COMMENT COVER STORY Advertising feature


Vertical bed storage system wins ‘Best Furniture & Fixtures Product’ award


IHEEM


Medescon, which has helped hospitals with their bed storage issues since 2015, was awarded the ‘Best Furniture & Fixtures Product 2022’ award at December’s Building Better Healthcare Awards 2022.


Rachael Pickering, Medescon’s head of Operations, said: “I hoped my entry would grab the judges’ attention, as I know just how valuable the bed lift solution is. There is no other product that can save floor space and protect hospital beds and staff like the Vidir Bedlift Stacker. It was a proud moment to go and collect the award.” Medescon is the exclusive UK distributor for Vidir Inc, a global manufacturer of automated storage solutions. The Vidir vertical stacking solution was originally designed to store all-terrain vehicles and snowmobiles. Vidir recognised issues that hospital engineers face daily: particularly the need to ensure that hospital corridors are clutter-free, and to be able to store hospital beds in a safe, robust, and reliable central storage area. The prevention of injuries to hospital porters, and fast, efficient access to clean, well-maintained beds, are additional benefits.


Medescon said: “Hospital bed storage facilities are often not given the required space, or indeed designed with winter surges, or the number of hospital beds a Trust owns and rents in mind, resulting in numerous broken and forgotten-about beds standing in


February 2023 Volume 77 Number 2 www.iheem.org.uk


JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF HEALTHCARE ENGINEERING AND ESTATE MANAGEMENT


Opportunities for battery storage


Microgrids and battery energy storage in focus Smart buildings’ role in enhancing efficiency Making Finnish healthcare more sustainable


www.healthestatejournal.com x1 FC HEJ Feb23.indd 1 20/01/2023 11:32


corridors. Having a central area where these beds can be safely and efficiently maintained and stored is a considerable benefit.”


The bed stackers are designed to vertically store three, four, or five beds in the footprint of one, with optional charging to ensure readiness for immediate use. The available headroom and room shape determine the configuration of the bed lift installable. Both end and side-entry models are available for standard or bariatric beds and trolleys. A single five-bed high end-entry unit can save up to 9.4 m2 of floorspace (equating to approx. £36,000-£45,000 in construction costs).


Medescon added: “Not only can using a bed stacker see premium floorspace claimed back, but up to one hour of porters’ time can be saved. Equally, increases in the space available to Estates or Maintenance teams, improved workflow, potentially reduced patient waiting times, and fewer manual handling injuries, plus more space for clinical care, are all key benefits.”


Medescon Ltd 19 Gaddesby Lane Rearsby


Leicester LE7 4YJ T: 0116 4780 007 www.medescon.com


Rising energy prices have put energy procurement and the resilience of healthcare facilities ever more in the spotlight. On pages 41-43, Jonathan Dobing, an Electrical Design engineer at Mott MacDonald, discusses his research as part of a Master’s degree in Building Services Engineering to understand the challenges the NHS faces to improve its electrical resilience. His main focus is on the advantages of, and indeed the obstacles to, wider take-up of microgrids, with a particular emphasis on battery storage technology. Fundamentally, he explains, a true microgrid incorporates generating sources (e.g., solar PV, small wind turbines, and mini-hydro) and sinks (final loads and storage devices i.e., superconducting magnetic energy storage and batteries) under local control, and can be grid- connected, operated independently from the grid, or ‘islanded’. In an interesting piece, he explains that the current biggest barriers to microgrids’ wider implementation include the initial design and installation costs, and the need for significant space on oſten constrained NHS sites for the required infrastructure. He hopes this research will contribute to greater understanding of microgrid technologies, and is seeking readers’ views on the topic through a survey accessible via a QR code within his article. One of the two IFHE articles this month, by


three personnel at Australian STEM consultancy, VA Sciences, focuses on the ‘electrification’ of hospitals, and the particular challenges of ‘de- gassing’ an acute hospital in the Central Business District of Victoria. Te authors point out that one of the biggest challenges with sizeable hospitals is their energy density; compared with a commercial office, they can require three to four times the energy per square metre, ‘making the opportunities for on-site renewable generation extremely limited’. Tis ‘IFHE’ issue also looks ahead to June’s 10th


European Conference on Healthcare Engineering in Paris (pages 16-17), where much of the focus will be on energy, decarbonisation, and sustainability. With an impressive speaker line-up, delegates will be able to hear from senior and highly experienced engineering, architectural and estate management personnel from some of Europe’s most advanced healthcare facilities – on subjects ranging from hospital design to how to improve knowledge-sharing between EFM teams. Te latter’s importance was strongly highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic, when many hospitals faced oxygen supply challenges.


Jonathan Baillie,


Editor jonathanbaillie@ stepcomms.com


February 2023 Health Estate Journal 5


health estate journal


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