History

Hendrik van Roon, an instrument maker, opens a workshop in Leiden repairing beds and stretchers for the city’s hospitals.

The first bed of Van Roon’s own design: an adjustable ward bed with a crank-operated backrest.

Van Roon moves to a purpose-built factory and starts making beds for hospitals across the Netherlands.

The VR-1, Van Roon’s first intensive-care bed, with hydraulic height adjustment and a radiolucent backrest.

The VR-2, the first electrically adjusted VR bed.

Van Roon joins an international medical technology group, which brings investment in electronics and in exports.

The VR-3, the first VR bed with an electronic controller, an integrated scale and a battery.

Van Roon Medical UK is founded in Leeds to sell the VR-3 in the United Kingdom.

The first VR-3 beds are installed in Ireland. Engineers based in Ireland follow in 2003.

The VR-5, for high-dependency units and acute wards.

The VR-F1 foam mattress, the first Van Roon support surface.

The second-generation VR-5, on a new controller platform shared with the beds that follow it.

The VR-7 intensive-care bed is introduced in Leiden. It reaches the UK and Ireland in May 2019.

Van Roon Medical UK moves to its own office and service centre at Tarnfield Way, Morley.

The VR-A4 active mattress, controlled from the VR-7’s footboard panel.

The VR-7 XW, for patients up to 270 kg.

Thirty years in the UK. Lithium-ion battery packs replace lead-acid across the range.