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The Communiqué - Issue No 3 - August 2009

 

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Hidden Treasures at Homerton Hospital

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Art has been displayed in hospitals since the 14th century and its therapeutic value in health and recovery is well recognised in medical circles.

 

It has played a particularly important role in the life of Homerton Hospital since its opening in East London in the 1980s; the hospital has obtained more than 600 items in its own collection and in the past 15 years it has hosted many exhibitions in collaboration with such prestigious organisations as Paintings in Hospitals, Kings Fund, British Library, Tate Britain and the Victoria & Albert Museum.

 

Medical Services is the main sponsor of the hospital’s latest and 34th exhibition ‘Hidden Treasures’ which will be officially opened on 21st October.

 

The exhibition will comprise of about 60 new photographs of precious and fragile rarely seen items from the collection at the V&A’s Museum of Childhood, which dates back to 1872. 

 

Sean Caton, the hospital’s archivist who created the photographs for the exhibition said:  “In addition to toys it also includes medicine bottles for children from the 19th century and stone/glass inhalers, perambulators, millinery, photographs of children, drawings from the 19th century and scrapbooks etc...It's very broad and has great diversity which truly reflects the astonishing wealth of material the Museum of Childhood holds in its vast collections”.

 

The exhibition will initially be displayed in the hospital’s Education Centre but later will be relocated to the children’s’ area within the hospital.

We're on the road(back to headlines)

Medical Services is going on the road during the second half of 2009 participating in exhibitions in London, Blackpool, Manchester and Wales.

 

Kevin Shire, Head of Business Development, said the plan was to take the Medical Services story directly to the NHS community and added: “In the past 12 months we have experienced an increasing demand from primary care trusts for our patient transport and courier services and we wish to continue to build on this interest.”

 

The events on Medical Services schedule include: 

  • The PCT Provider Conference & Exhibition organised by the NHS Confederation 6 October at the Thistle Hotel, Marble Arch, London

  • The National Kidney Federation Annual Patients Conference & Exhibition, 9-11 October Hilton Hotel, Blackpool

  • Welsh Kidney Patients Association 16 October Hi-Tide Inn, Porthcawl, Wales

  • The Health Care Supply Association Annual Conference & Exhibition 4-5 November Hilton Deansgate Hotel, Manchester

  • The Emergency & Urgent Care Ambulance Service Network Annual Conference & Exhibition organised by the NHS Confederation, 13 October Riverbank Park Plaza, London, SE1

  • The PCT network annual conference on commissioning & exhibition 1 December London (venue to be confirmed)

Our team would be delighted to welcome visitors to our exhibition stands. For further details please email kshire@medicalservicesuk.com

 
Paper Free award for St Leonards

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St Leonards Hospital, part of City & Hackney PCT is the latest winner of the Medical Services Crystal Clear Policy Award.

 

The award, for the best use by a contracted Trust of paper free technology in PTS bookings and reporting, was accepted on behalf of the hospital by Sharon Quidley, office manager/PA to the head of foot health.

 

In the picture (left to right) are Brenda Hughes-Mason, assistant facilities manager, Barbara Cooper, facilities manager, Sharon Quidley, office manager, Joe Sheehan, Director of Medical Services and Jason Stanton, Customer Service Manager for Medical Services.

 

 

Case Study: Dedicated Service Success at Royal Liverpool

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The Problem

 

The Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust, is one of the largest and busiest in the North of England with an annual budget of over £300 million, more than 5000 staff and almost one million patients being seen every year.

 

Its Accident and Emergency Departments see over 250 patients per day with various conditions ranging from minor injuries to major trauma.

 

While 98% are seen within 4 hours in line with Government targets, the Trust’s Patient Throughput Team wanted to further improve this performance.

 

The Solution

 

In January 2009 the Warrington branch of Medical Services was called in to work with the throughput team to devise a quicker and more time-efficient approach for handling the discharge and/or transfer of A&E patients.

 

The agreed solution was the creation of a new Rapid Access Transport Service which made available to the throughput team a dedicated high dependency vehicle to handle unplanned daily patient discharges.

 

Co-ordinating with the Warrington office the service runs Monday to Friday 1100 until 2200 and offers flexible options to carry multiple patients in one journey, or the ability to transfer High Dependency patients with a medical team.

