The Environmental Health Department of Corby Borough Council Required a Vehicle Converted to Perform Basic Health Checks on Local Residents.
The Brief
We were contacted by the Health Improvement Manager from the Environmental Health department of Corby Borough Council, who required a 12 month hire of a vehicle configured to perform basic health checks on local residents.
The vehicle needed to be hired on a self-drive basis and converted to collect data.
We were asked to provide a converted vehicle which, among other things, was low cost, available for self-drive, quiet, configured for basic health checks, could collect and output data, could be used on evenings as a youth outreach vehicle.
Other concerns were that it was a safe environment for both staff and visitors and access remote and difficult to reach locations.
The Response
We decided upon a rigid 28ft HGV unit as the vehicle of choice and developed layout plans of the unit’s interior which included the following
Kitchen area for Healthy Eating Campaign, Networked Computer System for data collection and Information delivery, 32″ LCD Screen connected to computer, laptop and Xbox 360, Waiting and Examination area
In addition, the vehicle needed to be silent when in operation i.e., no noisy generators and be totally self-sufficient especially for the data collection aspect i.e., no reliance on mobile broadband internet access
The Result
Silent Operation: Taking into account that the vehicle carried a mix of computers, TVs, monitors and kitchen equipment including a microwave and water urn. our solution was to incorporate a large bank of “Leisure Batteries” these connected to 2 Inverters which in turn connected to the 2 ring main wiring circuits. This system allowed the vehicle to operate for a minimum of 8hrs without a re-charge. In the event that the vehicle was expected to operate for longer periods we provided a supplementary 2kw portable generator with soundproof box to plug in to the vehicles re-charge system.
Data Collection & Information Delivery: We developed a self-contained Intranet, with the vehicle running its own server system including web server, our technical staff, developed a bespoke web-based data collection system for the vehicle, which not only provided the basic health check data collection system but also provided individual client reports (both printed and in PDF format) and statistical analysis of all the data collected.
With these problems solved our next problem was to deliver the vehicle fully wrapped and equipped to Corby for the launch of the service, this being 5 weeks from the order date, a tall order considering we estimated a minimum of 8 weeks to build the unit. Always up for a challenge we set to work at full speed and managed to deliver the vehicle, with 4 hrs to spare, in time for the publicity launch.
