TUESDAY 17 DECEMBER, 2019

Photograph attached: L-R Dr Michael Donald, Consultant in Emergency and Retrieval Medicine, Gary Flynn, Biomedical Technologist, Dr Julia Faerber, Clinical Engineer, Duncan Kirkcaldy Mechanical D&D Team leader, Ian Rutherford Mechanical Engineering Technician, William Lambie Senior Charge Nurse ED.

NHS Tayside Clinical Engineering Team Scoops National Awards

NHS Tayside’s Clinical Engineering team has picked up two prestigious national awards at the Scottish Health and Social Care Facilities Conference for the development of a ground-breaking trauma trolley.

The awards, hosted by Health Facilities Scotland, are intended to encourage and acknowledge professional excellence across the wide range of topics covered by facilities staff in NHSScotland.

The team picked up the NHSScotland Facilities Innovation Award and the Paul Taylor Award for the best overall submission for the development of the Tayside Intra-Hospital Patient Transport Trolley.

The innovative trolley was developed to improve the ergonomics of intra-hospital patient transfer of critically unwell or injured patients and to reduce time to care. The trolley also improves the safety of porters during internal hospital transport of patients.

The judges highly commended this project for its potential to save lives and be replicated across all emergency care facilities across NHSScotland. The judges were also impressed by the positive impact on critically unwell or injured patients and the reduction in time fetching or preparing equipment.

Jean Ngoie, Head of Instrumentation & Clinical Engineering at NHS Tayside said, “I am so proud of this dedicated team of professionals. At the request of one of the Emergency Department Consultants, the team came together and produced a very useful tool that I believe is needed for every trauma centre in the country.

“It is very emotional for many of us that spend time in the background to make sure patient outcome is a success. But that not many people are aware of what we do and who we are. It is such a privilege to be able to work in a multidisciplinary team with so much to offer to our community in Tayside and beyond.”

Dr Michael Donald, Consultant in Emergency and Retrieval Medicine with NHS Tayside said, “Moving patients on life support from the Emergency Department to where they need to be in the hospital, whether for further investigations, the operating theatre or the intensive care unit is a high-risk undertaking.

“It is essential that the level of care does not fall during this period. The elegant design solution that Jean and his team have developed and built and that we have now tested, enhances patient safety enormously and will allow staff to focus on delivering seamless high quality care whilst the patient is in transit.”

Contact:
NHS Tayside Communications
(01382) 740720