Case Study

Service and Maintenance of Equipment for
Humber NHS Foundation Trust

In 2010 Alex Fowler became the 'Environmental Manager' at Humber NHS Foundation Trust.

Part of Alex's broad range of responsibilities is thesafe and effective running of medical equipment in a wide range of community and inpatient physical and mental health services, learning disability services, healthy lifestyle support and addictions services to approximately 600,000 people living in Hull and the East Riding of Yorkshire.

The Trust also runs Whitby community Hospital and five GP practices.

Alex commented - Ensuring our 2,500 staff across more than 70 sites have well functioning equipment to do their jobs safely and to ensure patient care is a daunting task.

My experience of service providers was mixed, and this added to a nagging concern about the thoroughness on the maintenance side of our equipment. As funding pressures mount across the NHS, we are always looking for ways to save money or make ourselves more effective.

Reducing the number of equipment faults can have a huge financial benefit to the Trust. And this also helps with patient care and staff safety.

However, I was frustrated that some of our suppliers weren't helping us with these challenges in the way we need them to.

But more than that, when breakdowns do happen, getting here quickly without having to be chased is essential. It drives me mad because I just don't have time to be chasing suppliers.

Since staring to work with Chanter Biomed in 2012 I feel much more confident that our equipment is being well maintained. Our breakdown rate is under control and "Jobs are attended to quickly and we never need to chase them."

Chanter even suggested some changes and how we carry out our 'LOLER' inspections. When we adopted our ideas, "They saved us a considerable amount of money".

They are also asking how they can enhance how they work with us, bringing forward ideas such as an Electronic portal to check on job progress / service dates etc.

"We have no complaints at all" which given the scale of what we achieve together, is no mean feat.