Asteral maintains equipment service excellence for Hillingdon

(from left to right): Darren Woolley, Divisional General Manager Maintenance & Service at Asteral; Sue Jones, Contract Manager at The Hillingdon Hospital NHS Foundation Trust; and Raj Bhalla, Hillingdon Biomedical Engineering Manager at Asteral.

Asteral, the leading vendor independent provider of medical equipment services, has been appointed by The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust to manage and maintain its existing equipment portfolio and provide guidance on future capital purchases.

The three-year contract, which has an option to extend for a further two, covers the maintenance of more than 4,500 assets across the hospitals, including radiology, EBME and theatre equipment. Asteral will also join the medical equipment panel, leveraging its strategic expertise and market knowledge to advise the Trust on future equipment specification, selection and procurement.

Asteral’s maintenance service includes a dedicated response desk that provides Hillingdon’s clinical staff with a single point of contact for all equipment issues. Managing multiple manufacturer maintenance contracts for the Trust, Asteral guarantees a high quality service to ensure equipment remains operational and available. In addition, seven of the existing engineers have been transferred to Asteral under the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) regulations.

As part of the service, Asteral will also deliver a library function to monitor all items of equipment at the Hillingdon Hospital and Mount Vernon Hospital sites, as well as be responsible for indentifying staff training requirements, ensuring quality standards are met and full compliance with CQC guidelines.
Although the service was not scheduled to start until 1st January 2012, the radiology department service commenced on 1st November 2011 to save the Trust further issues and expense. Asteral achieved go live in just three days, delivering immediate operational benefits.

Gytha McBirney, Diagnostic Imaging manager at The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: “Asteral’s team has already proved invaluable by getting the system up and running before scheduled. This has been a great help to us and the challenge was achieved with minimal disruption to the department.  We are really pleased with the way the relationship has begun”.

John Dangerfield, contracts manager at The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Asteral came in with a very competitive bid that guarantees us a high level of equipment uptime and we are pleased to welcome them on board. The team’s expertise and advice will help us to deliver efficiency savings, whilst enabling us to continue delivering an excellent service”.

Sue Jones, service manager at The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Asteral has ensured that the transition process has run smoothly. A considerable amount of time and effort has gone into making us feel part of the team and we look forward to working with Asteral”. 

Stephen Hodgson, director at Asteral, said: “Trusts today need to ensure that they are getting value for money, whilst delivering the best possible clinical service. We’ve worked closely with The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust to deliver a bespoke solution that meets their specific needs. We’re really pleased to be working as part of the team, sharing our knowledge and expertise that, coupled with our unique range of services, will really help to drive efficiencies across the Trust’s equipment portfolio, now and in the future”.