EMS Healthcare wins contract for mobile sight-saving unit
Specialist mobile clinical unit provider EMS has won a major contract to supply a unit that will help medical consultants save the sight of thousands of patients while saving them a trip of up to 84 miles for treatment.
Jo Quarterman
Published 11 March 2011
Clinical capacity
The medical trailer, called ‘Liberty Plus’ will be the base for eye (ophthalmology) specialists in Yorkshire treating up to 50 patients a day with neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nvARMD) – a condition that causes progressive sight loss. It is the first eye unit for EMS, which already supplies mobile facilities for renal and cancer care.
The treatment unit will allow patients to visit their local hospital site for treatment, instead of undergoing a round trip of up to 84 miles to a regional unit.
The unit was commissioned by The Eye Site Clinic Ltd to deliver an injectable drug treatment to NHS patients who would otherwise rapidly go blind without it. Ophthalmology units in local NHS hospitals do not currently have the space or capacity to deal with increasing demand for the treatment. The unit will be initially deployed at Bridlington hospital, eventually moving to other local hospitals in the East Coast area.
EMS Healthcare converted the interior of the medical trailer to create a bespoke environment that includes waiting area, two vision alleys two clinical rooms for assessment and scans, and a dedicated treatment room. The unit also has a strong IT infrastructure with a core patient database that incorporates audit and patient recorded outcome measurement tools.
Richard Gale, consultant ophthalmologist at York Teaching Hospital and chairman of the Eye Site Clinic Ltd said:
“There are an estimated 26,000 new cases of nvARMD a year, and the demand on ophthalmology units has become overwhelming. The mobile unit will be extremely busy servicing the needs of patients requiring this vital sight-saving treatment. Eventually we hope to be able to offer this mobile service to hard pressed units throughout the country.”
Keith Austin, Chief Executive Officer at EMS Healthcare said: “We are proud to have won the contract to help create a cost-effective time efficient solution for reaching patients on multiple sites in this important area of ophthalmic care in the NHS. It is just one in a growing number of solutions from EMS to help clinicians take cutting-edge treatments out to the community for patients’ ease and comfort.”