Philip Ward colleagues give patients a helping hand to stay in touch with their loved ones | Latest news

Philip Ward colleagues give patients a helping hand to stay in touch with their loved ones

Compassionate colleagues on a care of the elderly ward at Sir Robert Peel Community Hospital have been giving their patients a helping hand to feel and stay connected with their loved ones.

Covid-19 visiting restrictions have resulted in only a handful of patients being able to see their families, so staff on Philip Ward have come up with a great way to enable them to let their relatives know they’re doing okay.

Families are now being sent personalised cards, featuring paint prints of their loved one’s hands, to remind them that they’re on the patient’s mind, while also providing them with a special keepsake of their time in hospital during such an “historic” period.

Each card is also accompanied by a lovely letter, which reads: “We fully appreciate how difficult times are at present regarding visiting and talking to your loved ones.

“This is your loved one just saying ‘hello’ and just a little something for you to keep. We hope you enjoy it as much as they have enjoyed making it for you.”

It is hoped that initiatives such as this will help improve patients’ hospital experience and make them feel less isolated and anxious, with Amanda Rowley, Philip Ward senior sister, happily reporting that the idea had gone down very well with her patients.

She said: “Being in hospital, patients are always waiting to be contacted by their families, so we thought, instead of waiting to receive a letter, we should have them send a letter instead! We wanted to do something that patients could get involved in themselves, to let their loved ones know that they’re thinking of them.

“This period that they’ve spent with us in our hospitals is going to be historic, so we thought, wouldn’t it be nice if families had something to keep that they could look back on in years to come and go ‘remember when nanny did this?’ The patients have just loved doing it too, so we’re really pleased to be able to improve their hospital experience.”

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