ENGINEERING TRAINING
Adoptinga military modelis secret to Avensys’ success
Rob Strange, an Army-trained engineer who founded, and is CEO of, biomedical equipment engineering services specialist, Avensys (now part of VAMED International), believes many ‘in-house’ NHS Electrical and Biomedical Engineering (EBME) departments are under-resourced and undervalued. Consequently, he says, many NHS Trusts may not be getting the optimal ‘unbiased’ equipment purchasing advice, and could be unnecessarily spending hundreds of thousands of pounds annually on maintenance and servicing contracts from suppliers. With the right training, and greater recognition of such EBME professionals’ skills, such ‘in- house’ personnel could, he argues, be carrying out such work themselves, and investing the savings into key services. HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie, spoke to the former REME Artificer Sergeant Major to find out more.
Established in 2007 by Rob Strange, Avensys supplies, maintains, and supports a wide range of medical and dental equipment throughout the UK, and has extensive experience with biomedical equipment, gained through serving the MoD, the NHS, private hospitals, and dental practices. The company says its ‘single, all-encompassing’ maintenance, repair, and asset management solution, ‘reduces both the cost and the need for multiple contractors for our customers’.
A national operation
Avensys’ medical service engineers operate nationally, carrying out servicing and maintenance for both new and used medical equipment, while more extensive repairs are undertaken at the company's Kidderminster headquarters. Avensys says that all its medical service engineers – of which there are currently around 70 covering the UK – are ‘trained to the highest standards’, and operate to ISO 9001:2008 QMS and ISO 13485:2003 (2012) quality standards. All equipment is maintained to statutory, advisory, and manufacturers’ documentation, as required by the Care Quality Commission’s Essential Standards Of Quality and Safety, and in line with NHSLA risk management standards, thus ensuring consistent and reliable validation.
A major trainer
Avensys also provides training courses for engineering technicians, clinicians, and nursing staff, on the use, maintenance, and repair, of the wide range of biomedical equipment used in healthcare facilities today at a dedicated training facility that is part of its 50,000 ft2 engineering facility and headquarters in Kidderminster. The site is home to the Avensys Training Academy, which offers courses ranging from those meeting introductory requirement criteria, to
38 Health Estate Journal September 2020
The Avensys training facility in Kidderminster incorporates a mock operating theatre.
diploma-level training and a range of Apprenticeships in partnership with Dudley College of Technology. All the courses are developed to meet the UK’s National Occupational Standards of Medical Equipment Servicing, and are delivered to NHS engineers from across the UK. The Black Country & Marches Institute of Technology in Dudley is one of many ‘IoT’s being built in the UK, and among the qualifications it will offer will be the new T Levels, the technical equivalent to ‘A’ Levels, and Advanced Apprenticeship opportunities at level 4 and above.
Loan medical equipment Returning to Avensys – and its Kidderminster site also houses the company’s loan medical equipment stores (for rapid replacement), plus a wide range of both new and secondhand equipment sold to healthcare customers both in the UK and overseas. Redundant NHS biomedical equipment is sold on behalf of hospitals and other healthcare facilities
when it becomes surplus to requirements. Prior to being re-sold, it is comprehensively checked over, serviced, and any parts requiring replacement replaced. Items are then sold with a three-month warranty, with the revenue for the sale returned directly to the Trust. This not only benefits the Trust financially, but also gives it the peace of mind that the equipment is being re-used and is safe. The buyer, meanwhile, has the benefit of knowing that that the equipment is in excellent working order.
REME-trained
Rob Strange, who co-founded Avensys in April 2007, is a highly experienced mechanical and electrical engineer, who had previously spent 22 years in the Corps of Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME). During his time in the Army, he served with a variety of military units, which included Commando Forces, the Royal Artillery, and the Royal Army Medical Corps, in static and military field hospitals, often in extreme conditions.
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