Tayside health bosses have agreed to spend £800,000 of charity cash on new hospital sheets and laundry equipment to look after them.
The 40,000 fitted sheets require a special tumble drier that will fluff them up and maintain their soft feel. Charity funds will also pay for trolleys to transport the sheets from the laundry to the wards.
The sheets, which do not require ironing and allow beds to be changed more quickly than with standard sheets, are to be introduced in every hospital in Tayside.
They are said to be softer and more comfortable for patients.
Colin Masson, director of finance and lead officer for the NHS Tayside Endowment Fund, said the bedding system would not have been introduced now were it not for funding from a legacy.
Money was given specifically to fund new buildings or equipment and the Sleep Knit Bedding System met the requirements of the legacy.
He said NHS Tayside would not have replaced all its bedding at once and provided the laundry equipment necessary were it not for the legacy money. However, the cash would act as “pump priming” money and the health authority would meet the ongoing costs of the system from its own mainstream budget.
“We are in a situation where there is now a new type of bedding that is available and we have trialled it at Royal Victoria Hospital (in Dundee),” said Mr Masson.
“Patients have responded very favourably and staff have responded very favourably. It improves the comfort for patients enormously but it requires a very different type of drying process from the drying process we use at the moment.
“The only way we could consider moving forward with it would be if we could buy the necessary equipment to be able to dry the sheets.
“Of course, we would like to be able to make this new type of bedding available to all of the patients in all of the wards right throughout Tayside.
“We would not be doing that in normal circumstances.
“However, we are in a really fortunate position where we did receive a legacy some years ago which specified the money had to be used for capital purposes, which could mean buildings or equipment.”
He said using the legacy allowed the bedding system to be introduced earlier than would otherwise have been possible and to every hospital ward across the region.
The endowment fund trustees also approved the purchase price of a vehicle for the transport of staff seconded to a hospital in Malawi.
The £11,500 cost of the vehicle will come out of a £150,000 pot of money given to Tayside’s endowment fund from the Scottish Government International Development Fund.
The request for cash to purchase a vehicle in Malawi came from Barry Klaassen, an emergency medicine specialist who works in the accident and emergency departments at Ninewells and Perth Royal Infirmary.
Mr Klaassen is on secondment at a hospital in Blantyre in Malawi where he is helping to establish an A&E department and training African staff. A number of Tayside staff are involved in the Malawi project.
A vehicle is needed to transport them from the airport and between the residences and hospital.
Mr Masson said the amount of journeys involved meant it was cheaper to buy a vehicle than use public transport or hire vehicles.
Photo used under Creative Commons licence courtesy of Flickr user dreamingofariz.