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Hi Zoe
I had an idea that this was the background to your query ;-)
We are very involved in local partnership working and have been having to deal with this issue on a regular basis. There are a number
of hopefully relevant comments I can make;
i)
Getting local contractors who are knowledgeable, effective and reliable is very difficult. We have a very good
one now, one who is extremely professional in his approach; ADSA member; very knowledgeable of his products and general installation issues; stays up to date with regulations; and importantly keen to learn about/work in the accessibility arena and prepared
to work in partnership with us. There have been many false dawns and it is a painful process of trial and error to find one.
ii)
Because it is a tender process you have 2 real potential stumbling blocks a) the investment in time and effort
required to acquire the above offers no guaranteed return, which is a resistor to developing these relationships and b) the tendering process means that your wonderful ‘diamond in the rough’ might not get the contract in any case!
iii)
You can get round this problem by having the commissioners accept that automation is actually a specialist area,
when considering individuals with severe and complex disability, because it is! On that basis it is possible to request and appoint suitably approved specialist contractors directly. To achieve this you need genuine ‘joint working’ with your local housing
and care colleagues. For some reason appointing an NHS supplier as a specialist contractor in the housing field, doesn’t go down well!
iv)
An obvious issue with all the above is that you, as an NHS employee you cannot groom or recommend particular commercial
concerns, so again, you need good working relationships so that effective communication can occur without crossing unacceptable boundaries. It quite reasonable for you to be asked to comment on the technical competence, knowledge, skills or the output of an
installer, especially if you have an engineering background – even better if you’re chartered.
v)
In relation to ii) and iii), cheapest is usually worse in this area, and when I say usually I mean 9 times out
of 10. It will not achieve the desired goal and will be more expensive in the long run (especially if your service charged for the additional workarounds that you subsequently had to perform..!). The other ‘value’ issue is that whether via the Possum/Steeper
annual charge or some other maintenance arrangement via another contactor, it is necessary to have contingency for support/repair as these are motorised devices and they will eventually break down. Some councils say that responsibility for support of equipment
passes to the user, after the warrantee has expired, but as this is a fixture I believe you can argue around this for such equipment. One workaround we have used is including a 3 year support plan at installation, so whether the whole thing stays in the capital
budget or is split, one funding application gets you a bit of piece of mind.
As I said, we have an excellent local contractor now, and another who is ‘evolving’ shall we say after a couple of false dawns. There
is actually a national debate that needs to be had on such things. Whether its these type of adaptations or whole ‘design and build’ projects, there is no protection for the severely disabled user, to ensure that they end up with something that’s ‘fit for
purpose’ rather than just ticks some pen-pusher’s accessibility checklist – you can tell from the length of my reply that this is a bug bear of mine!
Cheers
Jeremy
Jeremy Linskell CEng, CSci, MIPEM
Principal Clinical Scientist
Electronic Assistive Technology Service
NHS Tayside
tel: 01382-496286
fax:01382-496322
Editorial Board Member of
Journal of Assistive Technologies
From:
Sent: Tuesday, November 12, 2013 1:55 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Automatic Door Openers
Hi All
Thank you for your responses regarding automatic door openers. I am very aware of Steeper and Possum but in planning for the new service
specification, where door openers are explicitly out, we are looking to help local aids/adapts services in sourcing contractors (for which they may need at least 3 tenders/options).
So more specifically I was interested to see if others are doing anything about this and/or know of other contractors.
I was vague in my initial post however it is interesting to see the concensus of opinion around suppliers of door openers which this resulted in.
I would be interested in further thoughts on this.
Thanks
Zoe
Zoë Clarke (née Robertson)
Assistive Technology Clinical Specialist
(Working hours Monday, Tuesday and Thursday)
Block 14
S75 2EP
01226 432159
Visit our website: www.barnsleyhospital.nhs.uk/at
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From:
Sent: Monday, November 04, 2013 4:31 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Automatic Door Openers
Zoe,
I thought Possum and Steeper generally do so and would have the benefit of Environmental Control compatbility. Interested to
hear others though.
Neil Gregory
Senior Bio-Engineer
WeSTMARC - West of
Southern
Email:
[log in to unmask]
Web:
www.nhsggc.org.uk/westmarc
Tel - 0844 8113001 (Lo-Call)
Fax - 0141-201 2649
From:
Sent: 04 November 2013 14:54
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Automatic Door Openers
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This message was sent from an email address external to NHSmail but gives the appearance of being from an NHSmail (@nhs.net) address. The recipient should verify the sender and content before acting upon information contained within.
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Hi
I just wondered if people have any ideas of companies who are able to supply and install automatic door openers.
Thanks
Zoe
Zoë Clarke (née Robertson)
Assistive Technology Clinical Specialist
(Working hours Monday, Tuesday and Thursday)
Block 14
S75 2EP
01226 432159
Visit our website: www.barnsleyhospital.nhs.uk/at
Subscribe to our blog for occassional news and information:
https://barnsleyat.wordpress.com/ (click +Follow and add your email address )
Follow us on twitter for news and other updates:
https://twitter.com/BarnsleyAT
Check out our latest training:
www.barnsleyhospital.nhs.uk/services/assistive-technology/training-courses/
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