The Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) in Glasgow provides a critical service within NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde’s city-wide healthcare offering. It sits in a modern 22-bed facility equipped with advanced equipment, and is staffed by over 150 highly skilled medical professionals including nurses, doctors (Intensivists), allied health professionals (Pharmacists, Dieticians, Physiotherapists), auxiliary nursing and housekeeping staff.
Since 2007, the PICU service has actually been nationally commissioned by the National Services Division (NSD) of NHS Scotland. This allows them to deliver critical care for children right across Scotland, offering both general and specialised intensive care services, including a dedicated specialist transport service. That is why we were honoured to be able to help them with a fleet of brand hospital beds, when new regulations deemed their existing ones unusable.
You can find out more about the impressive PICU healthcare facility on their website: www.picu.scot.
The Challenge
Glasgow’s Paediatric Intensive Care Unit was faced with an urgent and significant challenge when new BS EN 50637:2017 bed rail standards were put in place. The existing adult bed regulations (to which most medical beds are CE marked), did not adequately cover the requirements for children and young adults. The new standards were implemented to ensure safety for these smaller patients, who were at higher risk of being trapped in medical beds and cots.
This meant PICU in Glasgow could no longer use their existing paediatric hospital beds, as they were non compliant! To make matters worse, most beds on the market still needed to be adjusted, and their certification updated to make them compliant with the MHRA.
The new regulations require there to be specific gaps between the frame, base, head and foot sections of the new beds. They also require the split side rails to be no more than 60mm. You can find out more about the new bed rail regulations by reading our blog article here: Bed Side Rail Regulations (UK)
The Solution
Thankfully, there was a single European-made product available on the UK market that was not just compliant, but leading in terms of technology and quality – The CubCare Paediatric Hospital Bed!
The CubCare is a great example of an advanced paediatric bed for acute environments. The bed sides are clear Perspex and BS EN 50637:2017 compliant, giving visibility to the patient and also the carers. They are electrically height adjustable, so can be lowered for easy accessibility.
This dynamic lengthening bed is adjustable from 160 to 200cm, making it suitable for use by patients of a much wider age and size range. It also has an adjustable motorised back section, femoral section, leg section, height column, and can be put into Trendelenburg and Reverse Trendelenburg positions.
An integrated weighing system is another feature of the CubCare. This system is equipped with advanced features for precise weight measurement and management, all presented on a 10.1″ HD touch screen with a wide 160° viewing angle.
Learn More About The CubCare Hospital Bed
The Result
The team of healthcare professionals at the PICU unit in Glasgow were thrilled to find a bed that was compliant, as well as being a top quality European made product! Not only that, the new beds were also going to offer much easier monitoring of patients with Perspex sides, and better care overall with the range of technologically advanced adjustment and weighing features.
You can see how pleased they were on delivery day by looking at the smiles on their faces!
