More beds this winter

3
New campaign to stamp
out smoking on our sites
A parent sickened by
smokers who gather at
our hospital entrances
is leading a campaign
to discourage people
from lighting up around
patients and visitors.
Natalie Harvey’s two
children, Hugo and Hector,
were both born at QMC,
Hector just 12 weeks ago.
After giving birth to Hector
in July, Natalie, 37 and from
Toton, was appalled by the
number of people smoking
at the hospital entrance.
She said: “I was in hospital
recovering from a C-section
for two days after Hector
was born and couldn’t
wait to take him home.
The care we received was
great – I couldn’t complain
– but then to take my baby
outside into a cloud of
smoke was just devastating.
“You do everything to protect
your child from harm while you are
pregnant. Then all you care about
is keeping them healthy when they
are born. It broke my heart that my
little boy’s first breaths in the outside
world were polluted with cigarette
smoke.”
Smoking is not allowed anywhere on
hospital grounds but every day lots of
people light up in public areas forcing
other people to inhale their smoke.
But now, with support from Natalie
and other members of the local
community, we are working ever
harder to challenge more people
who smoke on hospital grounds and
support smokers to quit.
Our security staff have increased
their patrols to enforce our policy. In
the last month they have asked over
1,000 smokers to either put out their
cigarette or leave the premises while
our colleagues help smokers kick the
habit.
We’re also calling on patients and
visitors to help us go further – by
taking part in Natalie’s campaign to
stamp out smoking at our hospitals
altogether.
Daniel and Mikaela are just two
of our patients who have already
spoken out about their
experience of inhaling
second hand smoke
while visiting our
hospitals.
Daniel said: “I have
heart failure and
feel sick before every
appointment because I
have to hold my breath
as I walk through the
entrance.”
Mikaela, who also
suffers with a heart
condition as well as
chronic asthma, said:
“If people want to
smoke at home it’s
their choice but I don’t
want to breathe their
smoke when I come to
hospital.”
The two volunteers
feature in a new video
that aims to confront
the problem of passive
smoking on hospital grounds.
The launch of our stop smoking
campaign coincides with national
Stoptober month when people
are encouraged to stop smoking
throughout the month of October.
There are approximately 10million
adults in Britain who smoke
cigarettes. Research suggests that
those who successfully give up for
four weeks are five times more likely
to stay smoke-free.
To add your story to our no smoking
campaign please contact us via:
facebook.com/nottinghamhospitals
Would you
recommend us?
Medicine for
Members
events
Our Medicine for Members
programme takes place
throughout the year. We cover a
wide variety of subjects, often
chosen by our members.
If you haven’t been to one of our
events before please come along
– you will be pleasantly surprised
about how much you can learn
about the services we provide.
We receive positive feedback from
members who come along to our
events, many of whom return time
and time again.
We recently held two events, one
on Major Trauma and the other on
NHS Change Day. Both were well
attended and well received by
members and staff.
Full feedback from these events
can be found at www.nuh.nhs.uk/
members
You can let us know what events
you would like to see in 2015
– call or email. Details at the
bottom of the page.
Next event
Head & Neck Directorate
– Wednesday 22 October,
6-7.30pm in the Eye, Ear, Nose
and Throat building at QMC.
This event covers Eyes, Ears, Nose
and Throat, the Maxillofacial
Services and Ropewalk House.
Various sub-specialties and
departments within the
directorate will showcase their
new developments and key
innovations.
The Patient and Public
Involvement group will also be in
attendance to discuss their newlyformed
group.
Please come along to meet the
team and find out more about
these key services.
To book your place please email
ft@nuh.nhs.uk or call:
0115 9691169 ext: 76242.
The ‘friends and family’ (FFT) test
is one of the ways we measure
what our patients think of their
care.
We already collect patients’ views
via the FFT views inour inpatient
wards, Emergency Department and
in maternity. We also use a FFT for
staff to measure their experience of
working at NUH.
We are consistently in the best
three performing trusts compared
to our peers for both response rates
and scores for the patient FFT.
In October, we rolled out the FFT
to outpatient and day case areas.
We are using cards for patients to
feedback.
Patients will be asked ‘how likely
are you to recommend our service
to friends and family if they needed
similar care or treatment?’ and
answer on a scale of ‘extremely
likely’ to ‘extremely unlikely.’
We publish our scores monthly on
our website: www.nuh.nhs.uk
Don’t miss...
Members are also invited to hear
from Carolyn Canfield, expert
in patient activation, on 20
November at the Medical School.
Carolyn will be talking about
involving patients in patient safety
improvements.
See page 13 for more details.