.
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. 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".
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 a series of carpal tunnel surgery procedures (wrist surgery). The unit, which was based outside Romsey hospital, accommodated 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.
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 a five year period. 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.
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.
October 2003
Vanguard unveils the Healthport, a highly-flexible version of the Diagnosis and Treatment Centres (DTCs) that are rolled out across the country to help cut waiting lists in 2003. Using a modular fast-track build design, the Healthport incorporates 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.
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.
July 2003
A six-month trial in Australia of a Vanguard Healthcare mobile operating theatre produces excellent results, according to the New South Wales Government. 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.
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 the senior team at Vanguard.
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.
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.
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.
April 2002
Cardinal Healthcare is acquired by InHealth Group. The mobile service’s management team leaves 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 small number of NHS hospitals.
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.
1999
Vanguard’s founders buy Cardinal Healthcare in partnership with Transatlantic Capital, aiming to develop a national mobile cardiac catheterisation service, based in Bristol. They soon see the potential for a mobile operating theatre and begin the first design.
