Stretcher Transit Isolator for transporting people with haemorrhagic fevers

Stretcher Transit Isolator intended for transporting patients with haemorrhagic fevers. Originally manufactured by Vickers Medical, Basingstoke in 1976, with later additions by Elwyn E Roberts Isolators Ltd and then later refurbished by PCS isolators of Whitchurch, it was initially kept – and possibly used – in the Infectious Disease Unit at Coppett's Wood Hospital, Muswell Hill, North London, until 2005 when it was transferred to the Royal Free Hospital, London.

This mobile technology was developed to safely isolate and move patients that had, or were suspected of having highly contagious or virulent and deadly infectious diseases while protecting medical staff and the surrounding environment. The unit is comprised of a Furley type stretcher, a classic 19th-century designed by invented by Sir John Furley of the St John Ambulance in 1899, with a mattress on an aluminium and steel frame, with telescopic handles mounted on a wheeled trolley. Once on the stretcher a patient can be isolated within a transparent P.V.C. film envelope with eight arm sleeves and one infusion drip sleeve to allow access by medical staff. Breathing is enabled by an air supply system powered by either mains supply or a 6V sealed lead acid battery, with air passing through a microbiological filter containing a nylon fibre pre-filter. An earlier envelope and air supply system were replaced in 1996, suggesting that the unit may well have been used prior to this point.

A specialised piece of technology that was intended to largely be on standby, over its long ‘working’ life the potential biological threats it might be employed to respond to changed and expanded. In the mid-1970s, patients with Lassa Fever – a recently identified dangerous and acute viral haemorrhagic illness – were likely to have been seen as the primary potential occupants of the isolator. In the following decades, the threat of biological warfare, newly emergent diseases and specific disease outbreaks – such as the Ebola epidemic of 2014-2016 during which it was refurbished by PCS Isolators – ensured that the unit was kept in good working condition. Just in case.