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Box of tricks takes surgery into the sticks

• 29 October 2005
• Michael Day
• Magazine issue

FOR people living in remote areas of the developing world, the nearest hospital can be hundreds of miles away, making access to even the most basic of surgery impossible. But if the people can't come to the hospital, why not take the operating theatre to them?

That's the thinking behind a solar-powered "hospital in a box", which can fit in the back of a Land Rover and has been designed to allow a team of three surgeons to carry out life-saving operations almost anywhere in the world.

The system, developed by a team of doctors and technicians from the UK's National Health Service, comprises two small boxes that unfold to provide an operating table, equipment holder, lighting, anaesthesia and monitors, plus a plastic tent to provide a clean environment for surgery.

To be squeezed into just two boxes, the kit contains only the basic instruments needed to carry out general ...