Cumbrian doctors set up new initiative with mobile operating theatre

Speaking about the initial unit, Martin said: “We set up our company back when covid occurred, we are both local doctors and we use community facilities to do our surgery, because covid occurred and the hospital wanted to use as many community facilities as they could we found we were struggling for space.

“We knew we could rent a mobile operating theatre from one other company but it was really expensive. We thought that we could do something which was a lot better but also cheaper, so that when we weren’t using it we could rent it to other NHS hospitals.”

Martin White and Ross Kelly Have designed a mobile operating theatre (Image: Supplied)

The first unit, named The Eden Unit, has been used around the UK in cities such as Manchester and Edinburgh before coming back to Carlisle where it has been stationed for the last nine months providing walk-in walk-out cataract surgery. Because of this move to Carlisle the company say the wait for cataract surgery locally has been drastically reduced over the last nine months.

When Martin and Ross recognised very high quality mobile operating theatres can be manufactured and deployed in a cost-effective way, they expanded the company.

The inside of the mobile operating theatre. (Image: Supplied)

Dan Saleh, a surgeon from Newcastle, joined the team during the build of their innovative general anaesthetic theatre, named The Caldew Unit. It became clear that the NHS would face major challenges and the legacy of Covid and its long waiting lists, and the need to update ageing hospital infrastructure meant surgical capacity, and maintaining throughput of patients in a safe manner was key.

As surgeons themselves, the idea of a shack in the carpark wasn’t attractive. The Caldew Unit is an innovative mobile unit that combines hydraulic technology to open up like a ‘transformer toy’ into a huge operating theatre with cutting edge ultra clean air flow. It is this clean air system that will allow even complex orthopaedic work to be done in it safely. This is of particular importance as the legacy of Covid has meant more patients are waiting nationally for hip and knee surgery than ever before.

The units truly offer a ‘plug and play’ solution, designed by surgeons with the patients at the forefront of the design, capable of being deployed wherever needed within days.

Crucially, Martin, Ross and Dan, as natives of the northern national parks, say they care deeply about the environment and are mindful of the huge carbon footprint healthcare leaves in our country. The units are built in the UK, with recyclable components and no parts of the structure are single use. Moreover, the company has no office space and operates a solely digital structure.

The unit from the outside. (Image: Supplied)

This way, they say the NHS does not have additional costs to bear when renting the units. This has been reflected in clients often querying why costs for the Enigma units are significantly lower than their competitors, yet the product provides the highest level of operative technology.

Martin said: "There are 8 million people on waiting lists (nationally) and the hospitals are in dire straits. There has been a lot of investment in The NHS, but some buildings remain in poor condition, and some areas simply don’t have enough facilities.

"Our units give a quick solution and, as we are significantly cheaper than other people on the market, we are giving the NHS value for money, and really, that’s our aim."

The Eden Unit, that has been in Carlisle, is heading to the Midlands in May, to help reduce cataract waiting lists in another area of need. The Caldew Unit looks to be destined to help with long waits for orthopaedic patients in the south of England. The Enigma team are proud to be helping speed up care for patients who are on long waiting lists throughout the UK.