The Friends of St Mary’s Hospital have come to the aid of both bariatric patients and the hospital porters who have to transport them, by purchasing an extra-wide electric-powered wheelchair.
Costing £5,165, the wheelchair’s 2ft 6″ seat is around a foot wider than the traditional wheelchairs in use, all non-electric.
Simon Laughton, the hospital’s hotel services senior supervisor, explained that on most days porters had to take bariatric patients up the 1-in-6 sloping long corridor on the unpowered wheelchairs, from the wards or Accident and Emergency:
“Normal wheelchairs are not wide enough to be comfortable for a lot of patients, resulting in a few being stuck in the seats. They then have the embarrassment of having to be pulled out.
“This clearly does not comply with our privacy and dignity policy, and our approach to patient experience.”
This policy was further undermined at times when his department felt obliged to employ two porters or a bed-pull machine to take the wheelchair up the slope.
Another important consideration, said Simon, was the need to ensure the porters’ Health and Safety at Work was not compromised. The porters could often suffer back ache and one had a triple heart bypass operation.
The wait for the delivery of the electric-powered wheelchair had been unusually long because, while the electric chair itself was built in Bristol, it then had to be sent to Belgium to have the engine fitted.
Photographed: Simon Laughton pictured with Friends volunteer Rosemary Denham
