Now NHS bosses are handing out an £83,000 contract – to test the slipperiness of floors in hospitals and surgeries!
Now NHS bosses are handing out an £83,000 contract – to test the slipperiness of floors in hospitals and surgeries!
- NHS Lanarkshire wants to test floors in 60 properties using a ‘pendulum test’: a mechanical foot with a rubber sole
- The device measures ‘slip potential and fall risk on walking surfaces’ – and health bosses say the test is ‘essential’
HEALTH bosses are spending more than £83,000 to test how slippery their hospital floors are.
NHS Lanarkshire plans to award a 36-month contract to carry out the ‘essential’ work to an external company.
The testing will take place in the sixty hospitals and GP practices using the ‘pendulum test’: a swinging mechanical foot with a rubber sole that measures the ‘slip potential and risk of falls on walking surfaces’.
It comes just months after the board admitted that ‘relentless pressure, bed shortages and staff shortages’ are ‘putting those in need of critical care at serious risk’.
Yesterday was the opening day for companies looking to submit an interest – the same day the board published an alert on social media stating:
‘Our emergency department in Lanarkshire remains extremely busy with long waiting times.
Testing will take place in the 60 hospitals and GP practices using the ‘pendulum test’ to measure ‘slip potential and fall risk on walking surfaces’.
They remain open, but we urge anyone planning to do so to consider other alternatives unless their condition is life-threatening.”
The board said it was a “recommendation” from health care technical leadership that “the slip resistance levels of floors be monitored.”
Colin Lauder, director of planning, property and performance at NHS Lanarkshire, said: ‘Floors should be tested in higher risk areas such as wet areas, theatres, hospital entrances and any other area where it is recognized that there is a potential risk. danger to staff, visitors or patients and especially to our elderly population.’
He stressed that NHS Lanarkshire continues to ‘balance the demands of maintaining an aging estate against budgetary constraints’. But he added: ‘These are essential tests that we need to carry out and will be paid for from our existing budget.’
Last year, Judith Park, the board’s director of acute services, told how the three acute hospitals had been operating ‘beyond full capacity’ while facing ‘relentless pressure, bed shortages and staff shortages’.
She stressed at the time that “the wait is seriously endangering those in need of critical care.”