Celebrating our QEH shining stars

In the monthly Ward Round column, hospital CEO Alice Webster talks awards, buggies and the future…

Last week we celebrated our annual Team QEH Awards, with a ceremony for all of our finalists and their invited family, friends and colleagues.

I’ve never been prouder to be part of Team QEH. These awards are a testament to the incredible staff we have across all areas of the Trust and it was a truly magnificent evening filled with inspiration and joy.

This year we had more than 500 nominations which is really quite staggering. The level of dedication that shone through in each and every one of those is second to none. The nominations told stories of how QEH staff have provided excellent patient care demonstrating kindness, wellness and fairness in everything that they do.

Those of you who have visited our site recently may have noticed our new buggy service running from the car park up to the main hospital buildings.

The idea for the service came as a result of feedback from visitors to the QEH site who voiced concern about the difficulty of walking up the hill from the main car park to the hospital building for people with mobility issues.

Driven by trained volunteers, the electric buggy runs Monday to Friday, currently from 9am to 12pm while we assess how many people are using the service and train more volunteers.

If the idea of becoming the next buggy driver appeals to you, we are on the lookout for volunteers across the hospital to fill a wide range of roles. So, whether you’d like to be a friendly face that can calm anxious patients, make a great cup of tea and fancy giving a listening ear or would like to turn your hand to buggy driving, we have a role for you.

Whatever your skill set, and however much or little time you have to give – we’d love to hear from you. Email volunteerapplications@qehkl.nhs.uk or call 01553 613 205 by Friday, November 3 to find out more.

Work continues in areas across our site as we continue to maintain our current building and make plans for our new hospital. Engagement with staff across the Trust has begun as part of our Future Hospital Project and will continue over the coming months.

At the end of this process, we will have developed an understanding of our priorities for our model of care in a new QEH. We will be out engaging in the community again to keep you up to date in the New Year – more to come on that in future columns.

Work on our new Diagnostic Centre, on the left as you enter the site, is progressing well and anyone visiting us will notice a big change in this area. This new centre, due to open in Autumn next year, will drive forward a reduction in waiting times by increasing the capacity of diagnostic imaging for outpatients with MRI and CT scanners as well as X-ray and ultrasound.

Earlier this month we saw the arrival of a new modular unit which will become our new discharge lounge, which is planned to open early next year. This new space will be a larger lounge for patients who are waiting to go home or receive further care in the community, which means we will have more space in our wards for those who really need to be in hospital. We’ll keep you up to date with this as work progresses.

Thank you to all of you – our community – for your continued support and understanding as we work through this period of change together. Thank you.