Eliminating Syringe Pump Loss at Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
A collaborative partnership improving patient care and equipment visibility
This has been a genuine collaboration between clinical teams, Medical Engineering, Information Governance and Idoxโฆ a solution that really works in practice.
Steve Webb
Service Delivery Manager, Medical Engineering, GMS
Instead of searching for equipment, our teams can focus on patients and their families.
Samantha White
Clinical Lead Specialist Palliative Care
Overview:
Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (GHNHSFT) delivers acute and specialist services across the county, including vital palliative and end-of-life care. Reliable access to syringe pumps is essential for patient comfort. Working with Gloucestershire Managed Services (GMS), the Trust prioritises safe, efficient care-making effective monitoring of mobile medical equipment increasingly important.
The challenge:
Syringe pumps are essential for palliative and end-of-life symptom management, yet GHNHSFT historically struggled to locate them, with around 20% going missing each year. This created delays in pain relief, increased clinical and engineering risk, and generated avoidable operational pressure across teams. Earlier attempts to address the issue, such as tagging the lockbox proved unreliable as tags frequently detached, lockboxes broke, and solutions failed sterilisation requirements.
Recognising the impact on patient safety, the Medical Engineering Team invited the Clinical Lead for Specialist Palliative Care and asset tracking partner Idox to redesign a solution that met clearly defined clinical and operational requirements.
A smarter, clinically-led solution
Building on this principle, the team redesigned both the monitoring method and the lockbox:
- Securing the monitoring tag to the syringe pump rather than the lockbox
- Creating a redesigned lockbox with a dedicated tag housing and an internal ownership slot
- Ensuring a clinically safe design that withstands rigorous cleaning and sterilisation
- Using riot-grade materials for durability in high-use environments
- Completing a full clinical engineering review, confirming no impact on pump performance or safety
This engineering and clinical collaboration ensured the final solution was safe, robust, and suitable for everyday NHS practice.
“Many solutions monitor the box. We chose to tag the syringe pump itself. Those details matter in realworld NHS use.” Chris Williams, Senior Sales & Client Lead, Idox
The impact
A safe, co-designed approach enabled significant clinical, operational and financial improvements.
Key outcomes included:
- 100% reduction in lost BodyGuard Tโข syringe pumps
- Faster access to pain relief for palliative and end-of-life patients
- More time released for clinical teams to focus on care
- Higher return rates from community partners
- Improved visibility of syringe pumps across acute and community settings
- A repeatable blueprint for monitoring other mobile medical devices
- Estimated ยฃ50,000 saved within the first nine months by avoiding replacement purchases
Next Steps
The Trust plans to expand real-time monitoring to additional mobile devices, building on the success of this project and the flexibility of Idoxโs iAssets tracking solution.
