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Patients' meeting on ward B50

Posted By Patient Power

"Patients' meeting on ward B50"

About: Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust / Mental Health Services for Older People – Inpatient

(as the patient),

At the patients' meeting we were asked what would make things better on the ward. The involvement team asked us what would help so we came up with a few suggestions.

'We would love to go swimming as I struggle to do things. I don't walk very well but I would happily make a contribution to use a pool. I wonder why QMC doesn't have its own pool for patients'. Could we use a pool nearby such as the university pool on the doorstep of QMC?

'I would like to go out for more fresh air'.

'Can we have morning or afternoon appointments to see the consultant? At the moment we sometimes have to wait all day to see the doctor. I am a heavy smoker and this means I have to wait a long time to have a cigarette'.

We would like to get out and about a bit more, we once went to Highfields Park and had a picnic.

'More fresh air and walks outside would help.'

'I would like more exercise such as chair-based exercise and also standing exercise, maybe activities to music would be nice'.

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Responses

Response from Jane Danforth, Involvement & Experience Officer, Involvement, Experience and Volunteering Team, Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust 12 years ago
Jane Danforth
Involvement & Experience Officer, Involvement, Experience and Volunteering Team,
Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust

Hello, my name is Jane Danforth. My role involves helping our service users, volunteers and staff to understand that Notts Healthcare wants to hear stories about our services. We reply to every story and it really helps us to improve what we do, how we do it and to hear about what works well too.

Submitted on 27/10/2011 at 15:48
Published on Care Opinion on 28/10/2011 at 10:48

picture of Jane Danforth

Dear Patient Power

Thank you for your posting.

I will contact the ward for comments and get back to you,

Best wishes

Jane

  • {{helpful}} {{helpful == 1 ? "person thinks" : "people think"}} this response is helpful
Response from Involvement & Experience Officer, Involvement, Experience and Volunteering Team, Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust 12 years ago
Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust

Submitted on 11/11/2011 at 16:59
Published on Care Opinion at 20:49

The work of the involvement team with the patients on B50 has raised many issues that the staff team have been pleased to resolve where we can.

The availability of off ward activities, swimming and access to fresh air has been raised by patients previously. Staff share these concerns as it helps with recovery.

If and when patients feel ready to get back into their usual level of activity it is important that the resources are there to help. However, our allied health professionals Occupational Therapy and Physio team have recently had a service review. This means we have lost some resources and staff time. Our patients feel this quite acutely as the activity programme is more restricted. Our part time Occupational Therapist was off sick, causing a reduction in the service, but the good news is that she is now back at work.

We recently lost our activity coordinator as she has moved onto pastures new, proving a real blow to our activity programme. The good news is that one of our own Healthcare Assistant’s has been successful in securing a secondment to the position starting 14/11/11, so I am hopeful that we can increase the level of activities that we offer.

Can I just mention that for those patients who are fortunate to have visits by relatives and friends who live locally, you can make use of your time together by going off ward? There are café’s in the QMC main entrance and a small garden by the medical school entrance that provides a pleasant outlook and a change of scenery.

The idea of patient appointments having specific times was recently raised with the consultant. This has already been actioned; the consultant now makes a list of patients that she can see on ward round days and these are posted in the day room. Unfortunately, times are approximate, as you are aware some patients need more time with her than others. So thank you for your patience.

Thanks to all the patients who use the Patient Opinion site. It helps us make a difference to your care whilst you are with us in hospital.

Helen Forrester

Ward Manager B50

Queens Medical Centre

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