Hospital patients and staff benefit from 400 new electric bed frames

Heather Wardle, Ward Manager; Nuala O’Brien, Equipment Coordinator; Teresa Dykes; Hannah Hyman, Staff Nurse

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The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust has purchased 400 new electric profiling bed frames to replace old non-electric bed frames.

The new bed frames can be electrically adjusted to suit patient needs and comfort, which will reduce the risk of patient falls and patients developing bed sores (pressure ulcers).

Nurses, healthcare support workers and other professionals on the wards will be able to raise, tilt and lower the beds electronically, reducing the risk of them suffering strains and other injuries. Previously this could only be done by use of a foot pump on some beds.

The Innov8 iQ bed frames were purchased from Sidhil following recommendation from the national Patient Safety Executive. The Trust spent £490,000 of charitable funds purchasing the new bed frames. Having the new bed frames will reduce the cost of maintaining older bed frames.

The new beds will now be rolled out across the Trust, which runs and manages North Manchester General Hospital, The Royal Oldham Hospital, Fairfield General Hospital in Bury, and Rochdale Infirmary.

As part of the roll out plan, which commences in March, staff including nurses, midwives, health care support workers, allied health professionals and doctors, will be fully trained on how to use the electric profiling bed frames.

197 bed frames will go to North Manchester, 14 to The Royal Oldham Hospital, Rochdale Infirmary will get 56, and 126 will go to Fairfield General Hospital. The Trust now has a full complement of electric bed frames across its hospitals. In total the Trust has 1,467 beds at its hospitals.

Kimberley Salmon Jamieson, Deputy Chief Nurse at The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust said: “This is excellent news for our patients and staff, and supports our ‘Raising the Bar on Quality’ campaign. The new bed frames will give increased patient independence and reduce the risk of skin pressure damage. They will also lessen the risk of work related injury for staff and increase staff satisfaction in the working environment.

"As the hospital population is becoming older and increasingly frail, we have a duty to provide the very best equipment to manage our patients’ complex and ever changing needs.”