New beds at The Avenues Clinic offer greater comfort and convenience

The Avenues Clinic has acquired 100 new hospital beds to offer greater comfort and convenience to patients and make patient care easier and less strenuous for nursing staff.

More than half of the beds have electronic controls enabling the nursing staff or even the patient to adjust the bed electronically. Adjustments can be made to the height and to the angle of the top and foot of the bed, in order to find the position that is most comfortable for the patient and, in the case of the height, most convenient for the doctor, nurse or physiotherapist.

All the beds have Pentaflex mattresses, which are designed to ensure there is no pressure on one spot, in order to avoid pressure or bed sores. The mattress has zones of support that vary according to the anatomical distribution of body mass.

The two new intensive care unit beds have ripple mattresses. The electronic controls, in addition to the bed adjustment features, can be used to weigh the patient in the bed and ripple the mattress. The mattress rippling prevents pressure sores. This is particularly useful as intensive care patients may often be unable to change their position on their own.

The beds were manufactured in Germany by ArjoHuntleigh, which is renowned in medical circles for its hospital beds and Pentaflex mattresses.

The electronic element in the new beds makes the job of nursing staff easier, as bed adjustments do not have to be made manually. There are electronic controls on the side of the bed and on a hand-held control panel, which the patient can use.

The hand-held control panel enables the patient to adjust the head or foot of the bed or even the bed height without needing to seek assistance.

With so many new beds, The Avenues Clinic has been able to donate the old beds that have been replaced to health facilities in need of hospital beds.

Sixty beds were donated to the United Methodist Church for waiting mother homes at Anoldine Clinic in Makoni District and Old Mutare Mission. Thirty-five were donated to the Little Children of our Blessed Lady, a Roman Catholic religious order, for use at a retirement convent for elderly LCBL sisters in Chishawasha, a clinic at Martindale School in Selous, Mount St Mary's Hospital in Wedza and the LCBL Herbal Project.