Sigvaris Group Britain has recently become a member of the British Healthcare Trades Association (BHTA). It is a medical compression therapy firm offering a wide range of innovative products to cater for different needs and indications.
BHTA recently caught up with Emma Deakin, General Manager of Sigvaris Group Britain, to find out more about the company, the importance of aligning to the BHTA’s professional standards, and its plans for the future.
BHTA: How did you start at Sigvaris Group Britain?
Emma: “My whole career has been in healthcare, originally an accident and emergency specialist nurse. I then moved to stoma care and took the leap to what used to be known in the NHS as the ‘dark side’ into industry over 20 years ago. I have enjoyed roles across clinical, sales, marketing, management, and at board level in medical devices.
“I have joined Sigvaris drawn by the true people culture combined with a desire and drive to offer high-quality innovative products. Sigvaris Britain has huge potential; we have an expert team locally and globally, able to drive the UK position of Sigvaris Britain to one of market leadership.”
BHTA: What is Sigvaris Group Britain?
Emma: “Sigvaris Group is 100 percent family-owned since it was founded in 1864 in Winterthur by Moritz Ganzoni-Sträuli and his associate Niklaus Barthelts. From 1958 to 1960, the company collaborated with the phlebologist Dr. Karl Sigg and developed a medical compression stocking to improve venous function and relieve venous-related conditions.
“Today, Sigvaris Group is committed to helping people feel their best with high-quality and innovative offerings in medical compression therapy. Every day. Worldwide. Our portfolio caters to a wide range of different needs and indications.
“With headquarters in Switzerland, we operate our own production plants in Switzerland, France, Poland, the US and Brazil. We are close to our customers, having subsidiaries in Germany, Austria, England, Italy, Canada, China, Australia, Mexico and a branch in the United Arab Emirates as well as distributors in more than 70 countries on all continents. We combine Swiss heritage with local craftsmanship.
“At Sigvaris Group Britain, we are proud to be celebrating our 30th year of operating in Great Britain.
“We are renowned for making exceptional products that combine advance technology and quality craftsmanship with diverse styles that fit modern lives.
“With the new Style Patterns range, this is no exception. Smooth seams reduce the friction against the limb and the lower compression offers containment of tissues to reduce oedema and pain in legs, thereby easing the discomfort people experience, which in turn improves mobility.
“Style Patterns offers contemporary, comfortable hosiery for everyday wear for mild to moderate lipoedema and lymphoedema. With a choice of three patterns, Polka Dot, Chequered and Mosaic in below knee, thigh high and tights, customers’ compression stockings can be that bit more fashionable.”
BHTA: What are Sigvaris Group Britain’s plans for the future?
Emma: “Sigvaris Britain is increasing its clinical resource. Due to the success of its highly valuable educational programmes, digital solutions are a priority area, with several new technologies and products due to be launched in the near future, supporting health care professionals in delivering a quality service and ensuring patients receive the most suitable products and support for them.”
BHTA: Why did Sigvaris Group Britain decide to become a BHTA member?
Emma: “I have worked in previous organisations who have benefitted from being a BHTA member. There are benefits for our employees as well as our customers in having the assurance we are aligned to an industry body and their professional standards and access to additional knowledge and resources ensuring we are always providing the most professional service to all of our customers aligned to the latest policies.”
BHTA: How can the BHTA help your business with any challenges that you’re currently facing?
Emma: “Some challenges relating to modern slavery and CRP requirements for tender as we don’t have dedicated GB resource in these areas. BHTA can offer guidance and support on how best to address and fulfil requirements.”
BHTA: What upcoming BHTA events are you looking forward to or planning to attend?
Emma: “We will be attending as many section meetings as possible to maintain industry changes and opportunities knowledge and build a strong network, while working together with industry partners to ensure compression products remain available, accessible and continually innovating, ensuring they fulfil the needs of all customers.”
To find out more about how the BHTA can support your business and how to become a BHTA member, visit this page.
