Mobility retailer secures deal with Yorkshire Ambulance Service to help people get back on their feet
Yorkshire Care Equipment has supplied Yorkshire Ambulance Service (YAS) with over 50 Raizer emergency lifting chairs that are now being used by first responders, falls teams and care homes in the Sheffield area.
Forming part of a new joint project between YAS and NHS Sheffield Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) to get people who have fallen back on their feet as soon as possible, the Raizer chairs will provide staff with appropriate lifting equipment to offer residents an improved experience.
Yorkshire Ambulance Service responds to nearly 800,000 emergencies every year, with around 10 percent of these related to people who have fallen. Many of these calls come from care homes, where staff are either physically unable to lift the person back to their feet or are unable to do so because of lack of training and access to the required equipment.
With falls costing the NHS an estimated £2.3 billion per year and widely acknowledged as being one of the costliest problems in the healthcare sector, the Raizer offers NHS Trusts, ambulance services and care homes a cost-effective and portable solution.
Capable of being assembled around someone that has fallen by a single carer, who can then begin lifting the individual back to either a seated or standing position, the Raizer enables a carer to maintain eye contact and communication with the fallen person during the lifting process.
Karen Owens, Director of Urgent Care and Integration at Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust, said: “Feedback from the care home staff and residents in the project described the Raizer chair as something which will help staff move people safely and with dignity and will give staff the confidence to assess injury prior to making the decision to moving someone.
“We very much appreciate the collaborative working and funding provided by the CCG on this project.”
Steve Ellis, Yorkshire Care’s Raizer Specialist, said: “When we worked with YAS last year, we knew that the Raizer could make a real difference to the level of care they were providing. Even when I’ve carried out training with their staff, you can see how much more confident the staff feel when they know they have a device that will genuinely improve the quality of care they provide.”
The results from the use of Raizers in the new joint project will be shared with other ambulance services, some of which are also trialling the equipment.
At the end of 2018, Yorkshire Care Equipment and Raizer’s Danish manufacturer LiftUp agreed on an expansion of the company’s exclusive distribution area after the Yorkshire-based mobility retailer secured several major Raizer contract wins with NHS Trusts across the North of England and Scotland.
See the Raizer in action:
