Engineering firm comes to rescue of city cancer care nurses having to hang patient drips up with coat hangers

Orbital Fabrications, of St Ives, has donated intravenous stands to the hospital’s Cancer Community Nurses who treat patients at their own homes.

The firm had heard the nurses were having to use coat hangers to hang up fluid bags for shielding cancer patients due to shortage of supplies during the peak of the coronavirus.

The hospital explained: “The Peterborough Community Cancer Nurses have been working even harder over the pandemic to visit patients shielding in the community, taking the service to them.

“They have received a donation of mobile IV stands from Orbital Fabrications, who heard that the nurses were using coat hangers to hook their IV fluid bags over patients’ curtain rails or doors, and as a specialist stainless steel fabrications manufacturer supplying into the medical industry, they made these bespoke stands and have made the nurses’ days a lot easier.”

Sales and marketing manager Tim Kennett explained: “They were struggling because they didn’t have all the equipment needed to carry out a variety of treatments properly - Orbital Fabrications to the rescue.”

He said: “We have already had great feedback from the nurses who think the stands are excellent.”

Tim added: “This all came about because my wife is one of the nurses in the team for this relatively new scheme to treat cancer patients at home.

“She mentioned to me that she was having to hang the IV Bag on curtain rails, wardrobes, and so on because she and other nurses didn’t have stands. I told this to our directors - the company is owned and run by two brothers - they immediately asked our engineering guys to design something and to make three stands to donate to the Cancer Specialist Team.”

The hospital said the nurses would like to extend a “huge thank you for this special act of kindness”.