Storage space in hospitals, particularly older buildings, is limited.
But hospital beds are always in demand, being required at any time of the day or night.
Rules state that every UK hospital is required to hold a particular quantity of hospital beds relating to the population it serves.
And, with a rapidly-increasing population, it is inevitable that the number required will soon exceed the storage space available within a hospital, if it hasn’t already.
This forces managers to store beds in any available space, usually corridors, under stairs in specialist bed storage or maintenance rooms, or even outside at the mercy of the elements.
Storing such vital equipment in this way causes huge health and safety issues by obstructing busy corridors which endure a high level of footfall or where patients or visitors can be waiting.
And hospital porters are faced with having to search for beds which could be on any floor or in any corridor of sometimes very-large hospital buildings, with high-value critical care bed particularly vulnerable to damage.
And basic exit routes and fire escapes are often compromised, with the potential for disaster only too apparent.
But UK-based Medescon has a simple answer.
The company is the exclusive UK distributor of Vidir, a Canadian manufacturer and global supplier of automated storage solutions.
With over 800 installations across North America, its innovative, vertical bed storage solution has been supplied and installed in the UK and Ireland by Medescon since 2016 and is helping to solve the storage problem.
The automated bedlift system enables up to five hospital beds to be stored vertically, one on top of the other, in the footprint of a single bed, reducing overall storage requirements by up to 80% and enabling routine bed maintenance to be carried out safely and efficiently.
The beds are kept clean, safe, and ready to use, with staff able to access them at the push of a button, eliminating the risk of manual handling injuries, while ensuring the corridors are kept free of obstructions and assisting fire officers to maintain health and safety standards.
And the positive feedback from installations among UK trusts was recently rewarded with a nomination in the East Midlands Building Excellence Awards 2019.
And Vidir continues to improve the product based on feedback from healthcare clients.