Reflections on this year’s key events highlights

It’s been a busy and productive year for our team. As the year draws to a close, we’re excited to look back at some of this year’s key highlights, which have included exhibiting at the world’s largest medical trade show and taking part in a number of high-profile conferences in the UK. It’s great to see the return of in-person events across the board and to be back doing what we enjoy best, meeting new partners and showcasing the innovation of our range of products and services, and how’re we’re working to enable a better, more sustainable future for healthcare.

After two years of virtual events, things really got into full swing in the spring. We were delighted to attend a number of conferences including the CSC annual conference – Annual Scientific Meeting, NPAG, Operating Theatres Conference, followed by @EBME-Expo in Coventry in June.

The EMBE meeting in particular was a new one, and we were proud to join this year’s expo to showcase how we can support hospitals to take the best approach for global sustainability and achieve huge savings. The show – which focuses on all things medical equipment technology, innovation, procurement and training – was a fantastic platform to introduce us to the medical technology industry, a perfect fit for our repair service. Allowing us to showcase our innovative approach to create and repair the highest quality surgical instruments from our factory here in the UK, encouraging hospitals to see the benefits of repair over replace, and how we can support them through this vital step.

As a company we repair over 13,000 surgical instruments per year, all carried out in-house, so this was a terrific opportunity to demonstrate the rigorous processes and testing that goes behind making our products such high-quality. We will definitely be returning next year!

Overall, the Operating theatres and AfPP conferences have also been great for engagement around our sustainability plans. The AfPP Annual Conference is the UK’s leading association for perioperative practitioners, which we first exhibited at back in 2010, and represents one of the largest gatherings of theatre practitioners in the UK. The conference brings together over 500 perioperative practitioners to participate in a packed programme of education, workshops and networking opportunities.

We were excited to head to this year’s 4-day conference in York to showcase our rigid endoscope repair training programme, highlighting how we can assist Sterile Services and theatres in testing the quality of rigid endoscopes, identify faults and ensure patient safety. At this year’s show, we also offered visitors a chance to book a tour of our state-of-the-art workshop in Southend-on-Sea, giving them an opportunity to come and see and experience for themselves, the skills, technology and expertise that go behind the repairs carried out by our fantastic team of technicians.

In July, the Surgical Holdings team headed to the BADS Dermatology Show in Glasgow, joining over 2000 dermatological professionals all dedicated to enhancing dermatological learning, teaching and practice, where we were excited to launch our new Smoke shark III Surgical Smoke Evacuation System. Our technology presents the first smoke extraction unit focusing exclusively on the dermatology and plastics market. Dermatologists frequently undertake procedures using electrosurgical and ablative laser devices that generate a cloud of surgical smoke, and there is increasing evidence showing it can pose harm to both patients and staff. Our system is designed with a number of innovative features to minimise exposure to these toxic smoke plumes.

Over to our last big stop of the year, it was a pleasure to join the @ABHI UK Pavilion at this year’s @medica-trade-fair in Germany. Known at the world’s largest medical trade show, the event offers a truly unrivalled platform to meet global distributors, partners and customers all under one roof.

With a worldwide sustainability agenda growing, we have seen growing demand, from various parts of the world, for repairs to expensive devices such as Power Tools and Rigid Endoscopes. It was great to participate in this year’s show to showcase how we can help hospitals worldwide achieve greater sustainability and deliver better patient care. Medical waste is a huge burden to the environment, and we are proud to offer an environmentally friendly, cost saving alternative.

We had a team of 5 at this year’s show – with two members of our sales team manning the fantastic new look SH stand, meeting customers, both old and new from across 25 countries! We had numerous, productive meetings with current partners Symmetry Surgical and others, discussing the exciting plans for next year.

Overall, it’s been great to hit the ground running with this year’s exciting programme of activities, both in the UK and abroad. The events we’ve attended this year have been a great opportunity to meet with partners old and new, and there really is nothing quite like being back, face to face, to demonstrate how our solutions can support hospitals worldwide. We’ve had a total of 170 new leads across all the shows, so it’s been great to be back in full swing, and we look forward to another promising year ahead!

As part of our drive to help the hospitals worldwide cut their carbon footprint, Surgical Holdings have introduced an expert Smart Repair service covering a range of surgical instruments, including rigid endoscopes and orthopaedic power tools. Using the latest optical technology, we repair scopes back to the manufacturer’s specification, with all parts having full traceability, and compliance with regulations. Find out more at: https://www.surgicalholdings.co.uk/