A COMPANY which specialises in medical technology to improve the safety of patients and carers has won royal recognition.

GBUK Banana, part of GBUK Group in Selby which specialises in patient moving and handling technology, has received the Queen’s Award for Enterprise 2020 in the innovation category.

The prestigious award is in recognition of GBUK Banana's Versal system which helps to protect patients and staff from injury, and helps to reduce the user’s risk of error.

The technology ensures that all bony prominences of the patient are protected by two layers of slide sheet.

This increases patient comfort, reduces nursing time and improves care.

Just one design of the slide sheet can be used in every clinical situation, reducing strain on the carer, minimising inventory, simplifying training requirements and helping to ensure universal compliance.

GBUK Banana’s Versal system helps reduce the hidden costs of pressure ulcers and musculoskeletal injury, such as back pain.

Pressure ulcers can be life-threatening to patients, while leading to several disabilities and infections, as well as extend hospital stays.

The NHS spends an estimated £1.3b annually on hospital-acquired pressure ulcers – reducing these by just one per cent would help save even £13m.

The effectiveness of the technology was shown in one of the case studies in the North East.

After a year of using the Versal system, County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust reported a 29 per cent reduction in pressure ulcers, as well as improvement of care and nursing time as a result of the simplicity of the device.

The GBUK Group currently supplies every UK NHS trust, and GBUK Banana also offers support to home and community care providers with its On-Bed Repositioning Kit.

Mark Thompson, CEO of GBUK Group, said: “This award is the culmination of many years of hard work by the GBUK team."

He said it was an honour to be selected for an internationally-recognised accolade, and he thanked his "exceptional team, who have been pivotal in improving patient care by bringing our leading technology to market”.

GBUK Banana's range includes transfer boards and sheets for moving patients from a bed to a trolley or operating table, slide sheets to help reposition patients in bed, and hoists and slings for moving patients safely and with dignity.