Because of you – Wellbeing
Christmas presents for our patients
We were very grateful to everyone who helped us to give a gift to every patient on Christmas Day. We received lots of presents from our Amazon Wishlist, as well as donations from local companies, stores and schools. Thank you to everyone who helped with Christmas presents.
Julian Higgs, a member of the Bedfordshire Community, was sat in one of our hospital waiting rooms and whilst looking at the artwork on the wall, decided he wanted to give back to his local hospital. Photography is a much loved past time of his and on a journey home he drove past some woods in Ampthill, with the sun light hitting the golden leaves he decided to stop and take some photos. The piece he donated to us was taken on this day and has been a much loved piece by his family and supporters on his social media and website. The donated photo now sits proudly in our Occupational Health Department at the Luton & Dunstable site where our colleagues can sit and look at this peaceful piece while waiting for their own appointment.
Easter egg donations
Easter has been made very special this year thanks to donations of Easter eggs and crafts for our children and elderly patient wards.
A visit or stay at the hospital can be very terrifying, however donations such as these comfort our patients, aiding their recovery. It is especially difficult during the holidays, so we are greatly appreciative of all efforts and compassion received from the community.
Thank you for supporting us and caring for our patients.
Rehabilitation Café now open!
The Multi-disciplinary Team on Shand Ward at Bedford Hospital have been working with local stakeholders to create a Rehabilitation Café.
Together the team improved the environment by creating a space for patients to complete fun activities and rehabilitation to meet new stroke NICE Guidelines in a creative way.
This area houses a Captain Tom Walkway, a sit to stand station, pedals, a TV and an activity table and group sessions take place three times a week. It will also house our new Motomed bike which was funded by Bedfordshire Hospital NHS Charity General Funds! Our ultimate aim is for patients to be able to use the area for semi-supervised therapy with volunteers and their family. This week, we reorganised and labelled the cupboard, so that patients will soon have access to board games, upper limb activities and cognitive games.
Signs for the café were designed by a recent patient who supported with the planning and designing of the project alongside some incredible local stroke survivors.
Over the coming weeks, we will be working with our patient stakeholders finalise our Rehab café menus of activity, so patients can pick their favourite starter, main and desert activity. They will be rewarded with a coffee shop stamp every time they use the area and on discharge will be given a certificate and photograph to take pride of place on our wall of champions.
Please email us on fundraising@bedsft.nhs.uk if you would like to help in any way!
This project is part of a Quality Improvement Module as part of Team Lead Physiotherapist Wendy Candlin’s Masters in Advanced Professional Practice at University of East Anglia.
