Sourced from: https://e-zec.co.uk/falls-service-pilot-scheme-launches-in-shrewbury/

This week sees the launch of our exciting new pilot service aimed at helping to reduce demand on frontline ambulance services, to ensure patients are seen in an even more timely manner.

Our new 24-hour ‘falls’ service has been launched from our Shropshire contract, where our trained staff can quickly attend and assist patients who’ve suffered a minor fall. Supported by the local ICB, this service is intended to drastically lower the time that service users are left lying on the floor and needing attention, while in turn helping to reduce the strain for frontline medical staff and enable them to prioritise life-threatening and high-priority category 1 calls.

Mark Rawlings, Midlands Regional Manager at E-zec, said: “We’re all aware of the current pressures that frontline paramedics are facing across the UK, and of the fact that many people who have fallen can be left for hours before being seen.

“Having to prioritise care is extremely challenging. While many people who fall don’t necessarily need to go to hospital or need medical care straight away, longer waiting times often mean that by the time they are seen, their care needs have escalated to a point of needing to be treated in a hospital or by paramedics. This pilot service aims to address this, reduce pressures, and ensure that those who need care are seen quickly.”

E-zec’s Shrewsbury hub is helping to bridge this gap, with 16 Ambulance Care Assistants (ACAs) qualified in the Falls Response, as well as being fully trained on standard lifting procedures and care.

Mark added, “We’ve invested in specialist training and lifting equipment to quickly step-in and support vulnerable service users who have suffered a fall, which will in turn help to prevent avoidable hospital admissions. Our two-person crew will attend falls, undertake a thorough risk assessment of the situation using the well-recognised ISTUMBLE assessment tool, and determine whether the patient can be supported back to their usual position, or whether they do in fact need medical attention from the frontline NHS. In the case of the latter, we can make them as comfortable as possible while waiting for NHS staff or help to transport them to the nearest hospital.”

Our specialist 4×4 vehicles also have all the necessary lifting equipment including a Mangar Elk Lifting aid – training for which was delivered by Wincare.

Wayne Spedding, Relationship Director at E-zec, commented: “We’re delighted to have launched this pioneering trial in our Shropshire bases. We truly believe that this will provide a long-term solution to the communities we serve – both those who have fallen and who may not be prioritised until their condition has escalated, as well as frontline NHS workers who are feeling the strain of such high demand.

“The service – if rolled out nationally – would significantly help to reduce many avoidable hospital admissions, and ensure those who are most in need of urgent frontline care are prioritised and cared for quickly.”

E-zec Shrewsbury has collaborated and integrated with the local Rapid Response Team via Shropdoc to introduce this trail service.

Winncare, a leading European manufacturer of beds, pressure care products, patient handling equipment, and hygiene solutions has acquired Herida Medical, strengthening its pressure area care portfolio and providing entry into the maintenance and decontamination market. The acquisition was completed on November 30th 2022.

Herida Medical, based in Leeds, has built a successful mattress range having launched the highly regarded Avon brand and developing two of the leading dynamic systems in the Argyll and Pure Air range of mattresses.  Employing more than 70 staff, the business supplies healthcare organisations in the UK and export markets including Australia. The company has demonstrated a consistent and solid growth over the past years and is expected to exceed £14.5M in revenues this year.

Laurent Faugere, President of Winncare Group said: “The acquisition of Herida Medical continues to position Winncare as a leading provider of innovative healthcare solutions that improve outcomes for dependent people. Herida joins Winncare Group as our second UK acquisition, and we are excited about the opportunities for growth the combined expertise will deliver. Our focus is on supplying quality products that add value for our customers and clinicians, both in the UK and through our export markets. The additional manufacturing capabilities the acquisition brings strengthen and extend the services Winncare are able to offer in the UK and our combined portfolio means we can deliver an unrivalled solutions-based approach to pressure care management.”

Simon Claridge, current Winncare UK CEO, will head the combined UK business, supported by Herida’s managing director, Sean Spencer. Simon says, “Winncare has ambitious growth plans in the UK and globally.  The acquisition delivers business synergies both commercially and within the supply chain, which will enhance the service we offer our customers.  The Winncare team is excited to talk about the new product portfolio with our clients and introduce the decontamination service to new customers.”

