The Wear Court Nursing Home in Rock Lodge Road at Roker in Sunderland, is an extremely popular care home catering for older age residents, either short or long stay and especially those needing respite care.
The nursing home already has a conventional lift which serves all levels however a flight of stairs on the third floor leading to an intermediate level meant that the only form of powered access was a stair lift. Because of the narrowness of the staircase, especially at the lowest level it appeared that a stair lift would not fit in the space available. Following a site survey by Invalifts, leading powered access suppliers, led to a feasibility study by the company’s engineering department which proved that the Invalifts’ Stair Riser wheelchair platform lift, which has a special raise and lower facility, was the only model available in the marketplace to fulfil the home’s special requirements.
The raise and lower facility works similar to a normal stair lift in that it follows the angle of the stairs. However, when it reaches the bottom step it has a unique mechanism which allows it to then raise or lower vertically in position. This saves space at the bottom of the stairs and allows a lift to be fitted into a space that would not be possible with a normal unit.
When not in use the wall mounted unit just automatically folds away at the touch of a button when required, and measures just 280mm from the wall when folded. The travel is four steps, a height of .68m with a platform size of 800mm by 1m although different size platforms are available.
Invalifts, which was founded in 2000, has become one of the UK’s leading suppliers of powered access equipment and has installed hundreds of platform lifts in schools, libraries, churches, night clubs, leisure centres and commercial buildings. It has also just launched the M6000, a small footprint traditional lift designed for stairwells up to 24 metres high and up to eight levels.
