There are around 117,500 acute medical and surgical adult beds available within the NHS in England. Some bed frame procurement in the NHS comes through NHS Supply Chain, and some comes through other frameworks. There is considerable price variation among the bed frames that are available through NHS Supply Chain's framework.
Acute hospitals provide care for people who are experiencing severe or urgent physical or mental health conditions. They are made up of different types of wards or units, each of which is designed to meet specific patient needs and conditions. This guidance covers acute medical or surgical units in which people are admitted for treatment of a physical health condition. These units include:
Acute medical wards, which provide rapid assessment, investigation and treatment for medical emergencies. Patients may spend several days to weeks on acute medical wards.
Acute surgical wards, which provide care for people before and after surgery. The length of stay can vary depending on the type of surgery and the recovery process.
Specialised hospital wards, such as for acute inpatient mental health care, maternity wards and intensive care units, are outside the scope of this assessment. The following types of bed frames are also excluded from the scope:
ultra-low floor beds
bariatric beds
junior beds for adult patients with atypical anatomy
beds with integrated mattresses.
There are different groups of bed frame users and decision makers within an NHS trust. These include:
patients
family members and other visitors
nurses, nursing associates and healthcare assistants
manual handling leads
infection control and domestic teams
falls prevention teams
tissue viability nurses
physiotherapists and physiotherapy support workers
occupational therapists
portering staff
clinical engineering teams
procurement teams.
Many acute medical or surgical hospital wards will use electric profiling beds that have different sections that can be adjusted (for example, raised or lowered) using a remote control. These beds can have many different features, with proposed benefits for patients, carers and other users.
Adult bed frames for use in acute medical or surgical hospital wards should comply with the following safety standards and legislation:
BS EN 60601-2-52:2010+A1:2015, which applies to basic safety and essential performance of medical beds for adults, and BS EN 50637, which applies to beds for smaller adults
BS ISO 22882:2016, which applies to castors for hospital beds
CE or UKCA marking, with evidence to demonstrate compliance.
NHS trusts choose bed frame models through procurement exercises that consider the views and preferences of different user groups within the trust. NHS trusts may choose to purchase a limited number of bed frame models that support the needs of a range of patients, healthcare professionals and other users. Other specialised bed frame models may be rented or specially purchased to accommodate the needs of specific groups of patients.