Teal HealthCare were celebrating this week after a joint project with Facilities and Security staff at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust won an award at the prestigious Health Business Awards in London, following an innovative project to secure patients’ valuables while in hospital.
The Trust worked with Teal to further develop the current Affiniti patient bedside locker and design a secure storage system that is the first of its kind in the country. Patient feedback in the national PLACE and NHS England surveys had shown secure provision at bedside for the security of valuables while inpatients on hospital wards was a priority.
The project scooped the top award in the ‘Hospital Security’ category at the Health Business Awards in London on 29th November 2016 which recognises excellence in NHS facilities and was presented to them by media medical personality, Dr Sarah Jarvis.
Working with key stakeholders at the Trust, the Teal team headed by Design and Development Manager Craig Ferguson designed a special drawer in the patient’s bedside locker that can only be locked and unlocked using an ID wristband. The wristband is programmed by staff on a patient’s arrival on the ward ensuring they can safely store their personal belongings during their stay if they choose, and is fully compliant with infection control procedures.
Following a successful pilot scheme on a number of wards at the Royal Blackburn Hospital, the new lockers were rolled out across 11 wards late last year. A further eight wards at Burnley General Hospital (174 Lockers) are now also set to benefit from this new technology, with plans to extend the scheme to all wards and community hospital sites in the near future.
Jed Morris, Security and Governance Manager at the Trust, said: “We are very pleased to have won this award having worked extremely hard on innovation for our patients using our Hospital services. We really wanted to improve the patient experience and environment for patients to ensure they feel confident in the security of their belongings during their stay if they chose to hold their valuables at their bedside. This is a relatively simple system to use for the patients, yet ingenious scheme that so far has reduced loss and generated some really positive feedback from our patients.”