North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust is a hot bed for innovation and new ideas. With around 5,500 staff, we have teams and individuals who regularly seek new ways to improve the services we provide and the working lives of our staff.
Helen Ashcroft, phlebotomist at the Trust is the latest to celebrate seeing her idea go from concept to reality after she came up with the idea of designing a bespoke fit for purpose phlebotomy trolley.
The trolleys Helen and her team were previously using were industrial and heavy, difficult to manoeuvre and not fit for purpose. This led them to attempt to adapt a much smaller trolley by adding a toolbox for storing equipment. However, this became unmanageable as it was hard to manoeuvre and increased the risk of MSK problems.
In 2019 Helen approached the innovation team with her idea and asked for support in designing and manufacturing a trolley suited to their needs. It needed to be ergonomic, lightweight, have accessible lean storage, and incorporate clinical waste disposal. It needed to meet infection prevention and control standards and height adjustable to suit individual needs reducing the risk of injury and fatigue.
Helen said: “After experiencing many problems with the trolleys we had available we tried to adapt them to best suit our needs but nothing was up to scratch. I decided to contact the innovations team to see if they could research alternatives or help me to create a design.
“The idea was then taken through the innovation pathway, the innovation team worked with external specialists to come up with a designs and prototypes. We were given the opportunity to test and feedback any issues or suggested changes to the product to best suit our needs.
“Once we had trialled the latest prototype we were thrilled that it was everything we had hoped for. The team and I are proud to be have been involved in the process which has resulted in a trolley which makes our day to day working lives much better and more efficient.
“We are excited to hear that other healthcare providers are showing an interest in our trolley and hope that they can also see the benefits should they decide to roll them out across the NHS.
“I would definitely recommend staff to reach out to the innovations team with any ideas on how they could improve their own working lives or improve the experience or care for our patients by doing different things or doing things differently.”
Now the trolley has been adopted and is being used on our wards and departments the staff can already feel the benefits. The trolley has enough storage to ensure the team are not travelling back and forth to restock improving both efficiency and time.
The trolley incorporates a lightweight but durable frame, half the weight of current medication trolleys on the market. Remaining robust the trolley makes continuous pushing, pulling and turning significantly easier protecting the health of our staff.
Consultant in obstetrics and gynaecology and Chair of the Trusts innovation panel Dr Elaine Gouk added: “It’s wonderful to see one of our members of staff come up with a great idea which has come to fruition and is improving working lives across our organisation. We hope that when staff see the benefits of the innovation process and how easy it can be to make a difference more people will come forward with fantastic ideas. The staff who are doing the day to day are the experts in their fields and the unique knowledge they hold can unlock hidden gems.”
If YOU have been inspired by Helens story why not get in touch and be the next innovator at team NTH.
