NNUH beds donated to Eastern Ukraine

The Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital and Medstrom Ltd have been working together to recycle and rehome outgoing hospitals beds to support those affected by the war in Ukraine.

In excess of 50 beds have transited through charitable organisations and Ukrainian NGOs across the Polish border, to reach hospitals in some of the hardest-hit regions in Eastern Ukraine. Due to destruction of key medical infrastructure, there was a severe shortage of hospital beds and mattresses to support the wounded and patients who have been transferred. These donated beds have been greatly received by healthcare staff, providing essential equipment to improve patient care and outcomes.

The hospital beds were only recently removed from the Trust, who were undergoing a rolling programme to replace equipment used across the hospital.

Stacy Hartshorn, project lead for the bed replacement programme at NNUH, said: “We are grateful to Medstrom for organising for our older beds to be sent to help the people of Ukraine. The beds were in use for our patients until the day they were removed so we know these will be a great addition to whichever hospital they are deployed into.”

“We are privileged in our Trust to be at the end of a bed replacement programme where all of our bed frames have been replaced with high specification standard and low-rise frames, which has afforded us this opportunity for donation.”

In addition to NNUH, Medstrom and its European partners have been working closely with various other Trusts throughout the UK to help meet the shortfall in essential medical equipment, including donations of their own.

Rachel Apsey, Commercial Director for Medstrom, added: “This is an incredible achievement from everyone involved and I’m proud that Medstrom could support NNUH with this project. The logistical organisation, transport and volunteer time should all be recognised, but we all had one clear objective in mind; providing the necessary equipment, as quickly as possible, to help those throughout Ukraine. We will continue to do our utmost to support with further donations.”