Hounslow & Richmond Community Healthcare NHS Trust have announced that the NHS wheelchair service for Hounslow has been awarded funding to provide sleep systems to support local people with complex health needs at night with postural management, pressure management, and end of life care.

Sleep systems enable patients to maintain good posture while sleeping, helping to prevent deformities from occurring and improving the patient’s health and quality of life. The sleep systems are tailored to the needs of the user - creating a moulded shape around the body to support the patient in a well aligned posture overnight.

The local wheelchair service, provided by Hounslow and Richmond Community Healthcare NHS Trust, initially won funding from the trust’s Dragons’ Den competition in 2013 to provide sleep systems as part of a pilot study in Hounslow. Following successful results from the pilot, NHS Hounslow Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) has awarded the team funding to provide sleep systems on an on-going basis as part of a new Wheelchair and Posture Management Service.

Sarah Brown, wheelchair services manager for Hounslow and Richmond Community Healthcare NHS Trust, said: “Our pilot study looked at the effectiveness of sleep systems in supporting local people with complex health needs at night. The results and feedback from patients and carers were particularly impressive. The benefits for patients identified in our study include: improved posture whilst sleeping for the patient, improved sleep quality for the patient’s family and for carers, and a marked improvement with tone management in those with spasticity - resulting in a considerable improvement in daily functions and a reduced need for costly hip surgery.”

She adds: “We are delighted to have secured funding to roll-out and increase the provision of sleep systems and posture management to local people in Hounslow on an on-going basis, which will enable us to provide sleep systems for 30 service users a year.”

In 2014, in recognition of the pilot sleep system study in Hounslow, the trust’s wheelchair service was shortlisted for a prestigious national HSJ Award for compassionate patient care. Find out more here.

Following the additional funding for an enhanced service offering, the service will be renamed the Hounslow Wheelchair and Posture Management Service from 1 August 2015. The new service will be rolled out for patients of all ages and those requiring complex postural management, complex pressure care or end of life care.

For more information, visit or call the service on 020 3771 5990/1.