Being admitted to Hāwera hospital just got that much more comfortable for patients thanks to the purchase of 20 new beds.
Even better, the beds are made in New Plymouth, coming from Taranaki medical bed designer and manufacturer Howard Wright’s M9 range, Stephanie Besseling, interim South Taranaki rural health manager, said.
“The new beds include 10 beds for inpatient wards, five M9 transfer stretchers for the Emergency Department, and five trauma stretchers with radiolucent decks for full length X-ray imaging.”
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This means patients will not have to be moved between beds if they need an X-ray.
“That’s good for the patient. Imagine if you come in with a broken leg, you won’t like being moved to another bed,” she said.
It would also help staff make patients comfortable without lifting them, as the beds have full electric controls that can be adjusted to a range of heights and positions, from lying flat to sitting up with legs raised.
Although the hospital could not disclose how much the new beds had cost, Besseling said they will replace “manually operated patient beds and stretchers that have seen more than 20 years’ service”.
“The first five have arrived for our emergency department, and the remaining 15 are being delivered by the end of September.
Howard Wright chief executive Bruce Moller said the useful life for a hospital bed was normally 10 years.
“We’re really thrilled they’ve had 20 years of use out of them. We like to think if the design is good, the quality is good. That’s a good amount of sustainability. The longevity is good for the planet.”
The technology in the new beds was a huge improvement on the old ones, he said.
“There’s probably a lot of little differences between the products of 20 years ago and today, particularly improved safety standards. Current beds have to meet safety standards that didn’t exist 20 years ago.”