Specialist posture and pressure care management seating firm Tri-Chair recently became a member of the British Healthcare Trades Association (BHTA).
Since then, BHTA caught up with Shaun McCluskey, Managing Director at Tri-Chair, to find out more about the firm, how its specialist seating modularity grows with user’s changing needs and facilitates cost-effective refurbishment, and why it decided to become a BHTA member.
Tri-Chair was developed by Channel Healthcare, which is a team of experienced, knowledgeable, and enthusiastic independent seating consultants.
Channel Healthcare’s aim is to provide a timely, needs-based, and cost-effective solution to specialist seating challenges while exceeding customer expectations.
Tri-Chair’s goal is to make life easier for those tasked with equipment provision.
There are three specialist seating solutions available from Tri-Chair: Tri-Chair One, Tri-Chair Two, and Tri-Chair Three. They have different design and configuration options, but all models are underpinned by Tri-Chair’s chair frame.
Each option evolves and adapts to an individual’s needs as conditions progress or as users change. This modularity reduces the cost of specialist seating provision, enabling equipment loan stores to refurbish and reallocate a chair to a new user at a fraction of the cost of buying new.
Shaun McCluskey, Managing Director at Tri-Chair, explained: “Tri-Chair is a new modular range of specialist seating built on decades of experience within the industry. We aim to make life easier for those tasked with equipment provision. The Tri-Chair has the potential to evolve and adapt to an individual’s needs as conditions progress or indeed as users change.
“We are working with several highly experienced distributors across the UK and offer a next-day despatch to ensure clients’ needs are met before they potentially change.”
Recycling of a Tri-Chair to a new user has a number of potential benefits not only to the efficiency of equipment provision by the loan store, but to the effectiveness of occupational therapy community service, to the user who is in urgent need of postural support and pressure management, or the hospital discharge team looking to release beds.
Having readily available a specialist chair that is suitable for those that are ambulant yet require some posture and pressure care through to those with complex sitting postures following some simple adaptations is highly important.
The intuitive design of the Tri-Chair makes the adaptations and adjustments straightforward for store engineers to undertake without the need to hold exhaustive amounts of costly stock.
Furthermore, Tri-Chair’s adaptability enables it to be recycled to new users thereby extending the product’s lifecycle, minimising waste, and helping to reduce the carbon footprint of stores. Even in this small way, the Tri-Chair is contributing to a greener planet.
Shaun continued: “I spoke to Andrew Stevenson, former chair of BHTA three years ago about our dream of having a truly modular range of specialist seating that would help the likes of NRS, Millbrook, Medequip and independently operated equipment loan stores provide the very best service to every client.
“Three years later we our very proud of what we have created and the feedback from our customers has been fantastic. We are offering the range of modular seating via a network of trusted distributors across the UK and also have export customers already taking on the range. We bring passion, pride and knowledge back to the specialist seating industry along with good old fashioned customer service which for many seems to have slipped over recent years.”
Discussing the decision to become a BHTA member and what he would like the association to do more of going forwards, Shaun said: “I wanted to become a BHTA member as I feel the association helps bring likeminded companies together to help focus on driving our industry forward.
“We have supported the BHTA through several businesses through the years and feel proud to be a member.
“I’d love to see more training for members and found the pressure care awareness course ran some years ago to be one of the most informative and worthwhile courses I’ve attended.”
“We feel that the specialist seating industry has been stale for over 10 years with very little to get excited about,” Shaun explained. “Tri-Chair won the Innovation Award at the Occupational Therapy Show during the recent launch and have further developed since.
“We have just launched a new negative leg rest that provides 33 degrees of negative angle which is a first and will help a large number of clients that have developed tight contractures through Covid times.
“Our products will be constantly evolving ensuring we are the leading provider and will bring the passion and customer support that seems to have fell by the wayside in recent years.”
Tri-Chair is currently looking for experienced distributors in some areas of the UK. Interested parties should get in touch with Shaun at Shaun@trichair.co.uk.
To find out more about how the BHTA can support your business and how to become a BHTA member, visit this page.