Mobility equipment supplier Dash Rehab has introduced the new Dashi Lite to its powerchair range. It is lightweight with a foldable aluminium frame and is designed for indoor and outdoor use.
Dash Rehab is part of RHealthcare, which was formed through the purchase of Remploy Healthcare. RHealthcare is a member of the British Healthcare Trades Association (BHTA).
The Dashi Lite features extra-wide tyres with anti-skid technology, hill hold assist up to nine degrees, and a reliable electromagnetic braking system, providing added reassurance for adventures and exploration.
The 4mph manual-fold powered wheelchair has “exceptional performance”, Dash Rehab states. It can travel up to 12 miles on a charge, with 150W motors and a 12-amp lithium battery which is fitted inside a quick-release battery case for easy access.
The Dashi Lite has fixed armrests made from aerofoil foam and a swing-away leg rest, which offer users a safe and stable resting position. For a comfortable ride, the backrest is designed to fit the body curve, offering support for the lower back and helping muscles to stay more relaxed when seated for longer periods. The seat and backrest are crafted from a breathable fabric to aid relaxation.
For flexibility and ease of use, the chair’s intelligent operating system includes a clear display with USB port for smart phones, tablets, and aids. For extra peace of mind, day or night, the Dashi Lite also features LED headlights.
The Dashi Lite powerchair is compact and can be folded manually, making it easy to transport, with an overall lifting weight of 21kg, excluding the battery. It has a maximum user capacity of 100kg.
Brent McIvor, Sales and Marketing Director at Dash Rehab, said: “Delivering on performance and ergonomics, we genuinely believe the Dashi Lite is a highly functional yet practical solution for indoor and outdoor use.
“It is our entry-level model and as such is priced competitively. Users will appreciate the chair’s light weight and easy fold mechanism for transportation.”
Retailers wishing to know more about the Dashi Lite can contact Dash Rehab on 0845 146 0600 or email sales@rhealthcare.co.uk.
Ambucare recently became a British Healthcare Trades Association (BHTA) member and specialises in servicing, repairing, and supplying new equipment to nursing and care homes.
BHTA recently caught up with Lee Thorneycroft, Director and Owner of Ambucare, to find out more about the company, its upcoming product launch that securely attaches pressure care mattress pumps to profiling beds, and why the BHTA logo delivers automatic trust to customers.
BHTA: Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
Lee: “As a mechanical engineer, I have worked in the healthcare sector as a service engineer for 20 years. I did have a break for two years between times, as I worked for JCB Uttoxeter, but soon realised my future laid in healthcare as I knew I was actually making a difference to people’s lives.
“Having left JCB I joined Ambucare as a service engineer (my way back to doing the job I really loved). Two years in, I was offered the opportunity to buy Ambucare, which I took to the present day.”
BHTA: What is Ambucare, and what is the company’s ethos?
Lee: “Since taking over at Ambucare, we now have a healthy nursing/care home client base. Ambucare specialises in L.O.L.E.R testing of all lifting equipment in nursing/care homes across the UK.
“Ambucare not only services and repairs equipment but also supplies new equipment. We carry out bed and mattress audits also. We work on the theory that if a nursing home requires anything, Ambucare will supply or repair it.
“Our company motto is: Removing Barriers, Enhancing Lives.
“Our main ethos as a company is, and always will be, customer care. Our customers are our priority, and they will always come first because without our customers, we have no business.
“Transparency and honesty also play a big role within our company values; we always focus on this whilst dealing with our clients, as we always treat them with the compassion and respect that we would hope to be treated by others.”
BHTA: Is Ambucare launching any new products?
Lee: “Ambucare is just about to launch a new product called Securapump to securely attach pressure care mattress pumps to profiling beds in nursing/care homes and across the community, addressing issues such as infection control, health and safety issues, and expensive pump repair bills but more importantly bring huge benefits to the comfort of the end-user in the bed.”
BHTA: Are there any challenges your company is currently facing?
Lee: “As with many other companies I imagine, we are finding the current climate with price rises very challenging. We, as a company, are always having to work hard to avoid passing these price rises onto our customers, soaking up these price rises wherever possible.
“Also, since the UK left the European Union, we are finding that our suppliers are having difficulties with importing equipment/spare parts, resulting in our lead times to our customers being extended. This in itself soaks up our employees’ time, as they are having to communicate with our customers more than normal to update them about any delays.
“Fortunately, everyone is fully aware of the situation and they are very understanding, but it is time we could be spending elsewhere within the company. Very frustrating, but I feel there is nothing else we can do going forward until the economy slows down.”
BHTA: What are the benefits of being a BHTA member?
Lee: “We know that being a member of BHTA brings huge benefits to our company. Firstly, being able to add the BHTA logos to our social media and marketing products brings automatic trust that we are complying with what is required to being a member. For us, as a company, to have the knowledge that both ourselves and our clients have back up in the unfortunate event of any disputes arising is important.
