Queen Elizabeth University Hospital Campus

The brand new children’s hospital, with a separate identity and entrance, is adjoined to the adult hospital. With 256 beds over five storeys it will replace the existing Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Glasgow.

The children’s hospital will provide a large number of specialist services to the West of Scotland and the wider population of Scotland in addition to the full range of secondary care services to people of Greater Glasgow and Clyde. Specialist services include: cardiology and cardiac surgery, renal and bone marrow transplantation. For a number of these specialised services, the children’s hospital is recognised as the sole provider in Scotland.

Stunning designs include a part covered roof garden where young patients can enjoy a range of activities in the fresh air including their own stage where they can put on theatrical productions. There will also be the ability for children to be brought out to the roof garden in their beds.
The new children’s hospital will be a mix of four-bedded and single-bedded accommodation as it’s been shown that a child’s health benefits from being around other children.

The new children’s hospital will not only be linked to the adult hospital but also to the redeveloped maternity hospital.

Specification and requirements.
Theatre manager Jeanette Whiteside was keen that Medstor products were put into the new hospital as opposed to the standard racking systems originally phased for the areas.

Jeanette’s theatres are different in the fact that in a normal adult hospital if a tray pack has to go back for re-sterilisation then they can borrow from another adult hospital. Not so the case with a children’s theatre as they only have a finite amount and if the pack is compromised then the operation can be cancelled.

Medstor had put systems in place in the old Yorkhill hospital so Jeanette knew it worked and worked well.

Problems encountered
The new hospital storage areas and bigger than Yorkhill but still they would struggle to hold the amounts that Jeanette has. Using our top track moving rack systems we could increase storage by up to 60% and the cabinets which hold the implants give at least a 70% increase, a marked improvement you would agree.

Medstor Products
Medstor has installed Metro top track systems for theatre tray packs in the new sterile stores which will enable the theatres to hold more tray packs and most importantly decrease the amount of tears which render the tray pack “dirty” and if so they have to go through the sterilisation process again at an extra cost.

Also we have designed and used a mobile system to move the trays to the actual theatre area; again they can transfer more to the theatre and decrease nursing time.

Medstor HTM71 cabinets are also installed in all the theatre preparation rooms, ten in total for the normal theatres and two other specialist theatres, again allowing more items to be stored in the preparation room thus saving time as the nurses would have to go back and forth to the main storage areas.

We also installed HTM71 tall cabinets to hold the implants which there are many of, using traditional storage these are very hard to store due to the total number of implants. This way they are held in trays so they can be easily located and stock shortages will show immediately.

Ward trolleys were also supplied allowing stock items to be mobile within the recovery areas. Medstor trolleys hold more items than the traditional ones used and most importantly are guaranteed for over ten years and pass infection control tests with flying colours. And talking of colours, Medstor supplies free coloured cards so that items can be located faster.

A point noting that the colour coding system we devised is now used throughout NHS GG&C and spreading to other hospitals in Scotland, Belford Hospital in Fort William are now in the process of colour coding all stock areas within the hospital. Aberdeen theatres also use the system and have saved over £70k in destocking using the Medstor cabinets along with the colour coding.

Benefits to the customer
Increased storage and visualisation of stock is a big thing. To be able to know that tray compromises will be at a minimum helps.

As to the implants they are stock so that any one implant is always in the same place and easily located a must for such an acute area.
Started January 2015 finished April 2015 from initial surveys to installation.

Installations meant that we had 40ft vehicle deliveries two-three times a week to one of the largest new build hospitals in Europe. Logistics was a key element not just delivering to the new site but then getting it to the areas required and all this whilst the hospital was being built.

Jeanette Whiteside
Theatre manager
Royal Hospital for sick children