COMPLIANCE THOMAS OWENS – MANAGING DIRECTOR, ESSENTIAL HEALTHCARE SOLUTIONS, UK


Rethinking equipment safety in paediatric care


Thomas Owens, managing director of Essential Healthcare Solutions, explains why, when it comes to paediatric care, healthcare providers must move beyond tick-box compliance and implement smart solutions that enhance patient outcomes.


With over 363,000 children waiting for consultant-led paediatric care in England in 2024 alone, timely access to care remains a pressing challenge for the NHS. But beyond waiting lists, a quieter risk persists – outdated or non-compliant medical equipment still widely used in children’s wards across many Trusts; a hidden threat to safety that often goes unaddressed.


Much of the medical equipment still in


use today was originally designed with the average adult in mind. Standard hospital bed frames, for instance, are typically only certified as safe for patients over 146 cm in height and weighing more than 40 kg. This leaves thousands of children and smaller adults with atypical anatomy exposed to a serious compliance gap that introduces entrapment, ligature, and falls risks which are all avoidable harms in a modern healthcare system. Knowing this, we believe that raising


safety standards in paediatric care relies on making smart, futureproof choices in the technology and equipment made available to hospitals – to reduce clinical risk, improve workflows, and give NHS staff tools that work with them, not against them. It is also important to understand the pressures that EBME (Electronics and Biomedical Engineering) teams face and how a holistic approach needs to be taken by service providers to truly make a difference.


The hidden danger of non-compliant beds The industry took a step forward to address non-compliancy in 2017 with the introduction of EN 50637:2017 – the first European safety standard specifically designed to address the risks posed to children and smaller adults in hospital beds. It marked a significant evolution in medical bed safety, but implementation remains inconsistent. The EN standard addresses design requirements to reduce entrapment,


IFHE DIGEST 2026


Equipping staff with smarter, safer technology is essential


Thomas Owens


Thomas Owens is managing director and owner of Essential Healthcare Solutions, a UK-based medical device manufacturer specialising in


strangulation, and falls, specifying critical features like bed length, side rail height, and control accessibility. Exposure of the standard across hospitals has been limited due to challenges the NHS has faced such as covid. However, following on from the NPSA released in August 2023, trusts have now had time to assess their assets and plan accordingly to ensure compliance. Nevertheless, many settings


advanced pressure area care technology. With decades of experience working alongside NHS Trusts, he is a recognised advocate for


evidence-based innovation, long-term value in procurement, and sustainable healthcare solutions that improve patient outcomes.


still use adult beds for paediatric patients, sometimes with improvised add-ons or locked handsets to reach the EN standard. These fixes might tick a box on paper but they do not meet the spirit of the


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