From £1 to £180: how NICE guidance helped us make smarter slide sheet choices

Evelyn Otunbade is the moving and handling lead at London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust. She leads on safe moving and handling practices, moving and handling strategy, access to appropriate handling equipment, and develops and delivers training programmes to support staff competence. In this guest blog, she explains how she led implementation of a consistent slide sheet procurement strategy, using NICE’s ready-made evaluation to save her time and build a compelling case for change.

Used in moving and handling practices across healthcare facilities, slide sheets create a smooth surface that enables healthcare staff to move or reposition patients more easily and safely. The NHS spends over £7 million annually on these essential pieces of equipment, with 2.3 million purchased each year through NHS Supply Chain. There are at least 30 companies providing over 187 different slide sheet products to the NHS, with individual costs ranging from just over £1 to more than £180. This makes meaningfully comparing product quality, performance and cost challenging and resource-intensive for busy NHS colleagues.

As the moving and handling lead at London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust, I've experienced these challenges firsthand. So, I was delighted when I became aware that NICE was developing guidance on slide sheets for moving or repositioning a person. I was keen to get involved and served as an expert adviser during the development process, providing input to NICE’s medical technologies advisory committee.

When the guidance was published in April 2025, I was thrilled. NICE had done the challenging work for me, pulling all the research together into a single, easy-to-use document. I immediately recognised the opportunity it presented to transform our procurement approach and deliver real value for our organisation.

Making clinically and cost-effective procurement decisions

The guidance says that there is not enough evidence to determine whether price variations between various products are justified. It recommends choosing the most appropriate slide sheet based on specific criteria including usage setting, durability requirements and patient characteristics. Crucially, the guidance says that if more than one slide sheet is appropriate, you should use the one that is least expensive.

This slide sheet guidance is part of NICE’s healthtech guidance for existing use work programme. This type of guidance provides evidence-based recommendations on digital tools, diagnostics, and medical devices already in established use within the NHS. The programme specifically assesses whether price variations between similar technologies are justified by differences in innovation and clinical effectiveness. For slide sheets, where prices range from £1 to £180 but with little evidence to support such variation, this approach helps trusts like mine make informed procurement decisions that balance quality care with financial responsibility.

Alongside this guidance for existing use, NICE also makes recommendations on promising technologies at an early stage of evidence generation and those ready for widespread NHS adoption. This ensures appropriate evaluation at every stage of the product lifecycle.

Building credibility

Having this guidance has been so helpful for our standardisation efforts. Let’s be honest, slide sheets are not the most exciting or high-profile of topics, but the guidance gave me the confidence and authority I needed to have meaningful conversations with senior colleagues who would not normally get involved in these types of everyday purchasing decisions. It provided the evidence base I needed to have productive meetings with procurement teams, ward staff and suppliers and made my job significantly easier. With this enhanced credibility, I was able to move forward with a comprehensive implementation plan.

Practical implementation and results

The next stage was to work with our procurement department and colleagues across the trust as we standardised slide sheet procurement across our 3 hospital sites. We laid the groundwork by training housekeepers, who have responsibility for ordering slide sheets for their areas.

Treatment areas like CT scanning and X-ray will now use a more economical single-use option, while areas requiring more durable products, such as in-patient wards, have access to appropriate reusable or washable alternatives where appropriate. Importantly, we aim to build controls into our procurement system so that departments can only order slide sheets that are relevant to their specific service needs.

The benefits are already becoming apparent. Housekeepers no longer spend time choosing between multiple product options when placing orders. Training is easier to deliver because we have consistent equipment across all wards. By selecting more cost-effective options where appropriate, we're also working towards potential savings that can be reinvested in patient care.

We're also developing an automatic top-up system that will ensure wards never run out of slide sheets, eliminating inefficiencies and freeing up staff to focus on what matters most – our patients.

What support looks like

If you’re considering implementing this guidance, these resources can help:

• NICE’s healthtech guidance on slide sheets for moving or repositioning a person provides authoritative recommendations and outlines the evidence underpinning them.

• NHS Supply Chain can help you obtain best value and assess the net impact for your organisation. They offer procurement advice tailored to your specific needs. Contact them at rehab.comm@supplychain.nhs.uk.

If you're an NHS decision maker considering healthtech solutions for your trust or integrated care board, explore NICE's healthtech guidance to understand how evidence-based recommendations can support confident adoption decisions.