Herida’s managing director Sean Spencer, who is continuing in his role, says: “The acquisition by Winncare marks the start of an exciting new era for our business. Over the last few years, we have spent time appointing the right people and the right teams in order to grow and with the strength of Winncare behind us, there is the opportunity to escalate this further. I predict a very bright future for us in the pressure area care sector.”

With this acquisition, the Group continues to reinforce its footprint in the UK and to complement its broad and competitive product portfolio. This M&A operation perfectly aligns with the strategy of the group initiated by Siparex (a leading French independent private equity investment company), who took a majority stake in the company back in 2021. It is also the first M&A operation since the new President, Laurent Faugère (former CEO of Urgo Medical), joined the group earlier this year. After the acquisition of PharmaOuest last year and now with the acquisition of Herida Medical, Winncare Group reinforces its leadership on the European market with 5 affiliates, 9 production sites and a broad network of specialist medical distributors to distribute its product in more than 75 countries.

Alexandre Tremblin and Guillaume Rebaudet, Partners at Siparex, said: With the acquisition of Herida Medical, Winncare has doubled its revenues since we joined back in 2021 to achieve €140M in revenues. We take advantage of this operation to reinvest in the company and further support the upcoming growth journey we anticipate, both organically and through other acquisitions to keep consolidating the market in the next months”.

For further information email Clare Birt, Marketing Director at clare.birt@winncare.uk or call 01544 262002.

With nearly 250,000 falls reported from acute and community hospitals in England and Wales each year,[i] despite considerable and sustained prevention efforts throughout NHS Trusts, it seems the challenge of managing post fall outcomes will continue for some time to come.

The cost of treating fall injuries in hospitals in the UK is estimated at £630 million per year[ii].  Most falls do not result in injury, although patients can have psychological problems if the fall is not correctly and quickly managed.

Patients do not always realise their risk of falling whilst in hospital even though people over the age of 65 years and those 50 years or older with two or more co-morbidities are at high risk. A Cochrane review published in 2018 found little robust evidence in support of hospital falls mitigation interventions and concluded that ‘multifactorial interventions may reduce the rate of falls, although this is more likely in a rehabilitation or geriatric ward setting.’

Different intrinsic and extrinsic factors have been identified to be contributing to falls in hospital such as the patient’s clinical condition, medication, as well as extrinsic factors such as lack of proper maintenance and design of medical equipment, failures in communication, education, and team working.

The fact is that however good the intentions around fall prevention methods, people will still fall.  According to a study supported by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, many falls in hospital happen when the patient is alone or involved in elimination-related activities (for example, walking to or from the bathroom or bedside commode, reaching for toilet tissue, or exiting a soiled bed).

The regularity of falls in hospitals is mitigated by strict manual handling protocols to protect staff from musculoskeletal injury acquired through moving patients.  All hospital staff are trained in techniques for moving and lifting patients and supplied with appropriate lifting equipment.  New to the market is the Mangar Supine Lifting Devices Rhino and Swift, designed in collaboration with industry experts to lift people that fall.  The product is the first to be launched with an entirely portable pump, which means, if patients don’t fall near a mains point, the product can still be used effectively.

Falls can happen in car parks, corridors and bathrooms as well as hospital wards.  Equipment that is portable is essential to ensure patients are lifted quickly and safely.

For more information on the Rhino Lifting Cushion and Swift Transfer Slide visit our product page. Post Falls Management – Mangar UK (mangarhealth.com)

[i] NHS England and NHS Improvement, The incidence and costs of inpatient falls in hospitals. 2017

[ii] NHS England/Improvement, The incidence and costs of inpatient falls in hospitals. 2017

Kate Sheehan, director of the OT Service, has been an occupational therapist for more than 35 years, but when her elderly mother-in-law fell recently her initial reaction was one of a typical family member.  She felt shocked and concerned that the way her mother-in-law had fallen would make it extremely difficult to lift her up safely.

