Patients over 15 stones banned from hospital beds due to safety fears

[dipsydoodle]

A hospital has banned patients who weigh more than 15 stones from using beds in an emergency ward.

Health chiefs at Dr Gray's in Elgin were forced to impose on the order after meeting with the Grampian Fire and Rescue Service (GFRS) who said the evacuation system was a danger for overweight patients.

The section affected is Acute Medical Assessment Unit and the Rehab unit – formerly known as ward 10.

Margaret Watt, chairperson of Scotland Patients' Association said: "I've never heard anything like this before and it is totally unacceptable.

"The ban is actually against the patients' human rights and civil liberties and they can quite easily launch legal action if it means their treatment is hampered.

http://news.stv.tv/north/209736-patients-over-15-stone-banned-from-hospital-beds-due-to-safety-fears/

Sounds a bit OTT but I'm not sure anything can be pursued against H & S rulings.

[hlthe2b]

1. Is that not 210 pounds?

Large, but hardly unusual for a very tall male and not particularly unusual in our current culture for an overweight female.

[dipsydoodle]

4. If thats what 15 x 14 is then yes.

Indeed hardly large. I'm not sure of the background to this. My only knowledge of limits is with regard to those truly obese who the ambulance service refuse to carry - health and safety issue. I also know there are weight limits on Nhs CRT scanners.

[woodsprite]

2. That's approx 210 lbs - so in the US that means that even football players couldn't get a bed. n/t

[DreamGypsy]

3. That's pretty crazy... 15 stones is 210 lbs.

I have a friend who is a nurse. She has discussed the problems of caring for extremely obese people - using lifts to get them out of bed, manipulating them for treatments, etc ... but 210 pounds is does not generally describe an obese person, much less extremely obese.

Perhaps there is some problem with the layout of this particular clinic that is concerning the Fire and Rescue People...steep stairs, limited access,...something.

[newfie11]

5. I remember trying to do an upper GI on a 500 pound woman

This was 25 years ago in MI. She was brought down in her bed on the freight elevator.
We could not use CT because of the weight and the X-ray table would not move.
We could not get a diagnostic picture at all and had to give up.

It was very sad and we felt helpless.

But anyway my point was her bed supported her at 500 lbs. what's wrong with the UK's. hospital beds.

[dipsydoodle]

8. I think the issue is evacuation : not the beds

Thats the only reason I can think of that the fire brigade are involved.

[Warpy]

9. When I went into nursing in the early 80s

a 300 pound patient was utterly remarkable. I clearly remember the first one, moved on the freight elevator and weighed on the linen scales downstairs. Nice guy, too, just huge and the hospital didn't have the equipment to cope with him.

Fast forward 20 years and there were several 300 pounders on every single floor. Patients that huge were commonplace.

No wonder my back is trashed.

In any case, it's obvious to me that something besides fast food and cars are at work and have been for some decades. I wish medical science would tune out the moralists and try to find out exactly what that is.

[hlthe2b]

11. re: "I wish medical science would tune out the moralists and try to find out exactly what that is"

I could not agree more.

The data showing the real differnces in fructose verus glucose impacts on metabolism, insulin release, and ultimately appetite and obesity are piling up. Yet, if I hear one more poorly informed person--even other epidemiologists and related medical researchers-- state there is no difference--"sugar is sugar" and further the old tome, calories in equals calories out and that's all that is involved, I am going to lose it.

I keep remembering how long we waited for the dogmatic few to release our understanding of what causes gastric ulcers (after overwhelming evidence of the role of H. pylori) and try to hold onto hope that eventually we will open up to really trying to understand the issues of what is causing our obesity epidemic--ALL the causes.

[intaglio]

6. In this case it has little to do with the hospital

and more to do with fire safety regs. it is likely that at least one evacuation route cannot handle the specialist beds or chairs needed for high body mass patients. Treatment will still be given, just not on that ward

[Warpy]

7. Then they'd better order new equipment

210 is not that far out of the question for a middle aged male of medium weight.

Now if they'd put it up at 25 stone, they'd have a definite point. ER gurneys are unsafe for anyone that weight. They tend to crack and groan rather alarmingly.

ETA: If emergency evacuation is the reason, perhaps they need to focus on patient mobility rather than patient size. I've known a few people in the mid 200s who were highly mobile and little birdie people of 130 who were not.

[muriel_volestrangler]

10. It's being used (temporarily) as an emergency ward

I'd imagine the question is whether they can evacuate unconscious, or bed-bound, patients, via multiple exits. Perhaps the problem is there's only one entrance through which full-size gurneys can be moved, and the other door(s) would mean the patients being carried in some form (steps?)