The Department of Health, the NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency and the Design Council challenged the UK’s design and manufacturing community to design and prototype new hospital furniture and equipment that will help to reduce Healthcare Associated Infections (HCAIs).
If hospital equipment and furniture is designed to be easy to clean and easy to use, it will stay cleaner — and therefore help reduce the risk of infection. As part of the Healthcare Associated Infection Technology Innovation Programme, which aims to speed up the development and adoption of technologies to further help combat HCAIs and identify which new technologies provide the best value and will have the most impact, Design Bugs Out has brought together designers and manufacturers with clinical specialists, patients and frontline staff to help combat infections by making hospital furniture and equipment easier and quicker to clean.
Experts
The project began by enlisting the help of an Expert Reference Group, comprising leading figures and experts from the Department of Health, NHS and industry, all of whom had many years’ experience of fighting Healthcare Associated Infections (HCAIs). At the same time, an Advisory Board was set up, with industry, microbiology and healthcare experts working with some of the UK’s leading designers to guide the project at a strategic level.
Research
The Design Council carried out research to identify parts of the clinical environment that could benefit from design input. The team, including designers, ergonomists and researchers, visited a number of NHS hospitals and worked with patients, nurses, domestics and other staff to discuss issues and experience them firsthand.
Design briefs
The research team used their insights as the basis for a series of design briefs to develop working prototypes of furniture and equipment.
They identified 51 design opportunities, grouping them into 17 themes through stakeholder workshops. These were presented to the Expert Reference Group and Advisory Board, who shortlisted ten opportunities to be tackled in two streams: quick wins, to be developed by the Helen Hamlyn Centre at the Royal College of Art (RCA), and a national design competition, open to UK designers and manufacturers.
The RCA, one of the world’s leading postgraduate design schools, assigned two Research Associates with experience in healthcare design to manage responses to their briefs.
National competition
Once the briefs had been issued the Design Council, in partnership with the Design Business Association, launched a national competition for teams of designers and manufacturers.
Competition entries were shortlisted and judged by a panel of some of the UK’s most respected experts in the fields of design, healthcare, microbiology, nursing and patient care.
The panel included the designers Richard Seymour (chair) and Tom Dixon OBE, Professor Brian Duerden CBE (Inspector of Microbiology & Infection Control, Department of Health) and Susan Osborne CBE (Chief Nurse, NHS East of England).
The successful teams, made up of a designer and manufacturer, were awarded £25,000 each to develop their concepts. At regular intervals they, and the team from the RCA, presented their work in progress to the Expert Reference Group and Advisory Board for advice.
Evaluation
The designs were tested and evaluated at eight showcase hospitals and the furniture proved to be easier to clean after undergoing rigorous assessments that replicated routine hospital cleaning procedures of typically contaminated hospital furniture. Full details of the evaluation can be downloaded from the Department of Health website. The report is intended to assist the NHS in making informed decisions about purchasing the Design Bugs Out products, which are now all available in the NHS Supply Chain catalogue online.
