With around 800 beds across our hospital, having the right medical equipment for patients can be a real challenge, especially at this time of year. So this is a plea for wards and departments to return any equipment that's not being used to the equipment pools. In particular the Agilia Volumetric Infusion Pumps (Ivacs to some people) are in huge demand. 

"We have 288 pumps across CHFT," Medical Engineering Manager, Vic Wotherspoon (main photo) told us.

"Some patients require multiple pumps, so it can be really difficult to meet demand. We regularly only have a handful of spare pumps at each site, which may impact the care patients receive.

"We've recently purchased 20 more pumps to help with this demand, though I'd ask colleagues to think about the following":

• Keeping a device because you MAY need it later impacts on other departments that WILL need it now.
• Every device kept and not returned may causes delays in treatment in ACUTE departments.
• Devices left in locked storerooms will never be available for others to use.
• As devices get cleaned thoroughly when returned to the pool, infection risks are reduced.
• This means the quality of care to patients is improved.

The pool operates Monday to Friday. Out of hours the pool is accessible. To ensure adequate stocks prior to out of hours operations we need all staff to ensure unused devices are returned. Please help us in an effort to ensure we can deliver a service to our patients.