First hand experience from a recent trip to a hotel without ceiling hoist facilities.

The Mobile Hoist Saga Begins ...

I was recently invited to speak at a conference and had to stay in Scotland in a city where there are no hotels with ceiling track hoists (not difficult as there is only one – London). The organisation inviting me arranged the accommodation and hired a mobile hoist for me. However, I normally go away to London with one PA, but with a mobile hoist two PAs are needed, with additional costs in travel, accommodation, and food, not to mention wages.

The hire company was keen to have confirmation that my “carers” had been trained to use the hoist but made no mention of the clearance needed under the bed. I fortunately rang the organisers to get the situation checked and the hotel Duty Manager agreed to sort out what to do when I arrived, but I was not made aware of this.

When, after train delays, we eventually arrived after 9.30 pm, tired and unfed, I was distressed to realise that not only had the hoist been put in a double room (I had specifically asked for a twin so one PA could sleep with me) but there was no under-bed clearance. The Duty Manager (not the one who had made the previous arrangement) agreed that we could move to a twin accessible room which was smaller, and while we went down to the bar the bed was put up on 4 beer crates.

This worked OK until in the morning one was pushed out of position when manoeuvring to get me out of the bed, but fortunately I was not returning to bed again. Manoeuvring space was very limited indeed. In order to get into the bathroom, I had to be manoeuvred first over a small but difficult threshold and then over the basin, and while being lowered on to the loo the hoist got caught on a shelf despite the best efforts of both PAs.

The hoist worked OK, but because I need to be the one in control of my up and down movement, and hoists are designed for “carer” use, the control plug worked loose, and for a while I was stranded in the air until my engineering skills diagnosed the fault!

All this reinforced for me the problems of a mobile hoist, and the benefits of ceiling track installations.

SueMC
Sept 2007