First-of-Its-Kind Mobile Unit Brings Burns Care Closer to Home

St Andrew's Centre, part of Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust and supported by the London and South East of England Burn Network and the Doris Macer Foundation, has launched a first-of-its-kind mobile burns outreach unit. This initiative is set to transform care for burns patients across the east of England and London, reducing the patient travel burden and improving health outcomes.

Specialist Burns Care for 9.8 Million People

As one of the largest specialist burns centres in Europe, the centre provides expert care to a population of 9.8 million people. Until now, many burns patients have faced lengthy travel times - sometimes up to five hours - to access specialist treatment. With the introduction of the mobile unit, these patients can now receive the care they need closer to home, ensuring timely intervention and reducing the risk of complications.

Sue Boasman, Advanced Nurse Practitioner at Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust, highlighted the importance of this development:

“This is the first burns bus in the UK, which will provide wound care dressing to patients with burn injuries. The whole point of being able to be on a bus is that we can take care closer to home for patients.”

Addressing Health Inequalities and Reducing Missed Appointments

The 'Burns Outreach Bus - BOB' unit is designed to provide high-quality care while easing pressure on the specialist burns service at St Andrew's Centre, based within Broomfield Hospital. Bringing treatment directly to patients, in some cases by providing care right outside their front door, removes some of the barriers that can prevent individuals from accessing timely care.

Many of the regions with the highest incidence of burns are also among the most deprived. Financial constraints, lack of transport, and time off work or school often result in missed appointments (Did Not Attends - DNAs), leading to delays in essential treatment and increasing the risk of complications.

Trudy Mahr, Junior Sister at Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust, explained:

“A lot of our furthest away areas are also the most deprived. So those patients often can't afford to come to us, which means a lot of patients don't either attend their appointments or don't attend as much as we'd like. By taking the service closer to them, hopefully that will stop that happening.”

By reducing DNAs and providing specialist care in local communities, the mobile unit ensures that burns patients have access to timely treatment in a safe and accessible environment.

Improving Patient Access and Driving Better Outcomes

Expanding treatment beyond the hospital, the mobile unit’s fully equipped, sterile clinical environment will also enable the delivery of more complex burns care services closer to home. It will also extend support to children and therapy patients requiring scald management. By taking the service mobile, a broader range of patients will have access to the specialised care they need.

Tara Hamner, Senior Sister for Burn Outpatients and Outreach, highlighted the impact on patient care:

“Having the flexibility to go to someone's house, on the way to say, our Ipswich clinic, we can drop in on the way, but rather than seeing them in their own home, we're going to have this clean environment to bring them into, nice and easily. To be able to do that right next to their front door is amazing.

“It's going to be the first time we can use appropriate analgesia outside of our unit. We've never been able to do that from an outreach perspective before. It really gives us more scope to see different patients with bigger burns than we’ve seen outside of the hospital before.”

A Collaborative Effort to Deliver Cutting-Edge Care

The launch of this first-of-its-kind mobile unit is the result of a collaboration between EMS Healthcare and Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust. As a trusted NHS partner for 25 years, EMS Healthcare specialises in delivering agile, patient-focused mobile solutions that increase capacity and improve accessibility within the community.

With the ability to treat up to 1,000 patients per year, the mobile unit is set to make a lasting impact, easing pressure on hospital services and ensuring burns patients can readily access expert care without delay.

At EMS Healthcare, we believe in working together to create better health outcomes and ensuring that good health is within everyone’s reach.

Explore how we can support your services by taking care into communities: See our mobile clinics.