davieG Posted 31 December 2012 Posted 31 December 2012 Merc Two new super-size hospital beds have been bought to cope with obese patients. The beds, which cost £16,000, are strong enough to take the weight of someone weighing up to 60 stone. ​ Bosses at Leicester's hospitals said the beds are among a number of items of specialist equipment needed to cater for overweight patients. Andy Lewitt, manual handling advisor at the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, said: "The beds are not just stronger, but we are also able to expand the width. "However, it is not just about weight but also about how capable a patient is. "An increasing problem is that we are finding that more of our patients are just too wide for the standard beds, which take a weight of up to 30 stone." As well as beds, the trust is having to buy wider chairs. It now has a stock of 40 chairs with 28 in-wide seats which can accommodate someone weighing up to 40 stone. This compares to the average chair, which is 22 ins wide and can take up to 23 stone. The chairs also have special padding to prevent patients from developing pressure sores. In addition, the trust has 48 commodes, which cost £120 each and can take someone weighing up to 60 stone. There is also a dedicated operating theatre equipped with specialist tools which might be needed." Mr Lewitt said: "We have been monitoring the need for heavy duty equipment since about 2006. We have certainly seen a lot more use of the equipment and this usage is climbing every year and has really taken off in about the past five years. "The equipment is in use most days. We used to hire in things such as beds but more and more are looking to buy. "It gives us the flexibility to transfer it between wards and the three hospitals as needed." In the past six years the trust has spent about £78,000 on the specialist furniture, known as bariatric equipment, and includes two extra-large wheelchairs at each of the city's three hospitals. Mr Lewitt said: "This is saving on about £100,000 which we were paying a year on renting equipment. "You could spend millions and I would always like more equipment, but I am confident that the vast majority of patients' needs are accommodated with what we have at the moment. "In some instances it might mean, with a very big person, that their bed takes up more than one space and that can make them even more conscious about their weight. "We don't want them to feel they are causing a big problem. "We have never had a case where we can't find equipment to keep them safe." A spokesman for East Midlands Ambulance Service (Emas) said two vehicles capable of carrying obese patients are based in Leicestershire. He said all new ambulance vehicles are also capable of taking a stretcher for very heavy patients and which allow extra width, but Emas is waiting for these to be supplied.
Parafox Posted 31 December 2012 Posted 31 December 2012 "We have never had a case where we can't find equipment to keep them safe." A spokesman for East Midlands Ambulance Service (Emas) said two vehicles capable of carrying obese patients are based in Leicestershire. He said all new ambulance vehicles are also capable of taking a stretcher for very heavy patients and which allow extra width, but Emas is waiting for these to be supplied. Typical. What it doesn't say is that very obese patients often can't walk into an ambulance or get out of the house. We would have to physically lift them and move them on a small two wheeled carrying chair. It's not funny.
z-layrex Posted 31 December 2012 Posted 31 December 2012 Typical. What it doesn't say is that very obese patients often can't walk into an ambulance or get out of the house. We would have to physically lift them and move them on a small two wheeled carrying chair. It's not funny. I stopped working all my shifts on ITU because I just couldn't stand looking after morbidly obese people every day any more, it's ****ing disgusting. They abuse themselves for years and years and then everyone's upset when they're so sick they need critical care. Plus my back was killing me from constantly rolling/hoisting people who weigh over 25 stone.
Parafox Posted 31 December 2012 Posted 31 December 2012 I stopped working all my shifts on ITU because I just couldn't stand looking after morbidly obese people every day any more, it's ****ing disgusting. They abuse themselves for years and years and then everyone's upset when they're so sick they need critical care. Plus my back was killing me from constantly rolling/hoisting people who weigh over 25 stone. You'll know what I mean when I say doing CPR on the obese really is like pushing on a bag of sh1t. I would say 90% of the people we see are overweight and of them about 25% are very obese. If they arrest in the home they have no chance of survival.
