News for our members and local community

A message from the Chairman

Dear member

A very warm welcome - to new members and to our long-standing supporters - to the latest edition of our membership bulletin. In these regular bulletins, we aim to provide insight into recent activities at the Trust and as we navigate through these unprecedented times, I felt it was timely to update you on the work we are doing at Kingston Hospital to keep our patients and staff safe, whilst delivering outstanding care amidst the COVID-19 outbreak.

As always at Kingston Hospital the health and wellbeing, and safety of all of our patients and staff is at the heart of our daily work. We carried out a great deal of forward planning for the COVID-19 pandemic, which has allowed us to be well prepared for the way in which we have had to adapt over the past few weeks.

We remain fully committed to supporting our hard-working staff and keeping them safe at this time and have been delighted to receive so many generous donations and offers of support from the local community, ranging from chocolate and fruit deliveries, to hot meals for staff working at the weekends. We are also grateful to members of the public who have been kindly donating to the hospital charity’s appeal and with these donations we will work hard to continue our ongoing commitment to the wellbeing of our staff.

It has been necessary to introduce some changes to the way in which the hospital runs on a day to day basis during this time, increasing our intensive care capacity and opening new wards to ensure our readiness to receive COVID-19 positive patients. Our staff have also adapted incredibly well to working across different specialities, whilst services such as our A&E department are continuing to run as normal. As I am sure you know, we have introduced restrictions on visitors to the hospital. We are limiting non-essential visits and many outpatient appointments during this time are now taking place as telephone consultations, where appropriate. We are only asking people to come to the hospital if it is essential for them to see a health professional because of a current health condition, or if they need urgent investigations or treatment for a new problem. If patients are due to have a hospital appointment within the next four weeks, their hospital department will call to explain what will happen next.

These measures have all been put in place to reduce traffic through the hospital and minimise the risk to patients and staff, whilst continuing our commitment to providing outstanding care for patients who need it. We would like to thank all our members for their support at this time.

We hope you enjoy reading about some of the recent activities within the hospital in this bulletin and look forward to hearing your views.

Thank you once again for your support.

Sian Bates
Chairman
Email:[email protected]

Kingston Hospital recruits first patient to national COVID-19 clinical trial

Kingston Hospital is the first hospital within South West London to recruit a patient into a new multi-centre, national trial to investigate treatments for COVID-19 patients.

With no treatments for COVID-19 currently approved, the RECOVERY trial, established by the University of Oxford, aims to identify treatments that may be beneficial for adults that are hospitalised with confirmed COVID-19.

Dr Anna Joseph, a Consultant at Kingston Hospital and one of the Principle Investigators for the RECOVERY trial, said: “In these unprecedented times it is more important than ever that we engage with research to find a way to combat COVID-19. The RECOVERY trial is doing just that. We are excited to be a part of this trial and hope that it will be successful in identifying a treatment.”

Jenny Crooks, Head of Research and Innovation at Kingston Hospital, said: “Being a part of this national clinical trial has only been possible thanks to the collaborative effort of our team. Thank you to Dr Anna Joseph and Dr Siva Mahendran for leading on the trial, and to Annette Nicholson, Clinical Trials pharmacist at Kingston Hospital for coordinating the setup so we could get it open rapidly.”

For more information about the national trial, visit www.recoverytrial.net

Kingston Hospital Charity launches appeal to support staff wellbeing

Kingston Hospital Charity has launched a fundraising appeal to support frontline staff working at Kingston Hospital amid the Coronavirus outbreak.

As well as raising money to purchase items to support the wellbeing of NHS staff, the appeal also aims to boost morale at the hospital by providing a way for members of the public to share their messages of support for staff working around the clock to care for patients.

Interim Head of Kingston Hospital Charity, Rob Aldous said: “We are very grateful to members of the local community and local businesses who have already made such generous donations and offers of support to staff here at Kingston Hospital. We know that people are thinking about Kingston Hospital and particularly our frontline staff at this challenging time and as a charity, we are committed to supporting our staff, to ensure they can continue to provide the best possible care for patients. If local residents feel they are in a position to make a contribution to the appeal, we would be very grateful for their support.

“All money raised will go directly to staff at the hospital, to support their mental health and wellbeing at this challenging time. We are working closely with staff to find out how they would like to be supported and to ensure the money is directed to the areas of greatest need. If members of the public would like to leave messages of support when making a donation, we will be sharing these with staff to remind them just how much people across our community appreciate their extraordinary efforts during the Coronavirus outbreak. Thank you for your support.”

If you would like to support Kingston Hospital’s staff during the COVID-19 outbreak, you can make a donation and leave a message at www.khc.org.uk

Outstanding people: Staff survey puts Kingston Hospital in top ten percent of trusts

Would you recommend Kingston Hospital to your friends and family members? As well as regularly asking our patients this question, we also ask our staff on an annual basis, through the NHS staff survey.

This year saw an increase in response rate, with 65% of staff at Kingston Hospital completing the survey and the results show that Kingston Hospital is ranked in the top ten trusts in the country.

• 75% of staff said that they would recommend Kingston to others as a place to work, putting the hospital significantly above the national average for NHS trusts

• When asked if they would recommend the hospital as a place to receive care, 82% of the hospital’s staff confirmed that they would, putting the Trust in the top performing group of hospitals and the second best score in London

Dental Nurse reaches new heights in support of Kingston Hospital Charity

Tunde Kabodi loves a challenge. A Registered Dental Nurse at Kingston Hospital, in her spare time Tunde enjoys mountain trekking and has taken on a number of treks over the years, in Europe, South America and Africa.

On 10 March Tunde set off on her latest expedition to climb the Mera Peak in Nepal, which stands at 6,476 metres above sea level. Despite bad weather which prevented Tunde from reaching the summit, she made it to an impressive height of 6,000 metres on the 20-day trek.

Speaking about the challenge, Tunde said: “I have taken on a few mountain treks in the past. One of my biggest challenges has been climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, which was an incredible and life-changing experience. I felt that the mountains were calling me, so I decided to take on another big challenge.”

So far Tunde has raised £1,300 to enhance patient treatment rooms in the hospital’s Princess Alexandra Wing.

Well done Tunde, for your amazing efforts.

International Year of the Nurse and Midwife

2020 is the first ever global Year of the Nurse and Midwife. Throughout the year, Kingston Hospital is presenting a ‘Nurse of the Month’ award to celebrate the fantastic work of our dedicated nursing team.

The Nurse of the Month award was recently received by Aireen Tan, a Band 5 Staff Nurse in the Royal Eye Unit. We spoke to Aireen about her time at Kingston Hospital:

How long have you worked at Kingston Hospital?
Three years and going strong.

What made you want to become a nurse?
The person that I look up to, my cousin, is a nurse and seeing the satisfaction she feels everyday by helping people in her job, inspired me to become one. I also love learning new things and as a nurse you get to know something new every day from your colleagues or patients, which inspires me to have a deeper knowledge and to keep myself updated on medical trends.

What is your favourite part of your job? I once cared for a patient with heart failure and until now, every time I see that patient anywhere in the hospital, she still remembers me and says thank you. I love how patients recognise you even outside of the hospital, and continually expressing their gratefulness for your help.

What makes you proud to be a nurse? Being able to do something in my career that is challenging, interesting and makes a difference in people's lives – that, I am proud of.

We would love to hear your views

Keep in touch

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From time to time, the Trust may send you some information about the work of the Kingston Hospital Charity, which helps to raise vital funds for the Trust. This may include its ‘Our News’ newsletter. If you would prefer not to receive information about our charity please contact the Communications Team on [email protected]

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