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First Step Leg Bath

The Problem

Leg ulceration is a common and painful problem that currently affects over 100,000 patients in the UK, and is estimated to cost the NHS more than £400 million a year. Moreover, the management cost of treating these wounds are expected to increase significantly over time, as a result of an ageing population.
 
Treatment of ulcerated leg wounds is often managed within the community by means of home visits from a Community Care nurse, who soaks the patient’s affected leg in medicated solution for up to twenty minutes, once or twice a day. The process is time consuming and difficult, particularly if a purpose built plumbed in water bath is not available, as typically occurs in the home setting. The process is further complicated when dealing with patients suffering from limited mobility, general frailness and in some cases, obesity.
 

The Solution

Community care nurse Maureen Scott at the North Tyneside Primary Care Trust thought of the First Step Leg Bath in response to these limitations and as a result she won first prize in the Innovative Technology category in the Bright ideas in health awards in 2008 for her improved leg bath design.
 
The improved design was developed in conjunction with NHS Innovations North and DLAB – Integrated Design Labs based at the Institute of Digital Innovation at the University of Teesside.
 
Following its success in the Bright ideas in health awards, the improved leg bath was successfully licensed to MDTi, a medical devices company based in the Midlands. The launch of the First Step Leg Bath is set for February 2010. 

Benefit to the NHS

The First Step Leg Bath addresses the limitations of the current procedure and provides a method of treatment which is both comfortable for the patient and easy to use by Community Care nurses in the patient’s own home.

For further information please contact Nicola Wesley on 0191 5164400 or email nicola.wesley@nhsinnovationsnorth.org.uk

24/Feb/2010

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