Helping the NHS Achieve its Long Term Plan

The NHS Long Term Plan was published in 2019, setting out the main priorities for the NHS over the next 10 years and making sure it is fit for the future. The following content outlines how Vivid Care are supporting the NHS with this plan.

The Long Term Plan is set out into different sections, and so we will bring you through each one individually, explaining how we are working to support the achievement of the goals outlined in each.

Vivid Care are assisting in boosting out-of-hospital care by:

• Providing beds and specialist seating to virtual wards.
• Supporting community care by supplying equipment packages to care homes, such as to the North East Lincolnshire Authority, funded by the Workforce Retention Fund.

Speeding up hospital discharge by:

• Partnering with local authorities and Integrated Care Systems to speed up hospital discharges and relieve pressure on hospital beds. Our work with Derbyshire NHS Foundation Trust enabled bariatric patients to rehabilitate quicker with enhanced features in our Lento Bariatric chairs, and prevent medical deconditioning.
• Speeding up physiotherapy treatments with the StairTrainer.

Reducing pressure on A&E by:

• Supplying beds and specialist seating to new Urgent Treatment Centres (UTCs) in the community.
• Facilitating ‘same day emergency care’ with patient transit chairs such as the Mobile Day Surgery Chair.

Reducing avoidable admissions by:

• Providing seating with digital technology to enable treatment at home, such as our Infusion Therapy chair with inbuilt weight scales and remote data reading.

Our detailed sustainability plan articulates our vision to become carbon-neutral by 2045, and how we will deliver this mission:

• Reduce, reuse, recycle
• Sourcing renewable energy supplies
• Bulk purchase from domestic suppliers to reduce transport miles
• Made In Britain certification
• Switch company fleet to electric and hybrid vehicles
• Utilise video-conferencing for product demos wherever possible to reduce our CO2 impact

Advancing cancer detection and treatment:

• Improving process flow for mammography wards with assistive seating, to manage increasing volumes due to the NHS’s campaign encouraging more people to come forward for screening
• Providing access to Assistive seating for chemotherapy patients and other infusion treatments, maximising comfort, pressure relief, and tech-friendly accessories.

Improving stroke care:

• Stroke is the 4th biggest cause of premature death in the UK – Vivid Care provide seating designed for stroke care wards, such as our Lento Care Chairs and Lento Riser Recliners that help patients to rehabilitate faster, with extra features to support them as they undergo treatment.  We have also launched a chair specifically for the care of patients with neurological conditions, including those affected by a stroke – the Lento Neuro is a comfortable and “cocooning” seating solution, providing unmatched comfort, adjustability, and stability.
• Out-of-hospital provision for stroke patients needs improving, and our community seating range has all the features required for good stroke care.

Redesigning other health services for children and young people:

• Making sure families get better care is reflected in our equipment range that covers all age groups.
• We have our own paediatric range including the Little Lento and CubCare Paediatric Bed, to improve critical care provision for children.

Better community care:

• Providing better community care equipment is key to helping people stay in their homes and not in hospital
• The NHS are driving research & development to improve future health outcomes, which we are supporting with the Healthcare Pioneers Board, a new panel of healthcare experts that has come together to foster new innovations and ideas.

Workforce education and training:

• The NHS plans to increase investment in CPD (Continuing Professional Development) over the next 5 years. Our accredited CPD programme supplements professional learning for NHS staff.
• Our additional resources such as webinars and blog articles help clinicians keep abreast of the latest healthcare developments

Improving staff welfare and efficiencies:

• As reported by the ‘Smarter Workforce Practices’ survey, 42% of respondents had not implemented new working practices to gain efficiencies.
• Treatment-specific seating such as mammography and X-ray chairs have been designed to improve operating efficiencies, and prevent staff musculo-skeletal disorders, with their ergonomic design.

Enabling single-handed care and flexible rostering:

• Our standardised seating caters for a more flexible workforce with simpler configurations and less training required.
• Our products promote single-handed care and reduced physical workload.

Driving efficiencies and productivity:

• The NHS will continue to drive financial efficiencies by eliminating waste, duplication and bureaucracy.  Procurement departments have also recognised that savings can be made by standardising specifications.
• Our standardised seating range reduces waste, as parts are modular and can be swapped between chairs
• 82% of doctors agree that joining up primary and secondary care services will reduce waste

Cutting expenditure and driving down unit costs:

• Overstretched ambulance services can be relieved with domiciliary falls solutions such as HipGuard.
• Our rehabilitation seating, proven to speed up hospital discharge and reduce bed blocking, frees up bed spaces to create a financial and hospital capacity ‘dividend’.
• Improving accuracy and turnaround times on scans with our radiography seating makes the best use of the expanding workforce and reduces unit costs.