With this beach stretcher, patients no longer need to be transferred out of the ambulance first.

‘One last trip to the seaside.’ For people who do not have long to live or who are bedridden, this is often something they would still like to do. The WensAmbulance Oost-Nederland foundation, which aims to fulfil wishes of this kind, uses special beach stretchers for this purpose. These are electrically powered and have large wheels.

The drawback of this solution is that, at a car park, the patient must be transferred from the ambulance stretcher onto the beach stretcher. This places considerable demands on both the volunteers carrying out the transfer and the patient, who is often seriously ill and weakened.

That is why students at Saxion University of Applied Sciences in Enschede, commissioned by WensAmbu
-launch Eastern Netherlands, developed a beach stretcher onto which the ambulance stretcher is placed directly and then secured firmly and stably, whilst the patient can simply remain lying down.

This new stretcher also features wide tyres and electric drive, to make it easier to manoeuvre through the sand. This makes it useful not only on the beach but also in other locations where a standard ambulance stretcher struggles to move forward, such as nature reserves, recreational areas and parts of wildlife parks.

The students’ initial design, produced to scale using a 3D printer, was developed and perfected by SW Techniek in Haaksbergen. The company Q-tronic supplied the motors and electrical components for the drive system. The beach stretcher was tested at Hulsbeek Leisure Park near Oldenzaal, Rutbeek Leisure Park in Enschede and IJmuiden beach. It was handed over to Wens-Ambulance Oost Nederland on 15 July.