Public Funding for Multicare Medical Limited

Multicare Medical Ltd developed an existing community profiling bed design to overcome the unique challenges posed by COVID-19\. The project looked at the design of the bed, and reworked the construction of the bed, incorporating innovative mechanisms that allowed the bed to be folded instead of needing to be disassembled, cutting installation time from 20 minutes to 5 minutes. Not only did this increase capacity by allowing more beds to be installed on a daily basis, but also reduced risk to frontline operatives as they spent less time in patients houses. Furthermore the redesign also meant that installer of the bed could assemble the bed in a safer manner with reduced risk of manual handling injuries. Every component was also examined for ways to make the bed more hygienic and easier to clean with the goal of ensuring that the bed could be cleaned easily and thoroughly, reducing the risk of passing infection from one patient to another. The bed was designed to be built and assembled in the UK to avoid global shortages caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Alternative raising and lowering mechanisms were sourced and UK manufacturers engaged to ensure that the NHS and Local Authorities could have the equipment it needs, when they needed it. Feedback during the development phase identified the requirement for additional manual handling aids to benefit users of the bed and further development took place to develope thes eccessories.