The UK MOD has taken delivery of a mobile hospital system to enhance its operational medical capability as part of Future Force 2020.
Marshall Aerospace and Defence Group has provided a modular Role 3 hospital, complete with all the departments expected of a conventional trauma hospital, including resuscitation, operating theatre, intensive care wards, advanced diagnostics, together with the necessary infrastructure such as recovery wards, sterilisation, pharmacy and laboratory facilities.
The hospital has full environmental control maintaining optimum temperature and humidity levels throughout the entire hospital within a wide range of external climatic conditions.
The hospital is a step change in providing a modern clinical infrastructure designed to operate as a coherent system, complete with a fully integrated logistic support.
Marshall Aerospace and Defence Group chief executive Steve Fitz-Gerald said: "This deployable hospital will enable the UK MOD to provide world-leading capabilities similar to those expected in any National Health Service facility but with the significant advantage of being able to be deployed to a forward operating area, whether a conflict zone or, potentially in support of humanitarian operations.
"Our skills in system integration and our knowledge of medical solutions have enabled us to provide a world class facility for the UK’s defence forces."
During the design phase Marshall worked closely with the customer community to ensure that the hospital layout and facilities built upon the UK experience of existing field hospitals, allowing a simple transition and minimal collective training burden when switching between hospital types.
Marshall has adopted a modular, scalable approach to the design, allowing the hospital to adapt to future concepts. This will give the UK MOD the ability in the future to deploy part of the hospital by air to provide rapid deployment of an initial medical capability with the full capability following as the force build up develops. The modularity will also enable the UK to expand the facility, adapt layouts or change configurations as medical technology and needs develop in the future.
Marshall’s generic field hospital system architecture is flexible, modular and scalable using a mix of military off-the-shelf (MOTS) hard and soft shelters (containers and tents). The system uses common modules with standard interfaces allowing adaptable configurations to suit mission needs.
Marshall has provided deployable medical facilities previously to the UK, Norway and France. These have included complete hospitals, CT Scanners and laboratory systems.