Kate’s mother-in-law is living with dementia and had been very carefully carrying a cup of coffee from lounge to the garden.  Unfortunately, she missed seeing a child’s toy in the doorway, tripped over it and fell in a slumped position against the doorframe. The reality is, it’s rare for someone to fall ‘neatly’ and in a position where it’s easy to use rigid lifting equipment.

The family called for an ambulance and after assessing Kate’s mother-in-law the crew announced; “the situation called for a Mangar ELK”.

Kate said, “My mother-in-law is more than 24 stone and had fallen in a tight space, in a slumped and seated position. I could see that moving her somewhere with more space around her was going to be impossible.

“However, the ambulance crew were very quickly able to position the Mangar ELK lifting cushion under her and gradually inflated it at a speed that suited my mother-in-law.  As they inflated each section of the ELK, they gave her an opportunity to rest, which decreased her anxiety levels.

“They then simply transferred her onto their trolley, where they could do further observations.  To do this, they needed to quickly kick the Mangar ELK out of the way.  Because the Mangar ELK is light weight but tough, this was easily done and they could concentrate on their patient, which is always the top priority”.

The Mangar ELK lifting cushion is on every UK ambulance because of its versality, portability and ability to protect both paramedics and patients during a lift.  In this situation, the product was deflated and packed away in less than 45 seconds, meaning the ambulance could quickly transfer their patient on to hospital.

Kate Sheehan commented on the incident; ‘The situation made me reflect on my own equipment provision and that we need to look at all the features and benefits and make sure that they are fit foe purpose, in this situation the only piece of equipment that would have worked was the Mangar ELK’.

Kate’s mother in law returned home the next day and is making a good recovery.  She was fortunate that the ambulance was dispatched quickly to support her and even though she had fallen in an awkward position, using the Mangar ELK lifting cushion meant the ambulance crew needed to do minimal moving and handling to transfer her safely.

A recent pilot by Norfolk County Council has seen avoidable ambulance call outs to resident falls within care homes in the region reduce by 75% with the introduction of an initiative that combines a health assessment app called ISTUMBLE™ and a Mangar lifting cushion.

Lifting a resident within one hour of a fall is vital to avoid the damaging consequences resulting from lying on the floor for more than an hour while waiting for help (known as a long lie). Traditionally, care homes call the ambulance service for support when lifting fallen residents but over 50% are uninjured and do not need medical help or transferring to hospital.   The ISTUMBLE™ App is used to help carers make good decisions on when to lift and when to call an ambulance.

The care homes in the Norfolk pilot combined the ISTUMBLE™ training with the use of the specialist lifting cushion to safely move residents quickly and comfortably.  Winncare, who manufacture the lifting cushions and own the ISTUMBLE™ App, have been supplying lifting cushions to the Ambulance Service since 2006.

Cllr Bill Borrett, Norfolk County Council’s Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care, said: “Helping people recover their health and their confidence after a fall is really important, and I’m delighted this project has achieved such excellent results. More than that, it’s an example of just how closely linked the care sector and the NHS is, and shows that simple acts of working together, such as via the ISTUMBLE App, can bring real and tangible benefits to the NHS, to care homes and, most importantly, to the residents themselves.”

Winncare CEO Simon Claridge says, “we’ve been working with Councils and CCGs for a number of years now and the evidence is building around the benefits of post fall management processes that reduce the length of time a resident is left on the floor after a fall.

“It became clear that by empowering care homes to perform robust health assessments on their residents and lift them safely benefits the resident, the care home and the ambulance service.

“Through initiatives like the Norfolk one, we have supported over 1,500 care homes across the UK to benefit from the project. More than 22,000 healthcare workers now use the ISTUMBLE™ health assessment app to support safe patient lifting in their workplace, so reducing ambulance calls outs and avoidable hospital admissions and saving the NHS millions annually.”

Care home residents are at a higher risk of falling than the general population and each event can cost the NHS up to £1,382[i] if not managed efficiently. It is estimated that there are between 600 and 3,600 falls per 1,000 beds per year[ii] resulting in significant demands on the ambulance service, particularly during times of winter pressures.

