PROCUREMENT AND SUPPLY


‘Fit-for-purpose and safe’ The company explains: “Reconditioning means that no matter where in the world your equipment ends up, it is fit for purpose and safe. Selling with a warranty also guarantees higher prices. Avensys Resale also has a global reach for equipment re-sale.” Francesca Stewart explained that – as with the Healthcare Management Trust – many of its healthcare customers are private healthcare providers, often because NHS hospitals still have their own ‘in-house’ EBME engineers to maintain, service, and repair such equipment. “In fact,” she explained, as we resumed our discussion on how Avensys was selected to supply and install a range of EBME equipment and furniture to the new Sancta Maria Hospital, “we had an engineer dedicated to the old Sancta Maria site – who HMT staff, led by Hospital director, Geoff Bailey, could call upon at any time for help with equipment – for almost 10 years. The charity thus knows us extremely well. When the hospital’s Project Team came up with a list of desired EBME equipment, and put the contract out to tender, we were among those approached. We know that, with our considerable buying power with OEMs, price was among the factors which won us the job, but equally we know that HMT has been pleased with the service we have provided, and has complete faith in our expertise. Our engineer had looked after equipment ranging from infusion devices to patient monitors, operating tables, endoscopes, ventilators, and diathermy machines, at the old hospital. “Thanks to our excellent ongoing


relationship with HMT’s staff,” she continued, “we were in fact invited to talk to the charity’s team about potentially supplying the new hospital 3-4 years ago, before the plans were really firmed up. Then, once they had compiled an equipment inventory, we were invited to tender.”


Many meetings Having won the contract, an Avensys team led by Francesca Stewart held numerous meetings with HMT staff in Swansea to refine and narrow down the ‘package’ of equipment to be supplied. She said: “At one end of the spectrum, we supplied a range of clinical and non-clinical bins, and, at the other, anaesthetic machines, as part of a sizeable EBME equipment package. We also provided the hospital with a


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Avensys Resale manager, Francesca Stewart.


number of attractive high-quality furniture items for its Reception and waiting areas.” As it transpired, the pandemic’s impact on the supply of a wide range of goods necessitated some careful co-ordination and regular liaison, including ‘virtual’ meetings with hospital staff to keep them appraised on the arrival of the various items. Francesca Stewart said: “Inevitably, there were one or two supply chain issues to deal with. However, having established a really good rapport with the HMT team over the years, all parties were kept fully informed, and the process generally went pretty smoothly.” One of the HMT team’s requirements


was for Avensys to consolidate and store the various items of medical equipment and furniture until the hospital – still under construction at this stage – was ready for it to be installed and commissioned. Francesca Stewart elaborated: “This was quite a complex logistical exercise, with equipment and furniture coming from different suppliers in many locations, and items arriving at different speeds on different days, while we were simultaneously still co-ordinating the order process. We have some 22,000 ft2


of equipment storage space in our Hartlebury facility, but the latter has only been available since June 2021, so all the items for the new Sancta Maria Hospital were stored at our HQ. On receipting any equipment when we received it in Kidderminster, we immediately labelled it with its destination floor and room


Avensys Resale manager, Francesca Stewart: “We know that price was among the factors which won us the job, but equally we know that HMT has been pleased with the service we have provided, and has complete faith in our expertise”


number, which saved considerable time and complexity when we delivered and installed all the items, which was undertaken over a week-long period in January 2021.”


Long days Once the equipment destined for the new Sancta Maria Hospital had been loaded onto Avensys’s 18-tonne trucks in Kidderminster, it was transported to Swansea, unloaded, and then taken into the hospital and installed by the Resale team. The installation took about a week, working with the hospital’s own engineer, and number of HMT’s clinical and Estates and Facilities staff. Francesca Stewart said: “We worked some long days – often from 6.00 am to 6.00 pm – and had to coordinate the delivery and installation working alongside the builders and sub-contractors, as some work was still ongoing. It was a great team effort, and this was recognised by the Hospital director, Geoff Bailey, who expressed his gratitude at the end of the process for how hard we had all worked to get the job done. During parts of the installation process we were also liaising closely with staff at the new hospital who had already re-located from the Uplands site to ensure we put equipment precisely where it was required. “The new hospital has excellent


access and a dedicated loading area, from which we were able to take large items for the first floor straight up in a lift. On the ground floor are the main Reception, offices, patient waiting areas, a café, and the Radiology Department, while the first floor houses three theatres, Recovery, and the patient bedrooms. The extensive and meticulous planning, and the close liaison we had with the hospital’s management team and multidisciplinary clinical staff, helped simplify and


March 2022 Health Estate Journal 57


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