Clinical engineering specialist, Avensys, has recently forged a ‘strategic partnership’ with Probo Medical to offer NHS and private hospitals a single provider of EBME and diagnostic imaging services.
The service offering covers consultation, device supply, maintenance and repair, and strategic planning, with a reach that extends right across the UK. Avensys CEO, Rob Strange, emphasised the partnership’s ‘commitment to delivering a new strategic option’ to the healthcare sector. He said: “Key to this arrangement is that both Avensys and Probo Medical are independent, vendor-neutral companies. Our interest lies only in delivering excellent service and value for the customer, and to that end of course, the patient. In working with Probo Medical we have found a company that not only shares our values, but also has the capability and reputation to help us disrupt a market which has perhaps become overly reliant on OEM maintenance contracts.”
The two companies say implementation of this partnership has commenced ‘across one of the UK’s largest healthcare groups’, with Avensys and Probo Medical jointly managing the maintenance of a range of biomedical and diagnostic imaging (DI) equipment including anaesthetics, patient monitoring and X-ray, ultrasound, and CT. Avensys said: “With over 30 hospital locations across the UK to manage, the scale of this partnership is able to provide a responsive service to both EBME and DI requirements, ensuring device uptime is optimised, and patient care remains at the highest standard.”
From the customer’s perspective, Avensys says, the partnership ‘streamlines operations by providing a single point of contact through Avensys, simplifying contractual arrangements and ensuring seamless coordination of maintenance tasks’.
The collaborative approach extends to software solutions, with Avensys’s Health Inventory Management Software (H-IMS) being used by both companies. Developed by Avensys specifically for the healthcare sector, the software is provided free of charge to customers, and thus made it the obvious choice of inventory management software by the partnership. Avensys takes the lead in generating key performance indicator (KPI) reports and management information, enhancing accountability and oversight of both companies.
Moreover, Avensys facilitates the receipt, delivery, and commissioning of medical devices, ensuring thorough functional checks and proper documentation. The company says this centralised process at its Equipment Sales and Solutions (ESAS) hub ‘enhances safety and efficiency, preventing devices from entering clinical use prematurely’.
Probo Medical's European Commercial director, Danielle Langson, added: “This partnership allows two leading independent, vendor-neutral service-providers, who are specialists in their respective fields, to offer a simplified, all-encompassing solution to customers.”
Pictured, left to right, are: Julie Robinson – Probo head of UK Service Sales; Darren Stokes – Probo European External Operations director; Jack Polley – Avensys clinical engineer, and Lucy Rudge, Avensys Supply Chain director.