Dr Sue West-Jones, an consultant in emergency medicine, says “The reason I became involved with the ISTUMBLE™ project is that it is so profoundly positive for residents of care homes and those who care for them.  In 20 years of emergency medicine, I have never seen an exacerbation of damage to a broken femur of an elderly patient who has been carefully lifted with an appropriate lifting device.”

For more information of the ISTUMBLE™ initiative, visit www.mangarhealth.com or email Daniel.colclough@winncare.uk

[i] Responding to falls in care homes, Dr Mark Hawker and River Rea, 2021

[ii] Rubenstein et al, 1996

Three years ago Mangar Health was acquired by Winncare. The organisation has plenty to celebrate at the moment, not only is it marking its 40^th anniversary but it has many loyal employees who have also stood the test of time.

Over the next few months, we will be sitting down with members of staff who have clocked up the years to discover how much Mangar Health has changed over the past four decades.

First off is Mangar’s longest-serving member of staff, Tracey Duggan, the Quality Control Supervisor who is based at the facility in Presteigne.

David Garman OBE and his wife, Fran, founded Mangar Health in 1981 and it wasn’t long before Tracey began working with them when she was just 16 years old and fresh out of school.

Tracey said: “You could do work experience for six months and I chose to do it at Mangar. My sister had already worked here for 12 months, so I asked her to speak to Fran to see if there was an opportunity to do work experience for three days a week with them.

“My first job here was counting out a box of 100 – 150 suckers for the original bath lift. We bought them in from a supplier and they used to have me count out each box to ensure there was the correct amount in each one.”

The original Bath Lift was the first product created and sold by Mangar Health. Its creation was brought about when David was trying to solve the problem of helping a relative get in and out of the bath. He visualised an aid which would result in a safe and dignified bathing experience for his family member. It was his skill and determination that resulted in the world’s first powered structured bath lift.

Tracey added: “After my work experience came to an end, Fran had already explained I had a job here waiting for me when I finished school. So, on the last day, I ran round to get all my teachers to sign to say I’d handed in all my books. I had a week off and then came to work at Mangar full time. I’ve been here ever since!”

Tracey began her working life on Mangar’s production floor.

“It was Fran who trained me up to do the gluing on the original bath lift. We would glue, assemble, and test each one. We used to do 20 a day each and then you’d have to leave them so long to cure and dry. After they’d dried, we would begin to assemble them, put the bellows inside and make the hose and the hand control. We would then get a compressor and inflate them.

“Then the embarrassing part! We would test the bath lifts by jumping and bouncing on them. People would walk past and laugh at us, wondering what on earth we were doing! The final stage was then called ‘clean for despatch’, we would trim the edge off the material and scrape off all the glue and the primer. It would then be wrapped up and sent out to the customer.”

After a couple of years, Tracey then moved onto making the compressors , called the Nito and Compare.

“At the time, our core products were the Nitto and Compair Compressors, the BathLift and the Booster. We then sold the Freestyle, the Porter and the Genie. Moving onto the lifting cushion, called the Leg Support.”

Mangar Health is now a medical device company with a global reach and 60  members of staff. Tracey began working at Mangar Health when there were fewer than 10 people and a couple of colleagues’ dogs.

Mangar Health manufactures its products from its Presteigne facility in mid Wales. The site has three separate working areas. Unit 11 is home to production and the repair centre. The warehouse, assembly area, quality team and dispatch are in Units 2 – 5, with R&D, customer services, purchasing and IT being found in the administration block.

Tracey can remember when Mangar looked a little different to how it is today.

“Unit One used to be Presteigne Carriage Company. There was no Unit 5 that was just a compound and tarmac between the next two buildings. Unit 3 was an organ company which made great big organ pipes and Unit 4 was Fir Tree Videos.

“Mangar Health only had Unit 2 and the administration block didn’t even exist! It really has changed loads,” she added.

After starting out in production, Tracey then became Quality Control Supervisor, which is a role she has enjoyed for 24 years.

“After my sister did not come back from having her children and the lady who used to be in charge of the production floor, Pam, left too, I was put in charge to plan and write the weekly rota and delegate jobs. I was the cell leader,” Tracey said.

