Vanguard partners with Northern Ireland Primary Care Company to provide innovative solutions
UK’s ‘national fleet’ of mobile operating suites is heading to Ireland to provide mobile health solutions through Vanguard Healthcare
Vanguard Healthcare – the leading UK-based supplier of mobile operating rooms and hospital facilities – has partnered with Belfast company Primary Care Northern Ireland Limited (PCNI) to encourage health authorities in the North and South of Ireland to embrace a more flexible framework of services within their healthcare systems.
The Directors of PCNI are all locally based primary care professionals, who have struck a landmark deal to use and implement Vanguard’s innovative solutions in Northern Ireland in the first instance with the intention to rollout south of the border. “This is particularly important at a time when reform and modernisation is a key priority on the health service agenda for legislators in Belfast and Dublin,” explains Jim Symington, a director of PCNI.
For Belfast-born Ian Gillespie, Vanguard’s Chief Executive, this is essentially a return to his roots: “ This is a personally satisfying and particularly exciting development given my formative years were spent growing up in Belfast before attending university in Manchester. I have close family ties in Northern Ireland, and my intention is to provide innovative healthcare solutions irrespective of borders.”
The issues faced by healthcare providers in the Province in many ways resemble those in the UK, and reducing waiting lists is one of the key goals for the DHSSPS and the Health and Social Care Board in Northern Ireland. The flexible and cost-effective solution of mobile facilities can provide healthcare providers in both Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland with an instant means by which to increase capacity and support refurbishment of existing facilities to ensure a continuously high standard of care.
Vanguard’s mobile services have also proved to be a valuable tool in taking healthcare closer to patients’ homes. With a distinctly rural demographic in much of Ireland, mobile facilities represent a valuable tool by which to deliver healthcare to patients in remote locations, while retaining the quality and consistency of treatment in permanent facilities
Vanguard Healthcare has already established itself as the UK’s leading provider of mobile surgery and endoscopy services, both to the NHS and to private healthcare organisations. With 40 mobile surgical units at its disposal, Vanguard also boasts the single largest fleet of mobile surgical facilities in the world.
“In this regard Vanguard is perfectly placed to help Primary Care Northern Ireland Ltd in communicating and assisting local health bodies in Ireland meet the challenges of modern healthcare and bring flexible, high quality health services to patients, closer to their homes. Vanguards’ operating theatres, recovery wards, endoscopy suites and outpatient units are all truly mobile and able to relocate to most places in the island of Ireland within one day,” added Jim Symington.
