Sky News reports on care home environments

A nurse rushes up the corridor putting on surgical gloves as she goes. Another runs in the opposite direction slinging on a plastic apron.

A panel on the wall is full of flashing red lights, each representing a room in which someone wants help. And as well as the lights, an alarm bell rings constantly and never seems to shut off.

This is the typical scene in many care homes today and specifically the one reported on by Sky News.

“It’s constantly busy and we are under a lot of pressure to deliver extremely high standards of care,” says Nicola Richards, the director and sole owner of Palm Row Healthcare, which runs three residential and nursing homes in Sheffield. Nicola has not made a profit for the past six years.

Neil McManus of GHM Care says: “Obviously there are serious funding issues affecting the operation of care homes. One area we are trying to help however is improving the environment for residents, staff and owners. The constant beeping and flashing from the nurse call system and other alarms creates a really stressful environment for everybody. Our messaging platform delivers the alerts directly to the carers smartphone so the home is not only quieter but staff don’t have to constantly rush to a central console to view the alert and silence it.”

Read more about Nexus Care nurse call messaging here.