“After a few years Jane Owens, along with various other people, started. Jane was Quality Assurance Manager, and I was Supervisory Cell Leader. Fran decided she wanted Jane to concentrate on getting the ISO9001 and that we were going for that award. As I’d been with the company a while and had a lot of experience with the products, Fran asked me whether I would want to work with her to help achieve this. I then moved from production to purely inspect and investigate any failures.

“I have worked in the quality team ever since. Jane and I have worked together for more than 20 years. I think I spend more time with Jane than I do with my husband!”

Why do you think you have stayed at Mangar Health for so long?

“When I think of the reason why, there are so many people who have worked at Mangar for such a long time, I believe and feel it’s because there has always been a good level of mutual respect. You’re not just a number or another employee, they actually care about you.

“It is the family vibe and there is an appreciation as an employee for what you did and do for the company.”

Which of the Mangar products would you say is your favourite?

“It would have to be all the different compressors that are my favourite products because that’s how I started really. Wiring up all the compressors and junction boxes and testing them.”

The Task

Natasha cares for Jenny,* a lady with learning difficulties and hydrocephalus. Part of Jenny’s pattern of behaviour is to indiscriminately perform a controlled fall. Because of her limited mobility, she is unable to get back up unaided, even though she is uninjured.

Background

Established in 1990, Anheddau is a not for profit, charitable organisation which support adults with learning difficulties to live fulfilled lives. Natasha has worked for Anheddau for 5 years and in social care for 10 years. She is a house manager committed to promoting independence and choice for the people she cares for.

Jenny shares a house with 4 others. Natasha says,

“I have supported Jenny for 5 years now and it is important for her health that she is as active as she can be. I encourage her to take days out and go to the theatre, but there is always the possibility she may fall”.

The amount Jenny falls varies from week to week. Sometimes she will fall 2 or 3 times a day, on other occasions she may not fall for a couple of months. Ensuring Natasha does not hurt herself during a lift is a priority for both her and Anheddau.

Natasha met with Jenny’s Occupational Therapist to discuss moving and handling options available.

The Solution

Jenny’s Occupational Therapist proposed two possible solutions. The first option was the Mangar ELK lifting cushion. Lifting someone on the ELK requires the carer to act like a backrest to support the person who has fallen during the lift. Natasha found that Jenny moved around too much during a lift and that it wasn’t the right solution for their circumstances.

The second option was the Mangar Camel lifting cushion. Immediately Natasha found lifting Jenny on the Camel much easier. The inbuilt backrest gives support so that even if Jenny moves around a lot during a lift, she feels stable and secure.

Outcomes

Both Jenny and Natasha found the Camel to be the best lifting solution for their circumstances. They use it when out for the day, in the house and even if Jenny falls in a tight space. If Jenny falls somewhere which is a bit awkward, Natasha encourages her to use the mobility she has to get into a space where she can shuffle onto the Camel.

Jenny likes sitting on the Camel and feels comfortable during a lift. Natasha says,

“I have found that if Jenny falls when we are out in public now, we attract far less attention than we used to. People can see us using the Camel and can see we are in control.”

The Camel gives Jenny a dignified lift while protecting Natasha from injury.

*We have changed the name to protect the privacy of the individual.

As news of increasing long ambulance wait times outside busy hospital A&E departments hit the headlines, an initiative to positively manage elderly falls and promote safe lifting is see early success.  Combining Mangar lifting cushions with the ISTUMBLE health assessment app, enables carers to provide single handed care within their care home.  Conditions such as dementia and elderly frailty increase the risk of falls and when combined with a long lie, while waiting for an ambulance, the impact can be critical.

A recent report,’ “Responding to falls in care homes: two innovations” by Dr Mark Hawker and River Rea from Involve, discusses how best practice in post fall management can provide time and cost savings to the wider health and social care system.
Combining benefits of assistive lifting technology and video-based clinical support could return costs savings of up to £3,911 per fall, whilst also safeguarding residents’ lives.

Across the 15,000 + care homes registered by the Care Quality Commission there are between 270,000 – 1,620,000 falls per year. As one of the most frequently reported accidents among residents, falls represent a pressing issue for providers of care, particularly as demand for places is expected to rise as the population ages.

