MEDICAL EQUIPMENT SUPPLY
hospitals we supplied Brandon lighting to were the Rainbow Hospitals in Deeside, Llandudno, and Bangor, the NHS Nightingale Hospital Bristol, and the Louisa Jordan Hospital in Glasgow; the lighting products supplied included our new Coolview CLED 50 and CLED 30 examination lighting.”
Paul Grainger went on to explain that the Royal United Hospital in Bath had plans to rebuild its existing ITU, but in the light of the coronavirus outbreak, these ‘went on hold’. He said: “To meet the hospital’s short-term clinical needs, we supplied it with a number of minor surgical lights from our Astralite range, which were used in the ITU, the unit having been re-purposed to
Assembly of a Brandon Medical iTCP Intelligent Theatre Control panel in progress.
exporters, and have worked together in the past on export projects. We worked closely with the Fluid Dynamics engineers at the University of Leeds and Precision UK, and the latter manufactured the bespoke parts before supplying them to the hospitals across the north of England that needed them.”
The VentilatorChallengeUK Group This second COVID-19-related project led to Brandon’s introduction to another company involved in the UK ventilator manufacturing programme, Hertfordshire- based Meditech, which makes transport ventilators and oxygen and respiratory care control products. Graeme Hall said: “I met the Meditech team through one of our customers that sells Meditech ventilators overseas. Meditech was part of the VentilatorChallengeUK Consortium, which also included Airbus, AMRC Cymru, GKN Aerospace, McLaren, RollsRoyce, STI, Smiths Medical, and Penlon – all of whom established new manufacturing facilities specially, and University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. The Consortium designed the new CPAP machine approved by the Government for use with COVID patients.” He continued: “One of our customers knew we were sourcing ventilators, and put us in touch with Meditech, and it transpired that it needed parts, which we were able to produce in Leeds. These components were oxygen probes and adapters, which fit into the ventilator gas line circuits that bring the gas into, and through, the ventilators. We produced about 3,000 sets over about a 6-7-week period, manufacturing them on our CNC machines for ventilators destined for hospitals all over the UK.”
Produced on adjacent lines Paul Grainger pointed out at this stage that all of this non ‘run-of-the-mill’ work had to be undertaken alongside Brandon’s ‘everyday’ manufacturing activity. He said: “The 3,000 connecting
64 Health Estate Journal August 2020
pieces were thus being produced while, on an adjacent line, we were manufacturing operating lights and all the other components we make day to day in our machine shop.” I asked whether this had necessitated Brandon production personnel working exceptional hours. Graeme Hall replied: “In some instances, yes, although much of our production equipment operates ‘lights out’, meaning it will run on an automated basis when we are not here. The additional work did, however, necessitate staff coming in out of hours to re-load the machines.” Paul Grainger added: “Staff have been only too willing to go above and beyond their normal duties; part of the reason for doing all this was that we all really wanted to contribute to the national effort. We are a medical device manufacturer, and when there is a medical crisis, it’s time for people to step up.” “The staff on the shopfloor were absolutely brilliant,” added Graeme Hall.
To manufacture the specialist parts, Brandon drew on the advanced capabilities of its multi-axis machining centres, of which it has two capable of undertaking this work. Graeme Hall added: “The gas connectors for the medical gas piping and ventilators we ended up producing were not that easy to make quickly and efficiently, with some tight tolerance dimensions that a re particularly challenging, and which required special tooling.”
Involvement with the ‘surge’ hospitals
Our discussion next moved to Brandon’s involvement with the various emergency hospitals across the UK. Graeme Hall explained: “Although many of these ‘surge’ facilities were relatively simple n design, there were some special considerations around lighting – for instance where patients were being intubated, especially given that some of the venues didn’t have particularly good ambient lighting. Among the emergency
accommodate ventilated patients. Having realised quite early on in the pandemic that there would be additional clinical demand, we had elevated our stock levels to enable us to supply ‘from the shelf’.”
Forewarned was forearmed Graeme Hall interjected, reiterating an earlier point: “Because we do a lot of business in Asia, we knew how serious the coronavirus had become in the region before it was really public knowledge in the UK, so we had been making some preparations for what we thought was going to happen, and ensuring we had plenty of available stock. We thus built up a good supply, particularly of Coolview examination and Astralite minor surgery lights. I believe the Royal United Hospital in Bath also converted some of its ward accommodation to additional ICU accommodation.”
While its additional work was going on, Brandon was simultaneously aiming to continue to fulfil its more ‘normal’ orders with the usual rapid turnaround. Graeme Hall said: “In fact in January, we had our highest order book ever, attributable to the business’s normal growth. We had, for example, won a valuable contract to supply new pendants, operating lights, surgeon’s control panels, and a range of ICU equipment, for the major ‘3Ts’ redevelopment project at Brighton’s Royal Sussex County Hospital, which is
A theatre nurse operating a Brandon Medical Intelligent Theatre Control panel.
©Monty Rakusen
©Monty Rakusen
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