East Anglian Air Ambulance

Norwich, UK6 Sleep Capsules / 0 seats

East Anglian Air Ambulance (EAAA) is a charity dedicated to saving lives by deploying doctors and critical care paramedics rapidly all across the region.  

Having previously operated helicopters during the day and rapid response vehicles overnight, the charity is now moving to a 24/7 service by air. This means that rest space is needed not only for doctors and paramedics, but also pilots.  

A new £7m base has been built to facilitate this service, which was largely funded by gifts left in wills to EAAA. The interior of the new base is airy, with soft lines and plenty of breakout space, but the amount of space available to be allocated to lying down is nevertheless limited. So, instead of three single bedrooms serving just the clinicians, EAAA now has six Kotobuki sleep capsules for the whole crew. These capsules, accommodated in a room measuring just 4.1 x 3.6 metres, will primarily be used for rest during the night shift, from around 1am onwards. 

The project was managed and installed by Audience Systems, which is based in the UK and is part of the Kotobuki Group.  

Matthew Jones, Director of Operations at East Anglian Air Ambulance says, “People weren’t sure about having sleep capsules here at first. There was a lot of skepticism about privacy and noise. Crew members also worried that the capsules would be claustrophobic, and that you they would feel the capsules move when other users got in and out. So far though, everyone has been pleasantly surprised on all fronts.”  

“It’s clear that these capsules are a very well-engineered solution. They don’t appear to translate vibration at all. When we were looking at capsules, we looked at some alternatives manufactured in China, and we had some real concerns about their solidity and stability, but this just served to confirm that the Kotobuki capsule was the solution we wanted.”  

 

To find out more about sleep capsules for a rest space, hotel or hostel, call Audience Systems on +44 1373 865050 or email enquiries@audiencesystems.com

Most photographs on this page are by Sarah Toon.