Author, Dr Mark Hawker says, “the risk factors for falls in care setting are diverse and the multiplicity of elements influencing the likelihood of falls makes them incredibly difficult to eliminate entirely. For the individual, the consequences of a fall are numerous and distressing, while the repetitive lifting requirement of carers puts them at risk of musculoskeletal injury.

“The pilot studies we’ve examined demonstrate that by giving care home staff the tools to empower safe lifting reduces the time residents spend on the floor after a fall waiting for an ambulance and help to arrive. Organised and safe post fall care is better for the resident and more cost effective for the NHS.”
The report goes on to discuss the importance of reducing the risk of spreading infectious diseases by eliminating avoidable contacts. There are clear benefits of using technologies that reduce the number of external contact such as those that would be required to pick up a resident following a fall. While difficult to quantify, the reduction of contacts with healthcare workers such as paramedics, GPs and district nurses with residents is seen as essential during a pandemic.

Mangar Health CEO Simon Claridge adds, “we have been working with NHS Ambulance Trusts for nearly 20 years and yet this report has been incredibly eye opening for us. We know lifting fallen care home residents is a daily challenge to prioritising ambulance calls, yet equipment and technology could easily lift the considerable pressures they are under and save the NHS millions annually.

“We would like to call on NHS England, NICE and CQC to review the dynamics involved in a resident fall detailed in this report and consider alternative care models in a post pandemic environment.”

Anyone wishing to receive a copy of the report should email hello@involve.vc.

We invited Deborah Harrison to assess the Mangar Eagle, the latest lifting cushion (lifting chair)  in the range and to talk all things moving and handling.  Deborah is the founder of A1 Risk Solutions and is recognised internationally for her work in manual handling, ergonomics and vocational rehabilitation within the Health, Social Care and Education Sectors. A champion of single handed care for many years, her experience in the best way to transfer people is exceptional.

Unsurprisingly, the impact of COVID is a hot topic and the knock on effect facing Reablement Teams supporting patients to return home using a mix of care and equipment packages.

After speaking internationally in America, Australia New Zealand and across Europe, Deborah is keen to point out that the UK leads the world when it comes to standards of manual handling and protecting both workers and patients.  With manual handling regulations protecting carers and the Care Act 2014 designed to safeguard the aims and goals of service users, the UK has the framework in place to develop good outcomes for all.

Deborah says, “the provision of equipment in other parts of the world can be challenging and I’ve seen the community sector in the US having to fund raise to get the kit they need. I’ve also seen manual lifting teams being called to move patients with no equipment available to support them.  The likelihood of injury for both caregiver and patient is significant in this scenario and I know professionals in this part of the world aspire to work as we do in the UK”.

But things are changing in the UK and even before COVID, there were increasingly fewer hospitals with rehabilitation on the wards.  The trend now is to ‘discharge to assess’, when people are medically optimised using reablement services to return patients to the community or their homes.  Reablement supports people by giving them the right tools to rebuild their strength and independence.

Deborah continues, “in these circumstances it is important we manage the risk and adopt good ways of working.  At first, as patients become more active there will be an increased likelihood of falling, however good the prevention strategies are.  We encourage people to get the right equipment to help them through the reablement process with the longer term aim of removing it once recovery is achieved.

“We can get resistance from the informal care giver as it can appear they are ‘been doing a poor job and sometimes feel inadequate’ and generally they have no thought for their own health,  but when we explain what might happen if they drop their loved one or sustain an injury, acceptance comes more readily”.

During COVID the ability to assess service users has become more of a challenge and has often had to be done virtually.  Deborah explains, “every service user will have different needs and to ensure we understand the nuances of every situation it is much easier to be face to face.  However, virtual assessments have their place and in future, we may well continue to assess virtually at the review stage if we feel it is appropriate to do so.

“The important thing is not to add to the anxiety levels of the service user or informal carer and prescribe the right equipment to support their individual need.  We look at their environment as well as medical need and this is where a piece of kit like the Eagle will be a perfect fit.  The ability to use it in a tight space, such as a bathroom will be valuable to many and the angle of the backrest makes it ideal for anyone who may have breathing problems, support individuals with distressed behaviours.”

