TEAM MEDICAL SUPPLIES
ANSWERING CRITICAL NEED Team Medical Supplies (TMS) is driven by the goal of helping those who need it by delivering healthcare consumables and equipment to medical institutions across the vast footprint of Australia. We speak to the company’s executive team to learn more Writer: Marcus Kääpä | Project Manager: Callam Waller COVID-19 has forced everyone to adapt, and although parts have been challenging, the pandemic has allowed us the opportunity of anticipating industry needs and acting accordingly.” Team Medical Supplies (TMS) is one of Australia’s top medical consumables and equipment suppliers for medical centres. They also provide a wide variety of medical accessories, pharmaceuticals, surgical instruments and more to medical institutions across the country. For Marijke Vriens, founder and Creative Director of the company – and orator of the opening statement – the onset of COVID-19 has allowed TMS to show its client base what it can achieve. “We saw the logistical Marijke challenges posed by the Vriens pandemic before they were properly apparent, and as such, we were prepared to combat these issues effectively for our customers,” she 132 | APAC Outlook issue 52
explains. “Operating in Australia is always challenging because you must cover vast distances when delivering goods. You can’t really compare it to Europe, where you can effectively transport a package from Portugal to Finland with ease. In Australia, transporting medical items such as vaccines, that require a consistent cold storage environment, becomes a task in itself. “With already challenging distances, trying storage requirements and then those further issues caused by COVID19 – namely restrictions and the shortage of PPE across Australia – we had foreseen the need to change its operation to suit a new environment.” Since the onset of the pandemic, TMS has been answering the demands of the high-pressure and concerning period through supplying rapid antigen tests and more to medical facilities across the nation. In the face of an uncertain future
and opposed to the conservative choice of reducing operations as to see what was to come next, the company took pre-emptive action to invest in securing stock early on during the pandemic. This played to TMS’ advantage when it came round to facilitating institutions and the spike in demand for medical stock; a service that made the company stand out from its competitors in the space and amplified TMS’ name as a reliable partner in the healthcare logistics sector.