Webbo Posted 31 December 2012 Posted 31 December 2012 Must be nice working in a caring profession. :xmasunsure:
Parafox Posted 31 December 2012 Posted 31 December 2012 Must be nice working in a caring profession. :xmasunsure: We do care. And we do our best for these people at some risk to ourselves. There is a knock-on effect for many more people than just the patients. Facts are facts, if someone is morbidly obese then they have almost zero chance of surviving a cardiac arrest in the community. Not to mention diabetes and it's incumbent problems, liver and kidney disease, hypertension... Morbidly... the clue is in the word.
Finnegan Posted 31 December 2012 Posted 31 December 2012 Not everyone who's obese is large because they're a slob, though. For people with severe physical disabilities with limited to no mobility it's pretty much impossible to burn off calories. My mother used to be a skinny little thing you could lift one handed but since losing most bodily movement she's ballooned in size and is now a real chore to move. Granted there may also be a lot of considerably lazy, greedy people who've eaten themselves in to a mess but you're going to need to budget for the equipment to deal with cumbersome patients regardless.
Parafox Posted 31 December 2012 Posted 31 December 2012 Not everyone who's obese is large because they're a slob, though. For people with severe physical disabilities with limited to no mobility it's pretty much impossible to burn off calories. My mother used to be a skinny little thing you could lift one handed but since losing most bodily movement she's ballooned in size and is now a real chore to move. Granted there may also be a lot of considerably lazy, greedy people who've eaten themselves in to a mess but you're going to need to budget for the equipment to deal with cumbersome patients regardless. Agreed. My own mother is unable to walk yet still weighs 8 stone thanks to careful eating and dietary control. For healthcare workers, though, it's not about budgeting for equipment, whilst I agree the need is there for these beds, it's about the day to day moving and handling problems that are a result of obesity. If you had to lift a bag of cement weighing 25stone you'd get a hoist. We don't have hoists in ambulances. In nursing care a very obese patient is at risk of pressure sores and needs to be turned regularly as well as having their personal hygiene requirements seen to. The only practical way of doing that is physically moving them. It's gonna knacker your back doing that several times a day.
Smudge Posted 31 December 2012 Posted 31 December 2012 Agreed. My own mother is unable to walk yet still weighs 8 stone thanks to careful eating and dietary control. For healthcare workers, though, it's not about budgeting for equipment, whilst I agree the need is there for these beds, it's about the day to day moving and handling problems that are a result of obesity. If you had to lift a bag of cement weighing 25stone you'd get a hoist. We don't have hoists in ambulances. In nursing care a very obese patient is at risk of pressure sores and needs to be turned regularly as well as having their personal hygiene requirements seen to. The only practical way of doing that is physically moving them. It's gonna knacker your back doing that several times a day. I would have thought it was all about budgeting for equipment; beds that rotate patients are available now, albeit at a price. If you can winch a car onto a truck, it's not beyond the wit of man to devise a similar arrangement for a stretcher on wheels.
Parafox Posted 31 December 2012 Posted 31 December 2012 I would have thought it was all about budgeting for equipment; beds that rotate patients are available now, albeit at a price. If you can winch a car onto a truck, it's not beyond the wit of man to devise a similar arrangement for a stretcher on wheels. I didn't mean hospitals shouldn't budget for the right equipment and we do have winches on ambulances to heave the stretcher up the ramp but we have no means of getting the patient onto the stretcher first unless they can transfer themselves.
Smudge Posted 31 December 2012 Posted 31 December 2012 I didn't mean hospitals shouldn't budget for the right equipment and we do have winches on ambulances to heave the stretcher up the ramp but we have no means of getting the patient onto the stretcher first unless they can transfer themselves. Sorry if I seem less than empathetic to your situation I didn't mean it to come over that way, I'm sure you do the best you can with what you have. I was just commenting on the fact that as the population gets bigger, you guys need the resources to get the job done. Having suffered with back problems all my adult life I wouldn't wish that on anyone. I was reading this and can't figure out how a fat person could fit on it.
