A HEREFORD firm has partnered with a Welsh doctor to create a revolutionary medical aid which has been snapped up by the NHS and could "vastly improve" the lives of up to 90,000 patients across the country.

The duomed soft 2easy marks a medical breakthrough in compression wear and comes as a result of a unique collaboration between Hereford-based medical supplier medi UK and Dr Robert Lister of Wrexham Maelor Hospital.

Dr Lister said noticed a "worrying" trend amongst patients failing to wear the compression devices needed to manage vascular conditions and chronic oedema.

Talking to patients, many elderly, he found that a big issue was that the compressive nature of the standard one-piece garments supplied made them very difficult to put on or take off, especially for those who struggled to bend down or had dexterity issues.

In response, Dr Lister took matters into his own hands by inventing a two-piece system which can be more simply manoeuvred over a patient’s foot, thereby making application and removal much easier.

Four years later, the patented duomed soft 2easy product has been developed and fast-tracked to market by medi UK and received NHS backing.

Andy Holman, business development manager at medi UK, based in Plough Lane, said: “Here at medi UK, we believe that fostering a startup spirit is important no matter how large and successful your business – which is why we always go to such great lengths to nurture innovation and new ideas amongst the medical community.

“From the offset, we knew that Dr Lister’s concept was an incredibly innovative one which could revolutionise the ease of compression wear and drastically improve the quality of life for thousands of people across the country living with these types of conditions.

"We are therefore incredibly proud to have been able to help get it over the line and to the market so quickly and look forward to its mainstream adoption.”

medi UK said as many as 90,000 people in the UK are required to wear compression wear to manage a variety of medical conditions, typically for life.