TECHNOLOGY
Echotech needed urgent financing for the acquisition of four additional echo machines within a very short time scale. As a result of the company’s existing relationship with SFS, Echotech sought support from the specialist financial services provider. With a five-year finance lease worth approximately £100,000, SFS was able to help Echotech acquire the equipment and secure the contract. The arrangement also included the flexibility to accommodate potential future equipment upgrades. Echotech places a lot of emphasis on using the latest technologies, so leasing offers a valuable financing solution as it allows equipment upgrades without trapping capital in out-of-date assets – especially important since the fast pace of technological change means that equipment can become obsolete after just a few years. As a rapidly growing organisation in an expanding market, Echotech has been able to widen cardiac screening services and make great progress because of the financial agility it gains through its relationship with SFS.12 Another healthcare organisations in the NHS can use leasing to facilitate equipment acquisition is a hospital in the Anglia region. The hospital needed to focus on delivering a challenging cost savings programme while maintaining and improving the quality of patient are delivered. Recognising that its old analogue mammography machines were outdated, the hospital decided to acquire three static and one mobile Mammomat Inspiration Full Field Digital Mammography systems from Siemens Healthcare after a competitive tendering. To finance the significant investment, the hospital opted for a lease provided by SFS in a separate competitive tender. As part of the project the hospital was also able to transform its old processing room, which was no longer needed, into a third mammography room. This helped it manage the rising demand for diagnostic facilities for more women as the Government extended the screening age from within three years of a woman’s 50th birthday to within three years of her 47th. With lease financing from SFS, the hospital has been able to master the challenge of driving cost savings while maintaining its superior healthcare standard through the transition to digital radiography. These examples illustrate that there are ways for healthcare providers to continue delivering the best possible quality of care without placing an undue burden on finances. With budget cuts becoming more severe, hospitals and healthcare providers can benefit from flexible asset financing solutions that remove the need to tie up precious capital in equipment and technology acquisition. Both public and private healthcare providers are under pressure to develop a viable strategy for improving the quality of care. Against the background of limited financial resources,
FEBRUARY 2017
such alternative financing solutions can help to address this challenge. By investing in equipment upgrades and advanced technologies hospitals can enhance their capabilities and provide better, more efficient and more accurate treatment.
l Chris Wilkinson is the head of sales for healthcare and public sector for Siemens Financial Services in the UK.
References
1 Caroline Price, ‘Government announces £200m cuts to public health budget’,
http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/ (5 June 2015)
2
https://improvement.nhs.uk/news-alerts/ nhs-providers-working-hard-still-under- pressure/
3 COCIR, ‘Medical Imaging Equipment: Age Profile and Density’,
http://cocir.org/ (2014)
4 Spectaris, ‘Fokus Innovative Medizintechnik 2014‘,
http://www.spectaris.de/uploads/tx_ewscontent_ pi1/Studie-Einsparpotenzial-2014_01.pdf
5 SFS, Taking the Pulse (2016)
https://finance.siemens.com/financialservices/ cn/en/press/documents/siemens- financial_services_taking_the_pulse.pdf
CSJ
6 SFS, Rising to the Challenge (August 2014),
https://finance.siemens.com/financialservices/ global/en/press/studies/documents/whitepaper_ 2014_rising-to-the-challenge.pdf
7 SFS, Seizing the Digitalization Opportunity (June 2015)
8 Ibid 9 Ibid 10 SFS, Taking the Pulse (2016)
https://finance.siemens.com/financialservices/ cn/en/press/documents/siemens-financial_ services_taking_the_pulse.pdf
11 SFS, Rising to the Challenge (August 2014).
https://finance.siemens.com/financialservices/ global/en/press/studies/documents/ whitepaper_2014_rising-to-the-challenge.pdf
12
http://finance.siemens.com/financialservices/ uk/markets/healthcare/documents-downloads/ documents/cof_echotech_case_study_.pdf
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