Size does count - if it costs

Hospitals are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars buying bigger beds and equipment to cope with New Zealand's growing obesity problem.

Standard beds, wheelchairs, scanning machines and other pieces of equipment are simply not strong or large enough for the increasing numbers of heavier patients.
But the new purchasing requirements are a sidelight to the main problems of obesity like increasing the risk of diabetes and heart disease.

Standard electrically controlled beds at Auckland City Hospital cost about $4000 and can handle up to 240kg - almost a quarter the weight of a Toyota Corolla.

The hospital has bought four super-size electric beds capable of holding up to 350kg, at a cost of at least $12,500 each, in addition to a large patient hoist. Operating theatre tables are being assessed for size.

"It's become an increasing problem for us over the past four or five years," said Auckland City Hospital's operations manager, Ngaire Buchanan.

"We have had a specific project team around making sure we have got the correct equipment, both so that we make it safe for the patient and it also needs to be a lot safer for the staff as well, who are having to lift the patients."

Middlemore Hospital has been buying some large beds for several years and recently bought 10 rated at 350kg.

The acute care and resources manager, Dot McKeen, said standard beds used to handle up to 175kg, but this was now 240kg for new beds.

"You have to cater for the type of patient that you get coming through."

Palmerston North Hospital intends to spend $20,000 on a bed it is hiring for $30 a day to cope with patients weighing over 220kg.

If such a patient needs an air bed, the price rockets to $200,000, or $600 a day for hire. The hospital is considering spending $90,000 on wheelchairs, seating and support equipment for the six to eight patients a year who are too big and too heavy for regular beds and chairs.

The MidCentral District Health Board's group manager for rehabilitation and therapy services, Muriel Hanratty, told a board committee that about six to eight hospital patients a year were too heavy for existing beds. The only scales in the hospital big enough to weigh them were in the mortuary.

Ms Hanratty said that while the Health Ministry was promoting a range of healthy lifestyle initiatives designed to reduce the incidence of obesity in future, it would take time before they produced results.

In the meantime, hospitals could expect to see increasing numbers of obese patients needing treatment.

It was a trend that brought its own new word, "bariatric", the treatment of people with obesity-related health problems.

Without proper equipment, the management of bariatric patients poses safety risks for staff, could damage beds and hoists, and the patient's own dignity is often compromised.

Big numbers

* Auckland City Hospital has spent $50,000 on four super-size electric beds that can support up to 350kg

* Palmerston North Hospital will spend $20,000 on a bed being hired for $30 a day for patients over 220kg.

- additional reporting: NZPA