Consultation on guidance on the safe use of bed rails

The use of bed rails can carry serious risks for users if they are prescribed, installed or maintained improperly. The MHRA continues to receive adverse incident reports where users have been seriously injured or have died as a result of the improper use of bed rails.

The MHRA has produced a draft guidance document on the safe use of bed rails. This document aims to provide advice to all users, carers and staff with responsibility for the provision, prescription, use, maintenance and fitting of bed rails.

The MHRA has previously published guidance on the safe use of bed rails. This revised version has been updated to improve layout and to reflect changes in devices and practices. It uses information from recently reported adverse incidents and near-misses. It also now includes information on BS EN 50637:2017, a standard for medical beds for children published since the previous guidance.

This consultation is to help the MHRA understand if the proposed document meets the needs of the intended audience. We welcome your comments on this draft via this Microsoft Word comment sheet which can be returned to dts@mhra.gov.uk. We will use the responses to modify the guidance if necessary, and a final version will be published later in 2019.