A YORKSHIRE hospital authority has avoided doubling-up on vehicles by
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ordering a twin-corridor van for keeping used and sterile surgical Instruments separate in transit.
The special van body was built for the Wakefield Area Health Authority by the Wakefield factory of Freight Bonallack Ltd and is based on a Ford A-Series chassis.
The van will carry surgical instruments back and forth between a new central sterilising unit and various operating theatres at hospitals in the area. The instruments will be treated at the new centre rather than in the individual operating theatres.
The sterile instruments are sealed in packages which are in turn enclosed in special trolleys and it is to prevent contamination that the "clean" trolleys must be kept apart from the trolleys containing used instruments.
Having a twin-compartment body has saved the Authority buying separate vehicles for the outward and return journeys. The two compartments have separate Whiting rollershutters at the back and a 508kg (10cwt) electro-hydraulic Ratcliff tail-lift.