A wide range of improvement works are underway across St Mary’s Hospital to enhance the quality of patient care and provide better working environments for Isle of Wight NHS Trust staff.
Work is already underway to create a bright new discharge lounge and Outpatient and Home Parenteral Infusion Therapy (OHPiT) area on Level C of the main hospital site.
OHPiT is an area devoted to the care of outpatients with conditions that need long-term therapy with medications that are given intravenously, or through a needle or tube inserted into a vein. These improvement works are designed to offer greater levels of comfort to patients. Both OHPit and the discharge lounge are due to relocated into the newly refurbished area on Level C on 25th April, when the main ward area will also be improved by installing more ensuite shower rooms and single-sex accommodation.
Another major project getting underway this month is the creation of the hospital’s first dementia friendly wards. The Trust has received government funding to improve the flooring, decoration, signage and lighting on Appley and Colwell Wards. The work began in Appley Ward on 7th April and is expected to take approximately six weeks to complete. Matron for Appley Ward, Tracy Cloke, is among those behind the project. She said:
“We all know that coming into hospital is a stressful time for everyone, but for those with dementia it can be a bewildering and terrifying experience. This work aims to reduce some of the anxiety by providing an environment which is more relaxing and easier to understand for those with dementia.”
Among the dementia friendly aspects of the new wards will be colour coded doorways. For example, research has shown that using the colour yellow for shower rooms and toilet facilities helps dementia patients to recognise them more easily. Doors that are only for use by staff will blend in with the surrounding area, to ensure only doors to patient areas stand out.
And Tracy explains some of the benefits to patients:
“As part of the work, the lighting within the wards will be renewed to mimic daylight, as this has been shown to reduce falls and confusion among those with dementia, whilst also making it easier to work in for staff. There will also be easy to read, consistent signage throughout the wards, both in written and pictorial form. The improvements will also provide a modern, yet professional working environment for staff.”
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In future, the Trust is looking to roll out dementia friendly schemes to all appropriate areas of the hospital.
Once the Dementia friendly wards have been completed, another major project will get underway this summer to improve the Medical Assessment Unit (MAU). This is an area which manages the flow of emergency medical admissions into the hospital. The improvement work to the Medical Assessment Unit is expected to end in March 2015.
During the summer, work will begin to co-locate the two critical care services, Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and Coronary Care Unit (CCU), onto one site. Putting together our most critically ill patients on one site means they can be cared for by clinicians sharing the same working environment, leading to benefits for both patients and staff. It is hoped that this phase of work will be completed by February 2015.
Trust Chief Executive, Karen Baker, said:
“This large programme of improvement works will bring great improvements to both the quality of patient care we can deliver, and improvements to the working environment for many of our staff. We will, of course, do the best we can to keep noise and disruption to a minimum and, acting on previous feedback from patients, we are ensuring we accommodate them in suitable areas of the hospital during the works to ensure they are not affected.
“We would like to thank patients and their carers for their understanding and support whilst we take on this exciting phase of refurbishments”.
