Charity funds pay for new piece of equipment

The Raizer lifting chair is a piece of equipment that can be used if any patient collapses onto the ground. The small and portable kit fits together to create an electrical device that can lift any patient up to 150kg off the floor and it’s relatively straightforward for staff to operate.

Staff place the patient flat on the floor and then get them to raise their knees so the ‘seat’ part of the device can be inserted underneath them. Two back rests, one on either side, are then fitted into the device, along with ‘legs’ and the patient is strapped in with an airline-type seatbelt. Then the remote control is activated and the device raises the patient up from the ground into a sitting position so they can then be transferred into a wheelchair

Until recently staff had to go to the first floor of the hospital to find the Raizer device – meaning a delay for any outpatient who needed it. Now, thanks to around £4,000 funding from our James Paget Hospital Charity’s ‘Where it is most needed’ fund the outpatients teams on the ground floor, including surgical, orthopaedics, Ear Nose and Throat, and our eye clinic now have easy access to the device which can be quickly transported on its trolley.

Charge Nurse Michael Ashton, who demonstrated the use of the chair with Maxine, our Charity Co-ordinator posing as a collapsed patient, said the device was already proving valuable.

“A few months ago we had a patient collapse and, after going to find the chair on the first floor, we managed to raise the patient from the ground. I thought it was really useful and wondered how we could get funding to get one of our own for the outpatients departments on the ground floor. I spoke with Maxine and we managed to secure charitable funds to purchase our own device. Within days of getting this we used it twice to assist patients who had collapsed. It makes raising them so much easier and safer, so it is really helpful.”

Our charity maintains a fund so that any team or department can apply for money for equipment and things that support patient care – and it’s thanks to generous donations to this fund that money is directed to where it is most needed.