About Us
The Home Of Oxford Hoist
Over 70 Years Experience In Patient Handling
Oxford is one of the best-known names in patient handling and rehabilitation products. With a heritage dating back to the 1950s, Oxford is characterised by a stream of leading designs and innovative products.
A market leading brand, Oxford strives to bring innovation to patient lifts and support services in the home care, extended care and acute care markets. We have an extensive network of authorised distributors who can supply, service and maintain your fleet of patient lifts. Oxford is also a trusted supplier of patient handling products for the NHS.
Oxford is a part of Prism Healthcare, a leading integrated solutions provider dedicated to transforming lives in the paediatric, home, and long-term care sectors. As a collection of companies including Prism Medical UK, Harvest Healthcare, Smirthwaite, Repose and HME Training, Prism Healthcare offer a comprehensive range of products and services designed to enhance care quality, improve well-being, and ultimately transform lives. Click here to learn more about Prism Healthcare.
Company History
Back in the 1950s in Oxfordshire, England, an engineer, John Payne successfully commercialised the first mobile patient hoist. Working with Dr Ritchie Russell from the Headington Hill Hospital, he had improved an existing bed hoist system which used counterbalanced weights to assist nurses in the lifting and transferring of World War Two veterans.
After installing the first wall-mounted patient lift at Headington Hall in 1954, the first ‘Oxford’ mobile patient hoist was commercialised and launched onto the general market in 1955. It was sold directly through F.J. Payne. The brand name ‘Oxford’ was chosen because of the rich tradition of medical research and development concentrated in the Oxford region.
After the launch of Oxford’s first patient lift in 1955, many more new products followed. In the years that followed, they helped to position Oxford as a leading brand in patient handling products.
Following a short collaboration, F. J. Payne sold Oxford to Parker Bath in 1989.
In 1996, Sunrise Medical acquired the Oxford brand from Parker Bath and began manufacturing Oxford patient hoists in the West Midlands. Sunrise Medical continued to build on the Oxford brand and launched several leading lifts, including the famous Mini, Midi, Major and Maxi patient hoists.
Then in 2007, a global re-organisation within Sunrise Medical led to the launch of a new separate company, Oxford Healthcare. With operations in the United States, the UK, Canada and the Netherlands, the Oxford Healthcare business focused primarily on the long-term care sector.
In 2024, the Oxford brand and Oxford Healthcare’s UK business became part of the Prism Healthcare Group, a leading integrated solutions provider with a product portfolio including equipment for safe patient handling, bathing, accessibility, speciality seating and pressure area care.
Official Partner of Acorns Children’s Hospice
Providing care, support, fun and laughter for children with life limiting or life threatening conditions and their families.
Established in 1988, Acorns Children’s Hospice Trust is a registered charity offering a network of care for life limited and life threatened babies, children and young people and their families, across the heart of England.
Acorns provide tailored nursing care for each child, including short breaks, emergency and end of life care at each of their three hospices located in Birmingham, Worcester and Walsall.
In July 2011 as part of an ongoing commitment to corporate and social responsibility, a long-term partnership agreement was signed to support Acorns in a variety of ways including:
- Donation of patient handling equipment to fulfil moving and handling needs
- Manual handling training provided by Oxford staff and/or clinical professionals
- Fund-raising activities to contribute vital funds, ensuring Acorns’ continued service
This particular agreement marked a first for Acorns in that they had never had a healthcare related partner on board. The synergies were immediately obvious and we bring something quite different to the table; the provision of much needed moving and handling equipment along with the associated training.
To find out more about the invaluable facilities and support Acorns provide for children, young people and their families click here to visit their website.
R & D / Production
Oxford is committed to the design, development and distribution of innovative products that both meet and exceed our customer’s expectations. We strive to deliver solutions that make a difference to the lives of our customers, their families and care-givers.
We can accomplish this by:
- Working directly with clinical professionals to understand the challenges associated with providing quality care.
- Utilising the group’s R&D expertise to manage the product development process and deliver best in class designs and functionality.
- Exploiting our extensive in-house design, development and product testing capabilities alongside our market expertise to ensure the delivery of high quality products and services.
- Working closely with our supply chain partners to ensure that our customers receive the best product, in the required lead time, at the right price.