The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) have issued a National Patient Safety Alert following a number of serious reports of incidents relating to bedrails and associated equipment. Some of these have caused patient harm or death due to entrapment or falls.
Most of the incidents reported have occurred in community care settings, particularly in nursing homes or in the patient's own home.
The MHRA have published updated guidance on managing and using bed rails and associated equipment including trolleys, bed rails, bed grab handles and lateral turning devices safely.
Investigations into incidents of entrapment have found a number of factors including:
- lack of risk assessment
- risk assessment not being updated following a change of equipment or patient's condition
- lack of maintenance and servicing
MHRA say in the case of incidents of falls, investigations have found the likely cause to be worn or broken parts which should have been replaced during regular maintenance and servicing but which were not carried out or carried out improperly. Appropriate and adequate risk assessment, management and maintenance should be undertaken by health professionals or competent persons to ensure avoidance of these incidents.
MHRA ask users, carers and staff with responsibility for the provision, prescription, use, maintenance and fitting of bed rails to:
- read the NATPSA alert for an explanation of the identified safety issues in detail and the actions to be taken to reduce the risk of death or disability.
- read the MHRA guidance Bed Rails: Management and safe use. This has been updated to include learnings from incidents reported to MHRA.
More about the Central Alert System and how to sign up to receive alerts (see Help section).
