Hobart-based university students have designed disposable beds to be sent to West Africa to assist medical professionals in the ongoing Ebola outbreak.
Hamish Cowie, Lincoln Williams and Alexander Stephens are the minds behind the design and they are hoping to make a difference while completing their university degrees in geology, business and law.
The beds are made from corflute, a thicker version of the material used to make real estate signs, and it was a simple thought by the students that led to the creation of the beds.
“We thought ‘why can’t we just make a temporary [bed] out of cardboard or something?’,” one of the designers Mr Cowie told 936 ABC Hobart.
“We designed the bed in response to the Ebola outbreak when the NGOs were saying that there was a massive shortage of supplies.”
Mr Cowie said the group of designers set out to create disposable medical beds that are low cost and have less environmental impact than conventional hospital bedding.
“The idea behind it was to make it as user-friendly as possible for all those over there, but have a certain level of comfort as well, so we have designed it with the patient in mind too,” he said.
The flat-packed corflute is unfolded and slotted together in a honeycomb shape for the strongest possible bed using the least amount of material, with a mattress placed on top.
“The mattress is a composite PVC and foam mattress. You crack the valve open and it will fill itself within two minutes, seal the valve up again and put it on top and that’s all you need,” said Mr Cowie.
Another of the designers, Lincoln Williams said even though the beds are technically recyclable, their use in Africa will mean they face a different disposal.
“Any conventional plastic recycling can recycle it, but in West Africa it will just be burned [as] they don’t have the ability to recycle infected material,” he said.
Mr Williams said at the moment the beds cost around $30 per unit to make which covers the manufacturing in China and the delivery to treatment centres in Africa.
Isaiah Lahai, a member of Hobart’s Sierra Leone community with a personal connection to the current Ebola outbreak, has given his full support to the local designers.
“I want to thank these young men who have given up their university studies to help people in West Africa,” he said.
“If we can do something from now until the end of December, if we can at least raise some money and have the first shipment by January or February it will really help.”
Mr Lahai said the beds were not only going to Sierra Leone but also to surrounding countries such as Liberia and Guinea.
“We have to stand with them, give them the support for them to succeed in this unique project,” he said.
The designers can be contacted via their website and Facebook page.