Additional riser recliner chairs are needed on the elderly care wards in order to be able to sit patients out of bed on a daily basis. Elderly patients lose 2.5% of their strength a day with bed rest and 10 days bed rest is equivalent to 10 years ageing. In addition, bed rest can lead to chest and urinary tract infections, pressure sores and falls. Getting patients out of bed improves their quality of life, independence and dignity and is essential to getting patients home. A number of these patients on these wards need more than the standard ward chairs due to weakness, pain and/ or confusion.  A recent hospital audit has highlighted the need to purchase six more riser recliner chairs to ensure all patients can sit out of bed regularly.  This would ensure we meet the Chief Nursing Officer’s ‘gold standard’ of sitting all patients out of bed every day, while also helping to reduce their length of stay.

We are also committed to funding a tilt table rehabilitation chair for patients on intensive care who can become very weak and their weakened muscles mean they can lose the ability to sit, stand and walk.

Physiotherapists are very involved in helping patients strengthen their muscles after their critical illness. This involves teaching and practicing sitting, standing and walking with the patients. This specialist rehabilitation chair enables the patients to transfer out of bed in a flat position and then sit and then stand after their life threatening illness. This rehabilitation is essential to promote a sense of wellbeing, improve muscle strength and muscle function.  Using one piece of equipment to achieve standing will enhance a patient’s recovery and promote quicker muscle strength.  The hope is that by acquiring this specialist chair, the recovery for many intensive care patients can be accelerated, so they are back home sooner.