 

To ensure that beds were readily available for patients requiring admission from A&E, there is close working relationship with the throughput team and the Trust’s discharge coordinators who visit the wards and identify patients who are eligible for discharge; these patients are then taken to the discharge suite where they are collected by a Medical Services unit.

 

The Result

 

The new rapid access transport service has quickly proven to be a vital integral part of the patient throughput experience. On average 8-12 patients are being moved every day and the average response time has been reduced to 30 minutes.

 

Celia Woosey, the Trust’s Patient Throughput Manager, said that initially Medical Services was being called in on an ad hoc basis which was successful but it became clear that a dedicated service would have so many more benefits for patients.

 

“That has proved to be the case, particularly for transporting longer-distance patients; it also gives much more flexibility in handling patient discharges”.

 

Medical Couriers star on TV

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Our pathology courier service for the Royal Brighton & Sussex University Hospital NHS Trust recently co-starred with Tiff Needell, the motor racing driver and television presenter in making a film for the Channel 5 Fifth Gear programme.

 

Tiff underwent special training at the hands of Amanda Webb, the company’s head of training before the start of the film; it was the same training which Medical Services gives to all its couriers before they are allowed to collect and deliver diagnostic samples.

 

Then he set out in a Caterham 175 Roadstar car on regular runs collecting samples from doctors’ surgeries in Brighton and outlying areas and then delivering back to the pathology department at the Royal Brighton Hospital……all the time in his wake was a Medical Couriers’ motorbike ridden by Derek Olrog, who trains the company’s couriers.

 

“We wanted to show the car’s versatility and road handling for speed and safety and how it matches up to the professionalism of a medical courier on an urgent journey” explained Tiff. 

 

The film, produced by North One Television, was shown on Monday 13 July.

 

Click here to see the video.

 

Cycling for Leukaemia Research

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Three members of the Medical Couriers group – Moira Nolan, Manager and Controllers Tim Jenn and Paul Lazar – were in Team Bizarre which took part in The London Bikeathon on Sunday July 19 to raise money for Leukaemia Research. 

 

Sponsored for the 26 mile ride the Royal Hospital in Chelsea to Ham House in Richmond Park and back, the team has raised around £500  so far but any last minute donations can be made at www.justgiving.co.uk/teambizarre

 

Leukaemia Research is the only national charity dedicated exclusively to funding research throughout the UK into the causes, treatments and cures of all blood cancers, including lymphomas, myeloma, myelodysplasia and aplastic anaemia.

 

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We’ve received high praise recently from two of our clients.

Paul Maskell, Leisure Manager of Hampstead Heath, which is owned by the Corporation of London called us in the night before the live concert performed by Abba’s Benny Anderson on Hampstead Heath, North London on 4 July.

It had been realised that the appearance of the multi-million selling founder of Sweden’s most successful pop group would attract an even larger than expected crowd and we sent a high dependency unit and 2-person medical team based in Alperton.

In the event more than 20,000 fans turned up despite the heat wave and our team were busy for most of the time treating people affected by the heat wave and taking others to the A&E Department at the Royal Free Hospital.

The response was co-ordinated by Simon Rolton, one of our ambulance controllers who received the following email from Paul:

“Many thanks…your two guys were exemplary…thank you very much for sorting this out at such short notice… you don't know how fantastic I felt after you had sorted this out…”

 

Val Giddings, Moorfields Clinic Manager, wrote to us about Yasser Khadije, a dedicated PTS driver who is based at Ealing Hospital where there is a satellite Moorfields operation:

 

 “I am writing to thank Yasser for his patience yesterday whilst transporting a Moorfields patient. I understand that the patient was not ready to travel when Yasser called for him (at his home) but he did wait for 30-40 minutes whilst he got ready.

 

“I know this cannot be expected for all patients but on this one occasion by doing so Yasser has without doubt saved some sight for the patient. This elderly gentleman had a fall some days ago and did nothing but wait for this planned appointment and he had a traumatic injury that should have been treated urgently. He was operated on yesterday afternoon as an emergency to repair the damage that had been done.”

 

Medical Services was recently chosen by Moorfields Eye Hospital in a public tender as their provider of patient transport services and the contract starts in October this year.

 

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