The “Union des Hôpitaux pour les Achats” (UniHA), a public hospital purchasing cooperative, has signed a framework agreement with Cegelec Défense Mobile Technical Units (VINCI Energies) to provide hospitals and ambulance services with mobile healthcare units. Under the agreement, up to 20 units should be supplied between 2022 and 2026.

The 68m² units can be heated, air conditioned, deployed in one hour by four operators, customised and transported by air. These multi-purpose clinics are used to deliver care on disaster sites, organise vaccination campaigns or strengthen the capacity of an existing hospital like during the Covid-19 crisis.

Furthermore, disaster medicine professionals are looking for new solutions to respond to the growing chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) threat. Cegelec Défense has therefore developed a mobile decontamination unit in the event of CBRN threats for SAMU 31, an ambulance service in south-western France. The first prototype, which can be deployed in under an hour, required close cooperation between Cegelec Défense teams and healthcare personnel (doctors, nurses and paramedics) and was delivered in March 2021. It enables 150 victims to be treated per hour and 8 decontamination corridors to be set up in cases of industrial accidents or as part of anti-terrorism measures.

A second mobile decontamination unit was finalised in 2022. This versatile solution includes a training room, since the need to prepare first responders for exceptional health situations is so critical, and 5 decontamination corridors.