The manual handling landscape will be changing over the coming years and a White Paper published by the Department of Health and Social Care earlier this year, set out legislative proposals to integrate the care system in England.  Deborah believes the Health community can learn a lot from Social Care and is keen to consult with NHS England and NHS Improvement about her experiences on getting the best outcomes for Service Users.

There is no doubt about Deborah’s passion for good practice in manual handling and she interrogates the capabilities of the Eagle Lifting Cushion rigorously. She discusses its stability, suitability for patients living with Parkinson’s, feeling of being cosseted during the lift, flexibility and ease of transferring off.  Her ability to critically assess equipment, patient need and environmental impacts is renown and her company A1 Risk Solutions provide training platforms for clinicians globally.

More recently Deborah was invited to a church group in Cumbria where she talked ergonomics to a meeting of builders, farmers and landed gentry.  Not her usual type of delegates but reportedly as enthusiastic as any others!

I am a plus sized person, currently weighing approximately 180kgs and 1.72m tall. I am fit, healthy and mobile and my muscle tone and body condition are good. For the purposes of the evaluation I was as passive as I could be and, once I’d moved myself into position on the Mangar Eagle lifting cushion, I didn’t assist the product in any way.

The product arrived in a small bag, and together with the Airflo pump was easily transportable by one person. It could be brought discreetly into any location ensuring that the privacy of the Client to be lifted could be maintained. The Plus Size community can be subject to discrimination and prejudice so the small size of the product would ensure that minimal attention would be drawn to the situation. This would be a welcome improvement over the use of a mechanical hoist and sling.

The product itself was small and very non-threatening. If I had encountered it for the first time from a prone position on the floor I think I would be very reassured to see that it appeared to be such a simple concept and only required one person to operate it.

When the Eagle was unrolled I was impressed and surprised to see how small it was. It seemed that it would fit easily even into some of the smallest spaces in a domestic home.

The cushion deflated very flat which meant I was easily able to move across the floor and to position myself on top of it. This low height would also mean it was easy to manoeuvre under a less mobile patient using slide sheets etc. if required.

The pump was quiet in operation. As a larger person I am very sensitive to indications that equipment might be under strain, or that my weight might be leading the equipment to reach its capacity or even fail. I was reassured that the pump sounded easily able to cope with the tasks being asked of it and this removed some of the anxiety and stress that might occur with a patient being lifted for the first time.

The backrest lifted me easily into a seated position. I remained as passive as possible and didn’t attempt to assist but was still moved to a comfortable position in a controlled way. The angle of the back rest was easily adjustable too which was useful and reassuring. Plus Sized patients can be subject to compromised breathing if the seated angle is too upright and this adjustability was useful.

The cushion under me lifted me into a seated position very easily with again, no indication that the pump was finding the task difficult. The airflow around the cushion ensured that I was lifted in a level position with very minimal balancing required from me.

It might be that a patient who is less mobile would appreciate an aid to help them balance and Andrew demonstrated that a hand on the patient’s shoulder was more than sufficient to provide this. As a larger person I am always concerned that a Caregiver might hurt or injure themselves when trying to assist me and it was very reassuring to see that such a simple intervention could help me while clearly not putting the Caregiver at any risk.

The cushion itself was narrow but comfortably supportive and easily lifted my entire body. The rounded front edge of the seat cushion made it very easy to get my feet into a comfortable position to enable me to stand. Once lifted, the height was easily adjustable to the correct height to enable me to stand.

The entire process was completed reassuringly quickly which I think would be of great comfort to a person who had fallen. At the same time though the degree of the backrest, height of the seat cushion etc were all adaptable and were easily and quickly controlled by the operator giving a flexible response to differing body shapes and needs.

Overall the product easily accomplished the task of lifting me to a comfortable and supported seated position. The height and position were easy to adapt to the Client. It was comfortable, quiet and discreet. I’m very impressed by the speed, the quiet operation and stability of the Eagle and happy to recommend it.