Nottinghamshire firm lands Bristol hospital tube deal

A Nottingham firm has clinched a deal with Bristol Royal Infirmary, to revamp the entire network of tube systems across Bristol’s primary hospital complex.

Aerocom, headquartered in Nottingham, supplies pneumatic tube systems to various sectors, including manufacturing, logistics, retail, and healthcare, alongside fire suppression devices and robotic guided vehicle systems.

Pneumatic tube systems are vital for transporting items like patient specimens and pharmaceuticals across hospital premises.

Since its acquisition by Chairman John Hughes in 2000, Aerocom has installed tube systems in over 100 NHS and private hospitals nationwide.

Tom Hughes, managing director of Aerocom, said: “The modern PTS must be capable of dealing with several thousand specimens alone daily in major hospitals. A&E can account for up to 25 per cent of the traffic flow. It’s an entirely different concept now from where we were in Victorian times. Sometimes we retrofit the systems, which may take a few weeks per project, however, in construction, we will team up with the main contractor’s design engineers on a new-build project, which could be six years ahead.

“They vastly reduce what would have been the walking distance for hospital porters and medical staff delivering samples or trips to the pharmacy. The tube system can take direct routes, drop through floor levels, take shortcuts, go underground and so on. This therefore makes the tube network a much more efficient process and takes pressure off the hospital staff. The tube system also works 24/7 and never sleeps, eats, encounters security doors, uses lifts, has any distractions, time off or holiday requirements.

“Secondly, it has been calculated that it would take around 30 additional porters in an average hospital to do the same work as a site-wide pneumatic tube system. The initial investment is recovered within several months of a system going into service which is a huge saving for the taxpayer.”