Central Monitoring System

With the incredibly generous support of the Amateurs Trust, Bedfordshire Hospitals Charity have funded a brand new Central Monitoring System to be placed in the Majors Department of our ED.

A central patient monitoring system is an essential piece of equipment that monitors patients’ vital signs simultaneously in real time with the capability of adjusting the number of parameters measured according to the severity of each patient’s symptoms.

The system interoperates with the bedside monitors already used to chart patients’ clinical information on a central screen. This is usually located at the nurses’ workstation which allows clinical staff to have an overview of the vital signs of multiple patients on the same screen, without physically being in the same room. This is an incredibly efficient system which allow for easier and prompter recognition of when a patient is deteriorating and requires immediate bedside attendance.

Currently, we have an NHS provided central monitoring system in our resuscitation area which is an 8-bed clinical area where patients with the highest acuity receive treatment. The charity is seeking funds to buy a new Central Monitoring System for our “Majors” area. This isn’t statutory for an area outside the Resuscitation area, however due to the pandemic and usual winter pressures, we have a high level of respiratory patients requiring close attention and we simply lack capacity in resuscitation, we want to provide the best possible care for our patients.

We estimate that on average 50 patients a day (18,250 patients per year!) will benefit from this system, although this will vary from day to day dependant on each patient’s length of stay.

We remain incredibly grateful to the Amateurs Trust for their incredible support of this equipment which will enable our clinical staff to provide life-saving treatment to emergency patients entering our ED. Please do get in touch with our fundraising team if you would like to support one of our other crucial Emergency Department appeals.