Be Part of Our Equipment Utilisation Pilots

£332,000 savings achieved through Asset Utilisation in partnership with Croydon Health Services NHS Trust and Cohealo.

The Solutions team (Large Diagnostic Capital Equipment including mobile and services) has finalised the delivery of a key partnership project, working with Croydon Health Services NHS Trust. The project, which was delivered during 2021, achieved both significant savings and more accurate asset utilisation information, whilst supporting the trust to make more informed decisions about future work regarding asset utilisation.

The trust had nine Laparoscopic stack systems with low levels of utilisation and over an 18 month period, volume had been decreasing.

The utilisation data was presented to the trust Medical Devices Committee, chaired by the Deputy CEO / Medical Director and Head of Capital Equipment. As all nine Laparoscopic Stack Systems were identified for replacement, it was agreed that the data needed to be fed into the trust’s capital planning process. As a result of this analysis, the capital planning committee took the decision to replace seven of the Laparoscopic stacks.

Summary savings achieved

• £220,000 capital savings due to non-replacement of two surplus to requirements Laparoscopic stack systems
• £132,000 revenue savings due to reduced maintenance costs (10% per year).

We cannot maximise what we cannot measure. Working with NHS Supply Chain provided access to data that we previously did not have and enabled our entire team to rethink many of our existing approaches to maximising our equipment.

Parminder Bilkhu, Head of Medical Equipment and Decontamination
Croydon Health Services NHS Trust

At present, one other trust is required to support with further pilot opportunities. We are aiming for this project to be used more widely in future. Work in this area is also continuing with all trusts in the South London ICS.

We are still keen to hear from you if your trust would like to be involved, or if you are interested in understanding where you can make other Capital savings with a dedicated project team. Please contact:

The Solutions team within NHS Supply Chain: Large Diagnostic Capital Equipment (Mobile and Services) continues to make great strides with our equipment utilisation programme.

The programme seeks to identify opportunities to reduce costs and improve performance through better utilisation of mobile medical equipment through a number of pilots with trusts. If your trust is interested in learning more about these pilots and shaping the future of this free of charge programme, then please get in touch with Paul Turton or Ed Malone. Their contact details can be found on this page.

Working collaboratively with our technology partners Cohealo, we are deploying innovative technology to enable trusts to gain a deeper understanding of how medical equipment is being used to deliver savings and efficiencies.

Paul Turton, Head of Solutions Development

We currently have three fantastic NHS partners in Croydon Health Services NHS Trust, Sheffield Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and St Georges University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and are looking to bring two more trusts onboard.

Ed Malone, Solutions Development Manager

A closer look at the work at Croydon Health Services NHS Trust

Working with the trust we have set up four work-streams that correspond to the equipment that falls in scope of the pilot. These are radiology, endoscopy, theatres and echo-cardiology.

During the implementation phase we:

• Carried out data protection impact assessments
• Integrated with IT to capture the required data feeds
• Held reviews with clinical leads to understand equipment preferences and validate the data
• Finally we set up governance arrangements with clinical leads, the medical devices committee and the Medical Director.

The first part of this year has concluded these activities and we are now in the process of interpreting the findings and producing actions plans for each work-stream. Initial themes being identified include:

• Setting of equipment utilisation targets to enhance productivity
• Analysis of utilisation to make the case for additional investment
• Departmental scheduling for the effective use of devices.

“The pilot is providing new insights to help us identify unwarranted variation in the use of our equipment, inform the case for investment and shape the running of our clinical departments”

Parminder Bilku, Head of Medical Equipment and Decontamination,
Croydon Health Services NHS Trust

Over the next period we are really excited to continue our progress with Croydon Health Services NHS Trust and complete the implementation activities at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and St Georges University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

As part of the Category Tower NHS Supply Chain: Large Diagnostic Capital Equipment including Mobile and Services strategy, we are funding and running technology driven pilots with NHS trusts. Our goal is to identify opportunities to reduce costs and improve performance through better utilisation of mobile medical equipment. The pilots will provide trusts with credible asset utilisation data and support to turn this into actionable insights. We are very keen to hear from trusts that would like to be one of our pilot sites.

Why we are running the pilots?

Through our conversations with NHS staff, it is not uncommon to hear stories about medical equipment being held on wards or in cupboards and possibly being underutilised. We also understand that equipment may not be available at the right place and time resulting in case delays. In addition, departmental managers have a need to ensure that they have the right number of assets to service increasing demands.

We will help trusts to address these challenges by:

1. Enabling a greater understanding of how frequently mobile medical equipment is being used along with utilisation patterns.
2. Supporting trusts to turn this data into actionable insights through hands on support and project management.

How will the pilots operate?

Each pilot will last for 12 months with an approximate two month set up phase. We have partnered with a technology company with a software solution to track asset utilisation and a proven track record. The pilots are very light touch in terms of time/effort required from the trusts and as the solution is software based we won’t be installing hardware or physically linking to the trust IT system. The pilots are fully funded by NHS Supply Chain.

We are currently reaching out to trusts that would like to be considered for the pilots. If you are interested please contact Paul Turton or Ed Malone in our Solutions Team: