The UMC 2.0 design was conceived by architects with over 30 years of experience in space planning and medical projects. Since mobile clinic size directly impacts capital costs and operating costs, finding compact design solutions became a major consideration in the realization of the UMC mobile clinic initiative. Integrated design solutions were developed to combine the built-in furniture and the various storage compartments and electrical and mechanical systems into compact space planning solutions. Volumes normally requiring full-size buses were reduced and optimized to fit into volumes the size of long vans or minibuses.
Why choose a mobile clinic in a trailer format rather than retrofitting a long van or minibus?
There are several advantages to operating a mobile clinic that is separate from a motor vehicle:
A mobile clinic in a trailer format can be towed by a standard four-wheel drive vehicle equipped with a trailer hitch.
The mobile clinic trailer can be unhitched and parked while the staff are free to come and go in their independent towing vehicle.
When the towing vehicle is disabled or reaches its service life, the mobile clinic trailer can simply be hitched to another towing vehicle.
In the event that the mobile clinic trailer gets stuck in poor road conditions, it can be unhitched from the towing vehicle, allowing the towing vehicle to leave.
The trailer enclosure can be made of stainless steel and therefore would have a long service life.
The support structure for the mobile clinic would be a galvanized steel trailer chassis frame and therefore it would have a long service life. When parts of this chassis reach the end of their service life, they could be replaced by new ones without having to dismantle the entire clinic with all of its parts. This is very beneficial in the long term compared to mobile clinics contained inside motor vehicles, because those clinics have to be completely dismantled and re-built when the motor vehicle reaches the end of its service life.
The trailer enclosure can be custom built to the required dimensions, therefore if additional width, length and height are needed, this can be done. If uneven road conditions are expected,
A step-by-step production and deployment strategy
Once capital costs, operating budgets, staffing and training are confirmed in the destination regions, the following strategy can be considered:
To make maximum use of the expertise that has been developed for the UMC modular system, one UMC 2.0 mobile clinic can be built using the current facilities in Montreal, Canada. This mobile clinic can then be shipped to the destination country to be used in a pilot project.
If the results of the pilot project are positive, arrangements can be made to source the nearest qualified vehicle outfitter to see how more mobile clinics can be built in the destination country using the first UMC 2.0 mobile clinic as a model to set production and assembly standards.
Depending on the destination region, finding a facility that can economically fabricate the lightweight aluminum built-in modules may be more difficult. Therefore, one possible scenario is to fabricate the aluminum modules in the current Canadian facilities and to ship them to the destination country for assembly in locally sourced trailer enclosures.
The interior of the mobile clinic is divided into three zones
The UMC modular design system consists of modules for three zones: the assessment and counseling zone, the service zone and the examination and treatment zone. If a particular project requires toilet facilities, the mobile clinic can be built longer to accommodate this. Two activities can occur simultaneously in the assessment and examination zones, with a staff member in each area. Various compartments are designed to fit an array of medical equipment and pharmaceutical supplies.