Parafox Posted 31 December 2012 Posted 31 December 2012 Sorry if I seem less than empathetic to your situation I didn't mean it to come over that way, I'm sure you do the best you can with what you have. I was just commenting on the fact that as the population gets bigger, you guys need the resources to get the job done. Having suffered with back problems all my adult life I wouldn't wish that on anyone. I was reading this and can't figure out how a fat person could fit on it. They dont always fit on that type of trolley. It can take the weight but the extra bulk will hang over the sides, so to speak. We have 2 specialist vehicles which have wider stretchers on. Newer ambulances are coming equipped with the kit the article mentions but (I'm not trying to be obstructive) the patients still weigh the same and still have to be manouvered onto the chair/stretcher.
Parafox Posted 31 December 2012 Posted 31 December 2012 Anyway, the general thing is, more people are becoming more obese and it's gonna cost us money
Bryn Posted 31 December 2012 Posted 31 December 2012 The issue of obesity needs to be tackled urgently at every level, from the education in the young to stop them getting into that state, through to organising how much is paid in benefits to people who, generally through their own actions, cannot contribute to society, to providing the care the extra weight requires. Measures need to be in place to stop people getting to this stage, but in the meantime these resources are simply essential.
MooseBreath Posted 1 January 2013 Posted 1 January 2013 Why can't they just lie on the floor? They have more than enough natural cushioning surely
ADK Posted 1 January 2013 Posted 1 January 2013 Is there a point to this or are we supposed to say how much we hate fat people?
Rincewind Posted 1 January 2013 Posted 1 January 2013 Same as all type of people I treat them as individuals. I don't think you should say all obese people are tthat way because of their own doing but there will always be those that look at things in black and white and sterotype.
Julian Joachim Jr Shabadoo Posted 2 January 2013 Posted 2 January 2013 This reminds me of a show I saw once called "F**k off I'm Fat", where some portly chap (Hevver's boyfriend off of Eastendahs) was trying to get a council to replace all public toilets with some mega-expensive American-imported toilets over-engineered to cater for ultra-fat bastards. I don't think anything came about it, but as a person with self-control of average weight and average wage I can't help but think taking large sums of public money to pay for the needs of the self-inflicted morbidly obese is something to get pissed off about. Smokers and drinkers are taxed through the arsehole, why aren't McDonalds "locals"? It's not a disease; what you do when you start putting on weight is think about eating less, and exercising even a slight amount.
Rincewind Posted 2 January 2013 Posted 2 January 2013 Another expert tells us how it is. Thank you for spending so much time on your research.
acooling08 Posted 2 January 2013 Posted 2 January 2013 Do we hate anorexics too? Do they require expensive taxpayer-funded beds? I do, by the way, agree that it is necessary to have a few of these for the disabled. But for all the fat lazy fvcks out there who have eaten themselves into such a state and can barely stand up, just die please and stop being a drain on money and resources, thank you.
Webbo Posted 2 January 2013 Posted 2 January 2013 But for all the fat lazy fvcks out there who have eaten themselves into such a state and can barely stand up, just die please and stop being a drain on money and resources, thank you. What about all keep fit fanatics who live well into their 90s? If they died 20 years earlier they'd save us a fortune.
acooling08 Posted 2 January 2013 Posted 2 January 2013 What about all keep fit fanatics who live well into their 90s? If they died 20 years earlier they'd save us a fortune. You can't blame somebody for having a healthy lifestyle, and surely a keep-fit fanatic will require much less medical care throughout their lives?
Webbo Posted 2 January 2013 Posted 2 January 2013 You can't blame somebody for having a healthy lifestyle, and surely a keep-fit fanatic will require much less medical care throughout their lives? Apart from new hips and knee joints caused by jogging and the extra 20 year's worth of pensions.
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