Trust thanks service personnel for Covid support
Staff at University Hospitals Dorset have extended their thanks to service personnel who have been working alongside them since January.
Events held at both Poole and the Royal Bournemouth hospitals last week provided an opportunity to recognise all that has been achieved by the teams from the army, navy, RAF and Royal Marines who undertook a wide range of activities to support hospital staff.
Debbie Fleming, UHD chief executive, said: "We have been delighted to welcome our service personnel colleagues to UHD and really appreciate all the support the teams provided across both our sites at a time of unprecedented challenge. We thank them all for working to such a high standard alongside our teams, so that we could collectively maintain essential services and deliver safe, high quality care. It has been a pleasure to have them within our organisation."
Fiona Hoskins, deputy chief nursing officer, said the service personnel being deployed was a huge morale boost for the hospitals' teams. "It has been a marvellous piece of collaborative working; especially with regards to how quickly they all fitted in and became part of our team. I have been truly humbled by the care and compassion shown to both our patients and staff by our military colleagues."
New programme aims to tackle smoking among Dorset’s hospital patients
Offering patients smoking cessation support in hospital could help reduce the 1,000 deaths and £3.5m cost to the NHS in Dorset each year.
These are just two of the aims of a new initiative which will provide to smokers admitted to Poole Hospital’s acute medical unit (AMU) to give up.
It’s part of a wider plan to encourage smokers to quit in all hospitals across the county, supported by Public Health Dorset, and reduce smoking rates in the county from 13.6 per cent of the adult population now, to five per cent by 2030.
At the AMU at Poole Hospital, all patients will be offered a carbon monoxide test and nicotine replacement therapy, for example gum or patches, to treat nicotine withdrawal while in hospital. Staff will receive special training on how to support patients withdrawing from nicotine, and in motivational and behavioural support.
And when a patient leaves the hospital, further support will be available through community smoking cessation services to help patients quit and stay quit.
Heidi Croucher, specialist midwife for smoking cessation, is leading the pan-Dorset work, on behalf of Public Health Dorset, University Hospitals Dorset, Dorset County Hospital and Dorset HealthCare.
“Smoking has such significant consequences on health,” she said.
“Smoking should no longer been seen as a lifestyle choice but as an illness.
“The effects of smoking reach almost every aspect of the NHS, from breathing difficulties in children to lung cancer, stroke, heart disease and low birth weights for new-borns.
“As health professionals we can all take steps to support our patients to lead healthier lives”.
The new service will be launched at Poole Hospital today (10 March), on National No Smoking Day.
With approaching 500,000 hospital admissions in the UK every year resulting in some way from smoking, the habit has a huge effect on patients and on health services.
While the risks are widely known, around 14 per cent of the adult population in the UK smokes. Estimates vary on the cost to the NHS of treating smoking-related conditions, with the charity Action on Smoking and Health putting a £2bn annual figure.
Car park relocation on the Royal Bournemouth Hospital site
In order to start the important enabling work for the new Maternity, Children’s, Emergency and Critical Care Centre (MCEC) building and main entrance works on the RBH site, a number of car parks will need to be relocated from 26 February.
The details are:
- From 26 February, both car park A and H are closing with parking relocated to the rear of car park C
- From 1 March, car park B will only be available for use by blue badge holders
- From 1 March, staff with car park permits will be allocated new spaces in Littledown
- drop-off location near the main entrance will remain, together the drop-zone adjacent to the hospital’s emergency department
For more information and a plan of the changes click here.
Thank you for your assistance and we apologise for the disruption and inconvenience during these construction works.
Image caption: artist impression MCEC building
Roadmap out of lockdown; a message for our patients and visitors
In light of the national roadmap for easing lockdown restrictions, we are looking into how this affects our hospitals.
This includes infection prevention control guidance, social distancing, visiting, and birth partners.
We will keep our website and social media updated with all the latest news.
Until then, current restrictions still apply.
Thank you for your support and understanding.
‘Developing the Poole Hospital site’ brochure launched
University Hospitals Dorset has just published the second in a series of brochures highlighting how the hospital’s sites are going to be transformed over the next few years as part of a £250m investment in local health services.
The new brochure focuses on Poole Hospital as it transforms to become the major planned care facility for Dorset. The brochure contains details of the many patient and staff benefits the developments will bring, as well as artists’ impressions of how the new buildings will fit into the hospital site.
Commenting on the changes, Debbie Fleming, chief executive, University Hospitals Dorset, said:
“This is an exciting time for Poole Hospital as we start the major transformation programme which will refurbish, modernise and develop the site so it is fit-for-purpose for its longer-term future.
“With the site being developed as the county’s major planned care facility, the new theatre complex is a priority for the Trust, as the existing facility urgently needs to be updated and expanded.
“Patients and staff alike will benefit from these investments which will provide much more space and a better working environment and form a key part of a major transformation and development programme of our hospital sites.”
Copies can be picked up from a UHD hospital main reception or read here.
