For the staff of the Nantes University Hospital (Loire-Atlantique), “chair hunting” was a daily sport.
The wheelchairs made available near the entrances did not always return to their starting point, far from it.
Faced with wasted time and especially faced with the real need for certain patients to be able to use an armchair to navigate the kilometers of corridors of the immense Hôtel-Dieu, the Nantes University Hospital decided to innovate.
For the first time in France, a public hospital is deploying two stations for its wheelchairs, drawing on the know-how of Weelshare, an Israeli company.
Put an end to the hunt for chairs
“The system is quite easy to use,” promises Orianne le Gabellec, reception policy coordinator at Nantes University Hospital.
As in a Vélib' station, there is a terminal in which you insert your bank card and you can then borrow a chair.
» The service is completely free for the first four hours for the user and then costs 2 euros per additional hour.
A free period deemed sufficient by the University Hospital: on average, the 570,000 users around the world kept their chairs for 2 hours 17 minutes.
If the chair is never returned, 400 euros are taken from the bank card.
Also read: They bring old wheelchairs back to life
“In fact, according to our service provider, the return rate is very high and we will take all precautions to contact the user before billing them for the chair,” adds Orianne le Gabellec.
The first station was installed near the main entrance to the Hôtel-Dieu, the second should be installed in the coming days at the other end of the building, at the mother-child hospital.
This is currently an experiment which should last three months and allow the service to be adjusted.
And to put an end to the hunt for chairs.