“It is also satisfying to know that if in the future we do bring products to market ourselves that we have professional experts that will advise on overcoming problems and barriers that we would normally struggle to find.”
To find out more about how the BHTA can support your business and how to become a BHTA member, visit this page.
British Healthcare Trades Association (BHTA) member Alert-iT is an assistive care technology specialist offering a range of epilepsy monitors, fall detectors, dementia care solutions, incontinence support items, and pagers and logging.
BHTA recently caught up with Rick Gunn, Operations Director at Alert-iT, to learn more about how the company started, what it offers, and how the BHTA provides invaluable support.
BHTA: Can you give us some background on yourself and how Alert-iT started?
Rick: “I have been with Alert-iT for almost 10 years now; May 2023 will be my tenth year! Before that, I was Global Supply Chain Leader for a UK-based business owned by General Electric.
“My background has been in operations, team management, material logistics, and project management for around 20 years.
“I was working as a consultant when I had a phone call from the founder of Alert-iT; he had heard of me as we had both worked in the same industry. He asked me to come and have a look at his growing business. I came on board as a consultant product manager and within a few months I was asked if I wanted to join Alert-iT permanently as a director.
“I fell in love with the business very quickly to be honest with you! The job had a real ‘feel-good’ factor to it right from the start. When we are more successful, it means that we are helping more people, making their life easier, and making the lives of carers less stressful, through the use of our technology.”
BHTA: Has Alert-iT launched any new products recently?
Rick: “Alert-iT has just released a new version of a general bed alarm. The Alert-iT P163 Bed Alarm is used to support a person whilst in bed or chair, alarming if they leave.
“The alarm uses a range of sensors to suit a wide range of situations by placing them on or under the mattress, on a chair, or on the floor. The P163 automatically alarms differently if it detects a bed and chair sensor or floor mat.
“It has an easy-to-press button located on the front, so a person can call for help, whilst also having the capability for the carer to escalate the call to urgent if they require assistance. The caregiver is notified of an event via either the Alert-iT failsafe pager or connecting to an existing nurse call system.
“Having a dual input gives the user more ways to call for assistance. For example, input 1 can be timed for bed occupancy while input 2 can have an easy-to-reach wired call button. Alternatively, if there are two beds or chairs near to each other it can monitor two users at the same time.
“The P163 is specially designed so it can pick up each person individually and send separate alarms.”
BHTA: It must be a great feeling to know that your company is helping to improve people’s lives.
Rick: “For sure. There is a huge emotional element to what we do on a regular basis, either through an email, a social media post, or a phone conversation that can quite often start off as a support call where someone has an issue with some operational product settings can become an in-depth conversation about their situation. I have often sat back and got quite emotional about it.
“Because you are involving yourself in people’s lives, and, for example, if you are speaking with a mum and dad about their son or daughter – I’m a dad – you are almost transporting yourself into their situation, into their lives, and you gain a small perception as to what their life must be like and what they are going through.
“Then when they tell you that your equipment is helping them in such a massive way, that’s a hugely emotional thing to be a part of. It’s very powerful to hear how you have helped.”
BHTA: Customer support must play a large role in Alert-iT.
Rick: “It does, and that is why we invest heavily in customer support. It is a huge part of our brand, which is why it is important to us to get customer feedback. Our commitment to customers is incredibly important to us.”
BHTA: What is Alert-iT’s plans for the future?
Rick: “Our plans are to complete the release of our new P200 Range of monitors as a Class IIA medical device to provide better support to carers of those with epilepsy.”
BHTA: What are the benefits of becoming a BHTA member?
Rick: “We were members after seeing that a competitor was a BHTA member, and we thought ‘that seems like something we should be doing’. When we first signed up, we had recently completed our ISO 34/35 medical standard. When you look at what requirements are needed to be a BHTA member and use your branding on a product, those were all things that we were already doing!
“So at that stage, the main benefit was in having the BHTA branding associated with our products for customers to see and for positive marketing.
“[Some of the main benefits are] tapping into the BHTA’s expertise, your ability to understand the bigger picture of what is going on in the industry, and also your ‘clout’. When the BHTA speaks up, it means more than when a smaller company speaks up.
“From a regulatory and an MHRA point of view, it means that issues we, as smaller companies, can become a big deal and that the issues need to be dealt with in a significant way.”
BHTA: How has the BHTA supported Alert-iT?
Rick: “We have had some amazing support from David Stockdale (BHTA CEO) and William Lee (BHTA Head of Policy and Compliance) with some problems that we have been having!
“In fact, it was when David Stockdale asked if there was anything that the BHTA could help with at our trade stand at an event in Dusseldorf that led to us asking for some advice.
