Medicare nurse call

Discussion in 'Electricians' Talk' started by peter palmer, Sep 4, 2018.

  1. peter palmer

    peter palmer Screwfix Select

    Do anyone deal with and fit this system, I need to add to one on a job we are doing.
     
  2. Lectrician

    Lectrician Screwfix Select

    What do you want to know?
     
  3. peter palmer

    peter palmer Screwfix Select

    Cheers, I need to know where you can get the call points from and how you tie it in to an existing system. I will try and post a photo of what I need but the pictures are too big at the minute.

    It's the one where there are digital screens and battery operated call points go next to beds or bathrooms with a red pull cord on. The units have about 3 buttons on with call, emergency and reset. You can also link them to a portable neck worn button. Tunstall can also plug a bed monitor into them.

    I have been landed with sorting this out but I know nothing about it.
     
  4. DIY womble

    DIY womble Well-Known Member

  5. Lectrician

    Lectrician Screwfix Select

    They deal with installers directly. Sounds like your system is the fully wirefree system, not an older (more reliable) wired version.
     
  6. joinerjohn1

    joinerjohn1 Screwfix Select

  7. joinerjohn1

    joinerjohn1 Screwfix Select

    Nurse call system on our ward is hard wired, and believe me it's bloody troublesome at best.
     
  8. Lectrician

    Lectrician Screwfix Select

    A decent and well installed wire version is by far the best and most reliable option. A system poorly installed is bound to cause problems. Wireless are great, and are far better than they used to be, but still batteries to be replaced. While you get warnings to low battery, batteries often just go "fock it" and fail.
     
  9. joinerjohn1

    joinerjohn1 Screwfix Select

    Well the one on our NHS ward works, but does have it's own peculiar problems. If a patient happens to pull the connector out of the wall (or heaven forbid, the wires out of the connector) the system activates. If the wires have been pulled out, then it's a job for the maintenance guys as the system can't then be reset. Very unfortunate if it happens on night shift (maintenance ain't on call out on nights or weekends for the nurse call system) Imagine constant buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz overnight or all weekend, ;);)
     
  10. Lectrician

    Lectrician Screwfix Select

    That’s what you call “fail safe” ;) If a patient pulled the lead out the wall while in a panic, is it not best for it to create a call? If a lead is unplugged by accident, again, is it not best for a call to be generated so it is investigated, rather than it go unnoticed until it was life and death?

    The wireless systems do have fail safe built in too.
     
  11. peter palmer

    peter palmer Screwfix Select

    Tried ringing Medicare, went through it with them, turn out you need to go on a training course run by them before they will sell you any of the gear, once you are set up you need to download the software from their system in the home, email it to them and they will email a new map back that has the extra rooms on them you are adding.

    What a palava, how on earth do people get talked into buying stuff like this, its name your price when something goes wrong. No wonder they went into administration not long ago.
     
    KIAB likes this.
  12. KIAB

    KIAB Super Member

    Firms like that deserve to go into administration,so archaic.
     
  13. Lectrician

    Lectrician Screwfix Select

    It’s to ensure the installers are trained and vetted. Would you want someone who has no clue trying to work on a life safety system such as this?
     
  14. MGW

    MGW Screwfix Select

    I had them fitted to mothers house, it was done by the council and involved four groups.
    1) Social worker thought they were required.
    2) Physiotherapist assessed what was rewired.
    3) Technician assessed what could be provided.
    4) The installer fitted it.
    Then five, I complained it was useless. Much depends on what the Physiotherapist says, for example if the person is considered able to go to toilet unassisted then there will be a bed sensor or PIR to alert some one if that person does not return within a set time.

    This caused arguments with my mothers care, they wanted to fit bed sensors with no delay, however to get out of bed, dress and come down stairs clearly involves time, so 9 times out of 10 it would wake us up and we would simply watch her from top of stairs, as by that time she was already returning from toilet, so we were woken for no good reason.

    Extruder alarms will sound when anyone opens the door, and whole idea of having care workers call is so we don't need to raise early, as likely have been up during the night, so it needs a method of being turned off, the alarm panel was fitted upstairs to alert us in the night, so in the end I removed the back up battery and powered it from a Smart socket which was programmed to turn off just before carers arrived, and back on when they left, it also had three remote controls, one at each door and one by my bed, so if carers early or late I could cancel alarm, also we could cancel from down stairs. When some one knocks the door you don't want to have to run upstairs first to switch off alarm before opening the door.

    In real terms what the council fitted was a farce, it was useless, who fits an alarm where you need to run up and down stairs to cancel the alarm?

    The problem for me is the Physiotherapist does a risk assessment, and I had to do as I was told, even when quite unreasonable. Human rights came into it, rails on the bed would imprison my mother, so there has to be an order raised by two doctors before they can be used, a "DOLS" order I seem to remember it being called, same goes for locking the doors so she could not wander down the road, I could physically put wheel chair on back wheels and wheel her back into the house, but that was again not permitted, I had to persuade her it would be better to return.

    Had to fit turn buckles inside the door, as you need to be able to open doors in case of fire, and if I left key in lock, then carers could not open door from outside. And everything needed approving by the Physiotherapist. It was a nightmare, in the end she was taken to a care home to give use some rest, with the idea she may say in the home, lasted three weeks, although we were told exactly what we could and could not do, it seems same was not true of care home, it took them three days to call doctor, how had her taken into hospital and she died two weeks latter, mainly through dehydration in the care home.

    I blame the council as they would not permit us to take her home, and they selected the care home, they also told us mother had died a week before she died, I hope us Palmer's never have to fight the social services again. That's not something I would wish on worse enemy, but court cases pending so can't say too much.
     
  15. joinerjohn1

    joinerjohn1 Screwfix Select

    Rails on beds can only be used where there is a risk the person could fall out of bed. If there’s a risk the person could pull themselves over the bed rails then they should not be used. In either scenario, bed rails can’t be used to keep a person in bed against their wishes. Yep it’s a minefield in health and social care.
     

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