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Savings in space and time
The Fleet Medical Centre in Hampshire has enhanced
its administration facility with the installation of a
space-saving mobile storage system.
The large practice takes pride in its team of
nine doctors, highly skilled nurses and allied health
professionals. Together, they treat chronic and acute
medical conditions with an emphasis on continuity of
care. There is also a focus on training, with up to three
qualified doctors in education posts at any one time.
What Practice Manager James Perrin was less proud
of was Fleet Medical Centre’s filing system, which
consisted of three different types of storage spread over
two floors. This arrangement took up space that could be
used for other purposes and was inherently inefficient.
Railex Projects recommended a better solution based
on its space-efficient Rollastore mobile storage system.
Offering easy installation and operation, this consists
of a relocatable plinth fitted with tracks along which 14
bays are opened or closed by turning a handwheel. The
system is lockable and secure.
Best of all it is very compact. The Rollastore System
used at Fleet has a total capacity of approximately
16,000 Lloyd George medical records and can also
accommodate A4 medical records and other media. Yet, it
takes up just 50% of the space of the previous systems.
James is delighted with the results. “We used to have a
mixture of steel shelving, which took up the entire room
now half-filled by the Rollastore System, as well as cabinets
and a carousel which made staff dizzy to handle!,” he said.
“The new system is easy to operate and adds light
and a professional touch to the area.We have been
able to add two desks and a scanner in the ground floor
area and upstairs has become a consultancy revenue
stream in its own right. It is a major asset to have all of
the records in one place and to be able to convert the
shelving to our needs, such as for second volume, plus
situations where some patients need several A4 files. It’s
a great investment.”
Business Info:
How have new working
practices and technology changed
storage requirements?
Tracey Goodwin:
With the increase
in hot desking and people no longer
having set desks, lockers are becoming
more important. Having a locker where
you can keep your box of equipment
at the end of the day is becoming a
lot more common. Low level mobile
systems placed next to desks for both
personal storage and work items are also
becoming more popular.
Business Info:
What are the successful
new areas for Link 51?
Tracey Goodwin:
The office range of
storage is growing.We’ve won some
quite large projects with some big
commercial offices and we’re also
pushing hard on the e-tail side of the
business, which has grown for us.We’ve
just put out a white paper,
Taming the
E-tail Tiger
, which is really working
with retailers.We cover their storage
needs at every point of the distribution
process, from when goods arrive at a
port through to click-and-collect – and
at every point in between.We’ve got a
solution for every stage, so that’s really
growing for us too.
Business Info:
What are the main
industry sectors that you supply?
Tracey Goodwin:
We supply every
sector you can imagine.We supply
museums and archives, library
sectors, automotive, accountants and
commercial offices, and we’re very
strong in the public sector.We’ve
got a framework agreement with the
government for the Crown Commercial
Service, so we are one of four companies
who supply direct into the public sector
through the framework.We also supply
the NHS.
Business Info:
Are there any new
developments in storage or has
innovation run dry?
Tracey Goodwin:
We’re always looking
at new products and trying to stay
ahead of everybody else.We recently
developed a system called the Trackless
Mobile System, which goes directly onto
an existing floor without the need for
ramps or any trip hazards. It goes directly
into an office environment just like a
piece of furniture would. It’s quick and
easy for a client, and it is easy to move
as well.
We’re working on a number of other
products, such as our low level products,
which seem to be quite popular. People
are standing up to work more and our
low level mobile products support that
trend.
In retail, we’re working on new
designs to assist retailers with things like
click-and-collect and Black Friday.We’re
already talking to our customers about
how they are going to deal with storage
when Black Friday happens this year. And
we’ve got a quite a few innovations that
we are quite far along with. They are
not yet out in the market, but they are
exciting for us.
