Aspen Medical officially launches and names fleet of mobile surgical and health units

Aspen Medical - Mobile Surgery

Aspen Medical officially launched and named its fleet of mobile health and surgical units at a ceremony in Kallangur on Friday 09 December 2016.  The ceremony was conducted by the Hon Peter Dutton, Minister for Immigration and Border Protection and the Federal Member for Dickson.  The state-of-the-art units were manufactured at the Medical Design Innovations facility in Kallangur.

Dr Andrew Walker, co-founder and co-Executive Chairman of Aspen Medical, said, “We would like to thank Minister Dutton for taking time of out his schedule to officially launch our fleet of surgical units. Feedback from our clients has been very positive and this is a testament not only to the world class design and quality of the units but also the service provided by our team who work with the client to ensure a smooth and successful transition from the theatre to the mobile unit.”

Aspen Medical has been providing mobile surgical solutions for more than a decade. The company’s first unit was positioned in the Solomon Islands in 2004 supporting the work of the ADF and AFP. The company choose Medical Design Innovations to overhaul the unit and subsequently ordered an additional two mobile surgeries.  The units have been in-situ at regional hospitals across Queensland and New South Wales where refurbishment programs have been taking place. The mobile surgical units have been well received by patients and health professionals and have allowed the hospitals to maintain surgical lists and reduce costs during the refurbishment of operating theatres.

Commenting on the launch, Minister Dutton said, “I’m delighted that Aspen Medical chose a Brisbane company to bring its innovative surgical solutions to life. In addition to ensuring that regional areas and metropolitan hospitals can maintain surgical waiting lists cost-effectively during disruption, there is no doubting the export potential of these units which will see more jobs and more growth for Aspen Medical and Medical Design Innovations.”

During a recent deployment at Moree District Hospital in NSW, the hospital’s surgical team completed 349 procedures in the mobile surgical unit.. Of these 56 were emergency procedures that would have been transferred to another site to have their urgent surgical procedure had the unit not been on site at Moree. The cost of transferring a patient urgently from Moree was estimated at over $5,000 per transfer. This did not include any costs for transferring the patient back to the hospital from another site.  Moree District Hospital estimated a minimum saving of $300,000 over the course of the deployment of the unit whilst its operating theatres were undergoing refurbishment.

In recent weeks the Aspen Medical has won the International Project Management Association gold medal for Humanitarian Aid projects.  This global award was in recognition of the company’s role in West Africa on behalf of the Australian, New Zealand, US and UK governments. The company’s founders, Dr Andrew Walker and Glenn Keys, won the national EY Entrepreneur of the Year award in November and will be representing Australia at the global awards in Monaco in May 2017.

Photo (L – R): Sergio Esteves (MD of Medical Innovations), the Hon Peter Dutton MP, Glenn Keys (Aspen Medical), Dr Andrew Walker (Aspen Medical), Andy Stone (Aspen Medical)