April 2000

On 1 October 2001 United Healthcare Limited (formerly known as PPP Group Limited) commenced the contract management of all the medical equipment at Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

Queen Elizabeth Hospital NHS Trust in Woolwich, South East London, which opened in March 2001, has entered into 15 year £50m contract for all its medical equipment apart from medical instruments.

The contract includes the maintenance and replacement of equipment, and training for relevant staff. It covers the local primary care trust, which now provides community services formerly provided by the trust, as well as the acute trust.

A Trust spokesman said what attracted it was an "ongoing relationship", adding: "What we won't have to deal with any more is the peaks and troughs of replacement".

London regional director John Bacon said: "This is a good example of the private sector and the NHS working together to provide clinicians with the equipment they need to serve patients best."

The hospital is now 95% filmless, after a six-month roll-out of a computerised imagining system. Films are now only printed when requested - for example, if needed elsewhere - and 600 staff have been trained to view x-rays and scans on 500 PCs.

The preparation for the contract included an audit of all the equipment in the hospital, and the creation of a comprehensive equipment database, as well as the arrangement of suitable financing

Mike O'Brien
Director
United Healthcare Limited
Crown House
Home Gardens
Dartford
Kent
DA1 1DZ

Tel: 01322 424505
Fax: 01322 225700
mikeobrien@unitedhealthcare.co.uk