“That conversation has meant that we have had some amazing support from the BHTA, which has really blown us away. In particular, the time we have had to speak to William Lee has been such an eye-opener for us. He is such a force and is so passionate as well that after speaking with him you really do feel like this guy has got your back.
“The fact that he and Kathryn Vaughan, BHTA Membership Engagement Manager, came down on a train to meet with us for what was actually a very short meeting just shows the commitment that the BHTA has to help its members.
“Also, William Lee has provided invaluable insights and support with our dealings with the MHRA regarding the MHRA decision to re-classify our core products to Class IIA devices. William Lee attended our site when our local MP came to visit to discuss the lack of support from the MHRA.
“When something goes wrong, that’s when you need support, and that is where being a BHTA member has proved to be vital for us.”
To find out more about how the BHTA can support your business and how to become a BHTA member, visit this page.
Specialist posture and pressure care management seating firm Tri-Chair recently became a member of the British Healthcare Trades Association (BHTA).
Since then, BHTA caught up with Shaun McCluskey, Managing Director at Tri-Chair, to find out more about the firm, how its specialist seating modularity grows with user’s changing needs and facilitates cost-effective refurbishment, and why it decided to become a BHTA member.
Tri-Chair was developed by Channel Healthcare, which is a team of experienced, knowledgeable, and enthusiastic independent seating consultants.
Channel Healthcare’s aim is to provide a timely, needs-based, and cost-effective solution to specialist seating challenges while exceeding customer expectations.
Tri-Chair’s goal is to make life easier for those tasked with equipment provision.
There are three specialist seating solutions available from Tri-Chair: Tri-Chair One, Tri-Chair Two, and Tri-Chair Three. They have different design and configuration options, but all models are underpinned by Tri-Chair’s chair frame.
Each option evolves and adapts to an individual’s needs as conditions progress or as users change. This modularity reduces the cost of specialist seating provision, enabling equipment loan stores to refurbish and reallocate a chair to a new user at a fraction of the cost of buying new.
Shaun McCluskey, Managing Director at Tri-Chair, explained: “Tri-Chair is a new modular range of specialist seating built on decades of experience within the industry. We aim to make life easier for those tasked with equipment provision. The Tri-Chair has the potential to evolve and adapt to an individual’s needs as conditions progress or indeed as users change.
“We are working with several highly experienced distributors across the UK and offer a next-day despatch to ensure clients’ needs are met before they potentially change.”
Recycling of a Tri-Chair to a new user has a number of potential benefits not only to the efficiency of equipment provision by the loan store, but to the effectiveness of occupational therapy community service, to the user who is in urgent need of postural support and pressure management, or the hospital discharge team looking to release beds.
Having readily available a specialist chair that is suitable for those that are ambulant yet require some posture and pressure care through to those with complex sitting postures following some simple adaptations is highly important.
The intuitive design of the Tri-Chair makes the adaptations and adjustments straightforward for store engineers to undertake without the need to hold exhaustive amounts of costly stock.
Furthermore, Tri-Chair’s adaptability enables it to be recycled to new users thereby extending the product’s lifecycle, minimising waste, and helping to reduce the carbon footprint of stores. Even in this small way, the Tri-Chair is contributing to a greener planet.
Shaun continued: “I spoke to Andrew Stevenson, former chair of BHTA three years ago about our dream of having a truly modular range of specialist seating that would help the likes of NRS, Millbrook, Medequip and independently operated equipment loan stores provide the very best service to every client.
“Three years later we our very proud of what we have created and the feedback from our customers has been fantastic. We are offering the range of modular seating via a network of trusted distributors across the UK and also have export customers already taking on the range. We bring passion, pride and knowledge back to the specialist seating industry along with good old fashioned customer service which for many seems to have slipped over recent years.”
Discussing the decision to become a BHTA member and what he would like the association to do more of going forwards, Shaun said: “I wanted to become a BHTA member as I feel the association helps bring likeminded companies together to help focus on driving our industry forward.
“We have supported the BHTA through several businesses through the years and feel proud to be a member.
“I’d love to see more training for members and found the pressure care awareness course ran some years ago to be one of the most informative and worthwhile courses I’ve attended.”
“We feel that the specialist seating industry has been stale for over 10 years with very little to get excited about,” Shaun explained. “Tri-Chair won the Innovation Award at the Occupational Therapy Show during the recent launch and have further developed since.
“We have just launched a new negative leg rest that provides 33 degrees of negative angle which is a first and will help a large number of clients that have developed tight contractures through Covid times.
“Our products will be constantly evolving ensuring we are the leading provider and will bring the passion and customer support that seems to have fell by the wayside in recent years.”
Tri-Chair is currently looking for experienced distributors in some areas of the UK. Interested parties should get in touch with Shaun at Shaun@trichair.co.uk.
To find out more about how the BHTA can support your business and how to become a BHTA member, visit this page.