Hospitals, clinics, GP practices and other facilities throughout Wales have deployed a new fleet of 30 Mercedes-Benz vans.
The vehicles have been procured by NHS Wales Health Courier Services (HCS), the specialist transport department for the country’s health services and a division of NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership (NWSSP), which provides a comprehensive range of support functions and services for all of NHS Wales.
Supplied by South Wales Dealer Euro Commercials, most of the new vans are long-bodied Vito 114 BlueTECs, of which three are fitted with blue lights for emergency assignments.
The line-up also includes three small Citan 109 CDIs, two of which also have blue lights, and eight larger Sprinter 314 CDIs – a pair of vans and six box-bodied chassis cabs with tail-lifts. Underlining NWSSP’s commitment to securing best value, the Sprinters were all pre-owned and acquired through the Mercedes-Benz Approved Used programme.
Tony Chatfield, NWSSP’s head of operations – health courier service, explained: “As a publicly-funded body we adhere to a robust tendering and acquisition process, and have consistently found over the years that Mercedes-Benz vehicles offer a combination of outstanding reliability and highly competitive whole life operating costs.”
The van fleet has additionally been fitted for the first time with removable Euroengel compressor refrigeration containers supplied by German specialist Eberspacher and its Swindon-based partner DBS. As a result, NWSSP is able to provide a fully-compliant, temperature-controlled environment for clinical pathology and pharmacy consignments without having to commission full vehicle conversions.
