University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust
The Trust was formed in April 2000 after three of the city’s hospitals – Glenfield, Leicester General and Leicester Royal Infirmary – came together to provide a more modern and efficient healthcare service.
Improved asset management
Work began on a £761 million PFI investment (“The Pathway Project”) to modernise UHL buildings and facilities over a 30-year period. The Trust’s three imaging departments urgently needed investment and the Imaging Services Directorate specified that any solution must deliver best value, improved management of assets and, ideally, innovation. The solution also needed to support strategic objectives, have high-level executive buy-in and be flexible enough to meet evolving requirements.
Innovative
Asteral responded by offering an innovative Managed Equipment Service (MES) that would provide genuine risk transfer and be funded entirely from existing medium term budgets. It did not require additional funding from the government, nor did it rely on infrastructure provided by the PFI investment.
Asteral demonstrated an in-depth understanding of all medical equipment issues and their effect on the Trust’s services.
Within the first nine months, Asteral installed bespoke state of the art medical equipment and radiology facilities at UHL. Asteral provides a full-time, on-site engineer and radiographer to ensure the smooth running of the service.
Fixed costs
UHL pays fixed costs and receives a comprehensive service that includes staff training and equipment management in line with regulatory requirements.
Over the last two years uptime has improved and staff are free to concentrate on patient care without having to worry about procurement, payment, warranties, maintenance or training. On request, Asteral can supply performance data according to equipment type, hospital site and supplier. UHL can see in an instant how equipment is performing and being used, and view an auditable trail of all supplier and maintenance activities which has meant a significant improvement on service.
Accelerating the pace of change
Asteral spent considerable time understanding not only the strategic challenges facing UHL, but also its operational needs. As a result, it has been able to help accelerate the pace of change through supporting strategic objectives and gaining high level executive support, without which the scheme could not have progressed.
Other benefits to UHL of its partnership with Asteral include:
- A single point of contact for all equipment related problems
- Strategic and resilience planning, managed by Asteral’s qualified technical and scientific team
- A flexible contract allowing for the addition or removal of equipment types as clinical requirements change
- Performance measurement through a set of agreed Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
- Best value procurement from a variety of manufacturers, allowing the Trust to specify each item according to clinical preference
- A VAT recoverable service
