Posted By Lilian McCartney Can anyone help? Been racking my brain with this one. We have a Service User who has always wanted a bunk bed and sleep in top bunk. Unfortuntely this means that one of our employees has to change the bed linen. We want the person to have the bed of their choice (they've previously been in an insititution for years and now have their own home)but we've had an incident where an employee had a back injury due to changing the bed linen. Any ideas about access? Using the bunk ladder means they're actually on the bed and its then that the problem arises as they would need to lift the mattress corner while they were on it. I've been looking at stepladders, we have training etc. Anyone come across this before and what did you do? Many thanks

Posted By B How tall is the bunk bed? Is it against the wall? Does it have solid sides? We haven’t had this problem (yet) but if the bed could be positioned away from the wall you might be able to change the bed linen using a small step-stool (very sturdy) to stand on, assuming that the bed is not so high that the individual still has to reach up, and the sides are not solid so access is available from the outside of the bed. I hate to use the dreaded words, but risk assessment is probably your key here. I'm not sure the scenario I painted above wouldn't just create different risks, rather than removing them! Is it not possible for the service user to make their own bed, thus negating the problem?

Posted By Jane Blunt My son had a (home made) bunk bed. I used fitted sheets (the ones with elasticated corners) and duvets. The former hardly need any work to fit them and the duvet can be changed at ground level and pitched over the side. Jane

Posted By Peter MacDonald Who's blaming the IP? Part of a manual handling risk assessment is the ability of the person to carry out the task. If they cannot then why not get someone more capable? Do you think the IP can handle a set of step ladders without getting injured if they can't make a bed? How will they get them up the stairs or through the door, or out of the car. lets get serious here! Introducing equipment to change a bed sheet!!Changing the covers on a bunkbed is something thousands of people do every day. Just because someone gets paid to do it doesn't make it dangerous. Peter

Posted By Lilian McCartney thanks everyone for your replies. I'm not trying to overdo the safety precautions but kneeling on a mattress and lifting it up to tuck in a fitted sheet is what they are doing just now, on the top bunk. For an 'ordinary' bed, they're likely to be leaning over as well if we can't get the bed to move away from the wall easily or permanently. With the top bunk they would be completely on the mattress. The employee with the injury isn't doing anymore manual handlning tasks due to some other circumstances. Just wanted a feel to see if there was some very simple solution which didn't mean the bedroom was turned into a gadget room. When we've consdiered all the facts and solutions we will hopefully pick the 'best' one to try and see how practical and reasonably practicable this is. Thanks again Lilian

Posted By Lilian McCartney Thanks John and all who e-mailed me we now have some things to try out Lilian