Increasing space at Borders General Hospital

Published: 19-Jun-2018

When Borders General Hospital needed to increase space and streamline storage in its operating theatre preparation rooms, anaesthetic rooms and sterile services unit, the Estates and Facilities team knew it could count on healthcare materials management specialist Medstor to provide the perfect design and equipment package

Medstor has had a long and extremely positive relationship with the hospital and over the last eight years has provided storage solutions across the whole site, as well as working with several other smaller outlying satellite healthcare facilities for which the hospital’s Estates and Facilities team is responsible, including Jedburgh Medical Practice and Hay Lodge Hospital in Peebles.

Since the operating theatres were in use throughout the day, much of the work had to be carried out at night with theatres ready for normal operation again the following day. Medstor achieved this thanks to the unfailing support of the hospital, with the Estates and Facilities team ensuring all areas were cleared and ready when the Medstor delivery vehicles arrived and even delivering items directly to the theatre areas, reducing installation time considerably and allowing tight deadlines to be met.

They key issue for the theatres at Borders General Hospital was how to make the most of the space available so essential items could be stored safely and accessed easily by clinicians when needed. Medstor’s project manager worked closely with the hospital team, headed up by Colin Thomson and Jed Mather, to put together a layout for the prep and anaesthetic rooms that featured wall units and base units with worktops, ensuring both floor and wall space was used to its full potential.

Medstor cabinets and worktops are all complaint with the requirements of HTM-71, employing sleek, ergonomic design and high quality materials to not only facilitate the highest level of organisation but also aid infection control. The cabinets eliminate stock outs and ensure items can be easily located while the worktops, which have a hygienic laminate finish and a slimline profile, turn any area into a clean, functional working environment.

Borders General Hospital

Borders General Hospital

The storage solutions Medstor provided for Borders General Hospital are typical of the highly effective products it designs for healthcare facilities throughout the world. Every element of each racking system or cabinet has beautifully simple, clean, sleek lines that not only complement the theatre or ward design but offer increased storage capacity, better cost efficiency through improved stock control, and dramatically enhanced infection control.

In addition to the prep and anaesthetic rooms, Medstor was also asked to refurbish the small sterile services unit serving the theatres, which over time had become extremely crowded. The unit is used for the sterile packs prepared by the CSSD or ASDU that contain the instruments required during surgery.

Medstor is an official distributor of the popular Metro Top-Track mobile system, designed to maximise storage within limited floor space and increase capacity by up to 50%, making it the ideal solution for this difficult area. The packs are enclosed in a sterile wrapper, but any tears in the packs mean the contents have to be resterilised or discarded, resulting in the delay or even cancellation of an operation. The smooth, snag-fee construction of Metro Top-track’s polymer shelving ensures even the heaviest packs can be stored safely, ready for use when needed. The shelving operates on a floor-mounted track system, so can be moved easily around the clean area, reducing handling and the accompanying risk of compromising equipment. Just one person is needed to adjust shelf height and configuration, making it a flexible solution that can be modified as needed.

At Borders General Hospital, Metro Top-Track created an extra 16 linear metres of safe, effective storage space, transforming the cramped storeroom and complementing the Medstor system. Donald Sands, Manager of the ASDU, said: “I’m very happy with the results, it’s even better than I had imagined. The new shelving has given us loads more storage space!”

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