The recent refitting of the Intensive Therapy unit at Tameside General Hospital in Ashton-under-Lyne has seen Medstor provide a range of HTM 71 cabinetry that it says ‘offers the flexibility to store everything in the one room’.
Medstor explained: “When the Materials Management Team at Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust (TGICFT) wanted to improve storage across the hospital’s ITU, it chose to work with a company that has completed many similar
installations across NHS Trusts in Greater Manchester. The ITU’s refitting needed to clearly demonstrate the benefits of a streamlined materials management system, and to quantify the savings expected thanks to improved efficiencies.”
The Medstor units supplied were standard full-height and open-fronted, rather than having doors. Incorporating the company’s ‘unique’ tray-and-liner system – which allows a large number of consumables to be stored safely and accessed easily – the cabinets incorporate
twin-slot upright shelving for bulkier boxed items.
In addition, a particular ‘bespoke element’, developed by Medstor’s in-house design team, is an extended plinth at the base, so items that need to be kept off the floor – such as sharps bins, can be stored securely, but also accessed quickly. Medstor’s Installations team undertook all work in a ‘live’ environment, ‘moving stock while causing minimum disruption to staff’. Medstor said: “Thanks to close organisation and communication between the Medstor team, the TGICFT Procurement Team, and everyone else in the ITU, this was achieved, and the project was delivered on time and within budget.”
The Trust’s Materials Management Team subsequently reported back to the Trust that
the expenditure had been justified, highlighting several key areas of improvement that Medstor points out ‘can be repeated across other hospitals’. These included:
- ‘Substantial cost savings’.
- The number of stocked lines ‘almost halved’.
- Stronger working relationships with clinical staff.
- A higher level of stock resiliency, with minimal ‘stock-outs’.
- Unboxed product on shelves for increased stock visibility.
- Correct training given to the Materials Management Team.
- ‘Robust’ stock escalation processes.
