OpeMed Blog

A recent incident in a UK Care Home involving a resident …’dangling from a hoist after the sling slipped from its hooks…’ culminated in a fatality. A tragic accident and an avoidable occurrence that gives us all in this industry reason for inward reflection on the most important features of a Ceiling Hoist – Safety and Security.

As Hoist Manufacturers, it is with the crucial ‘bigger picture’ view that we can analyse situations of this type and apply knowledge gleaned from years in the industry to help prevent a repeat of such accidents. Specifically, in this case, those involving Hoist spreader bars and secure sling attachment.

It’s that time of year again!

A time for recognition and reflection. Changing Places Awareness Day, the brainchild of Aveso to boost the profile and periphery of the campaign, has come back around for its third annual occurrence. Thursday July 19^th is the official day to celebrate the leaps made by the campaign in the 12 years since its inception and to continue to promote and raise awareness for it.

There are now over 1100 toilets in the UK – pretty impressive! But everyone weighing in on the Awareness Day and egging on the momentum will know that we can do so much better and continue to do so. But it takes people, it takes understanding and that is what this Thursday is all about.

Ryan Box Changing Places in Crawley County Mall has been voted to have the Best Sign-Posted Changing Places.

Changing Places Toilets have been Changing Lives since 2006 and 12 years on, it’s great to see that there are more than 1,100 facilities in the UK. However, with over 1/4 million people in the UK that are not able to use standard toilets, is this enough? Standard accessible toilets don’t provide changing benches or hoists and are often too small to accommodate more than one person. This means that people with serious disabilities and their families are often forced to change their loved one on a toilet floor. Should it not be the right of everyone to be able to use a toilet whatever their situation or location in the UK?

We are delighted to inform that on Wednesday 27th of June, the Changing Places Campaign was raised in the House of Commons. Paula Sherriff MP put forward a Ten Minute Rule Bill in the around access to Changing Places toilets and the provision for these toilets in the British Standards. This was a fantastic opportunity to raise the profile of the campaign for Changing Places within Parliament.

It’s that time of year again, the end of the glorious British summertime! Which means, of course, the countdown to a whole year of new students enrolling.

As exciting a time as this is, with new students comes the potential for before un-encountered needs to be met. It is estimated that around 7% of children are disabled and a significant number of children have both Special Educational Needs and a disability. Most children with SEN and disabilities are educated in mainstream schools.

Bush & Company is the largest and fastest growing provider of Expert Witness, immediate needs assessment and Case Management services in the UK. They have provided a service to injured people, to Solicitors and to insurance companies for over 30 years. As OpeMed continue to work closely with Case Managers to help them offer the best equipment and support their projects, it is more than appropriate for us to return to the Bush & Co Annual Conference once again.

This year’s conference is titled ‘Breaking the Pain Barrier’: Improving Outcomes in Pain Management’ and will be taking place at the Aston Villa Football Club, Villa Park, Birmingham on Tuesday 10th July 2018.

In July, the gaze of the Tennis world will be set firmly on England to welcome once more the world’s favourite lawn Grand Slam Tennis Tournament. It has also been the stage for OpeMed’s latest Changing Places project, working alongside the All England Lawn Tennis Club to design, install and maintain Wimbledon’s first Changing Places toilet at Centre Court Wimbledon.

Wimbledon has been carving a path for inclusivity within Tennis for 13 years; wheelchair Tennis has been played on the grass at SW19 since 2005 when a doubles competition was first introduced, with last year being the first time a singles competition had been played. But now they’re focusing on inclusivity within their grounds, and serving a backhand to inaccessibility. The All England Tennis Club utilised OpeMed’s knowledge and expertise to design, install and maintain their wonderful Changing Places facility.

OpeMed’s SurveyPlan is a floor plan creation app that lets you create dimensioned floor plans without actively measuring or drawing. With its Augmented Reality technology you just have to capture the corners of a room to get your plan.

Add to that the bank of OpeMed equipment and parts – and your OpeMed Product Specialist or your authorised OpeMed Partner can plan your Ceiling Hoist layouts in a matter of minutes.

“A passionate, innovative and social company” were the words the Dutch King’s Commissioner René Paas officially opened our new Hoist Sling company UniQare Quality Slings, a new exciting sister company for OpeMed. With a true ethical stance running through the veins of the company, UniQare only recruits from a rich pool of labour that might otherwise find it difficult to find employment, whether it be a disability, or an employee from countries with less opportunities, UniQare has made it a priority to make a difference.

UniQare is based alongside United Care, our leading Dutch player in the Hoist and Transfer market, that all form part of the OpeMed group. The Kings Commissioner Paas said that he was proud for being able to brag a little to the country every now and then about the innovation climate in ‘his’ Groningen, the town in northern Holland where we are already ramping up production.

Changing Places are fantastic facilities; an improvement on the standard disabled toilets, they encompass a range of specialist equipment in order to allow people with many different needs to use the loo safely and with dignity. In this article, ‘Easy as 1, 2, 3: A Changing Places Installation Story’ we hope to provide you with a quick overview on how Changing Places do not need to be difficult to install.

When considering Changing Places projects, the design, plan and budget for such toilets are often months in the making – sometimes even years. And yet they seem to pop up overnight, and in the space of 24-48 hours, an empty room becomes a fully inclusive toilet fit for just about everyone.

Whilst it seems a romantic notion, we’ve debunked the myth with a step-by-step collection of in-progress images from one of our installation team. Taken during a recent Changing Places installation at Market Yard Toilet Block for Mendip Borough Council, the photos offer a peak under the curtain to see what is entailed.

OpeMed will once again be attending the Jacqueline Webb Conference, which is running from the 20^th – 22^nd March, on Thursday 22^nd. Our first experience of the conference was a great opportunity to connect with Case Managers and discuss and display how our specialist transfer and bathing equipment can benefit their clients, and as a turn-key supplier how we can make the process easier for them.

Many reservations for installing Changing Places facilities surround limitations in space, particularly in historical and completed buildings. Maintaining focus on purely internal adaptations can really limit what is possible and even halt such a project all together.

Thinking Outside the Box

But when we think a little outside the box, the solution becomes obvious – taking Changing Places literally outside! Installing Changing Places in pre-fabricated modular units can be, and has been, a fantastic means including Changing Places toilets in places where there isn’t a suitable space to install one inside of a building. It also provides the benefits of minimising any disruption to the existing buildings, as the installation of equipment is completed off-site; our modular facilities are delivered and lifted into position fully finished.