Part of Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust

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    The newsletter for Trust members with an interest in heart and lung care

     April 2022

New Access Guides for Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals

Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals have launched AccessAble guides to provide detailed information about disabled access to our hospitals.

The guides, produced by AccessAble, are full of facts, figures and photographs to help patients, visitors and staff plan their journeys to and around the hospitals, covering everything from parking facilities and hearing loops, to walking distances and accessible toilets.

All of the details in the guides have been checked in person, on site, by trained surveyors.

Chris Rivers, general manager for estates and capital projects, said: “The Access Guides we’ve produced with AccessAble are one of a series of initiatives we’re implementing as part of our ongoing commitment to ensuring our hospital sites are accessible to everyone who visits them.

“The Guides have been created to first and foremost give our patients, visitors and staff sufficient information to help plan their visit, regardless of access needs, and moving forward we’ll be building on this insight to continually improve their experience of accessing and navigating our hospitals with as much ease as possible.”

The AccessAble guides can be found here.

The pharmacy team at Royal Brompton and Harefield recently featured in the journal of pharmacy management as best practice in pharmacy management as a great example of innovation and transformation due to Covid-19.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the UK Government issued guidance for elderly and clinically vulnerable patients to shield and limit exposure to public places wherever possible. Due to this, coupled with the reluctance of patients wanting to attend a hospital clinic, they rapidly implemented several initiatives to maintain patient safety and reduce patient footfall to the hospital. Following a thorough internal risk assessment process, risks to both staff and patients attending the anticoagulation clinics operating under the clinic procedures were identified. The face to face hospital outpatient appointments significantly reduced and moved over to telephone and virtual clinics so they could continue to provide advice to patients during these unprecedented times.

Read more here.

Improved dermatology service starts at Harefield Hospital

Patients at Harefield Hospital are benefitting from a newly improved service offering advice on skin conditions, thanks to the hospital’s merger with Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. The dermatology service is key for Harefield’s inpatients, many of whom need to stay in the hospital for a while and are particularly susceptible to skin complaints due to their condition and some of the drugs they need to take, which can compromise the body’s natural

defences.

Harefield has had a dermatology service for many years provided by a local hospital, however that changed to Guy’s and St Thomas’, following the merger. As one of the largest NHS Trusts in the country, Guy’s and St Thomas’ has a much larger dermatology department with 16 different specialist teams, so it has both greater resources, and a wider spread of more specialist expertise.

“We’re really pleased we’ve been able to improve our dermatology service in this way.  Guy’s and St Thomas’ has a more comprehensive service and a really significant, expert team, so everyone agreed that with our new merged organisation this was a just a really good solution. We’ve already benefitted from some excellent advice,” said Harefield’s general manager Michael White.

Study reveals new genetic variants in severe Covid patients

Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals have contributed to the world’s largest study of the genetics of critical Covid-19, revealing 16 new variants that predispose patients to critical illness.

The genes identified by the research, led by scientists from Genomics England and the University of Edinburgh, are linked to immune system signalling, alongside blood clotting and lung inflammation — some of the hallmarks of severe Covid. They also confirmed seven other genes associated with severe Covid identified by earlier research.

Dr Anna Reed, consultant in respiratory and transplant medicine, was the principal investigator at Harefield Hospital for the GenOMICC (Genetics of Susceptibility and Mortality in Critical Care) study, which could aid the development of new treatments.

“Our research teams worked exceptionally hard throughout the pandemic to contribute valuable patient samples and data to this national project.”

She described the study, published in Nature, as “an enormously important piece of work that provides early insights into why some people develop life-threatening Covid-19 and others don’t.

“This study is the first step towards developing newer therapies and identifying individuals at greatest risk.”

Read more here.

Investment in new Diagnostic Centre signals long future for Royal Brompton Hospital

The lead member for adult social care and health at the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, councillor Cem Kemahli, visited the new Royal Brompton Diagnostic Centre this week. Councillor Kemahli said he was “very impressed” with the quality, capabilities and technological resources of the new facility in Chelsea, both in terms of its potential impact on delivering better healthcare for patients and on the way it had been delivered close to his own local ward (Royal Hospital ward) as a borough councillor.

Read more here. 

A surgical site infection (SSI) surveillance project collaboration at Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals, King’s College Hospital and Evelina London Children’s Hospital has been honoured by the Journal of Wound Care Awards in Abu Dhabi.

The ISLA project won the Innovation in Surgical Site Infection award at the ceremony, held this week as part of the World Union of Wound Healing Societies (WUWHS) Congress.

Funded by the King's Health Partners Cardiovascular and Respiratory Partnership programme, the project delivers a new approach to post-operative wound management and surgical site infection surveillance, saving clinical time and patients’ travel time.

Royal Brompton Hospital's catering service secures five stars

The catering service at Royal Brompton Hospital has been honoured with a five-star award for food hygiene. The top result comes after a recent inspection by officers from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea’s Directorate of Environmental Health, which covered all aspects of food service, from the Brompton Café for staff and visitors and in-patient meals to the Proud to Serve Starbucks coffee shop.

Read more here.

Peaceful Night Pledge launches

The patient engagement team at Royal Brompton and Harefield has launched a new initiative: The Peaceful Night Pledge. The new initiative supports both our patients and staff to help improve the quality of sleep for our patients as it is recognised as an essential part of their recovery.

While many noises in hospitals are unavoidable, the patient engagement team wanted to tackle this issue by raising awareness amongst both staff and patients of the small changes that they can take to ensure that patients get a ‘peaceful night’s sleep’.

The pledge that both patients and staff are asked to adhere to, was created in partnership with several teams across the hospitals including clinical and pain psychologists, clinical engineers, consultants, and of course, patients. It outlines several steps that can be taken to ensure that everyone works together to achieve a quieter environment.

Karen Taylor, lead for arts and patient engagement said, ‘Overall we hope that if patients sleep better it will reduce recovery time and costs to the hospitals whilst increasing patient satisfaction. We also hope this approach of using patient feedback as a starting point for quality improvement and exploring solutions by bringing patients and clinicians together, will help inspire others to adopt similar methods for continuous improvement.’

MEMBER EVENTS

Health and wellbeing webinars- free for members and patients

Focus on Heart Failure

Wednesday, 27 April

11am- 12pm

Online 

To find out more and to register, please click here. 

Heart failure is a condition that develops when your heart become less effective in pumping blood around the body. Join specialists from our heart failure team for an overview of the condition and a discussion on how heart failure can be prevented, how it is diagnosed, what treatment options are available and what future developments may come from current research and clinical trials. Participants will be invited to ask questions following the speakers’ presentations.

Virtual Sarcoidosis Patient Day

Thursday, 28 April

From 10.00am

To find out more and to register, please click here. 

Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals and Sarcoidosis UK will be hosting a virtual Sarcoidosis Patient Day. This event will follow in the footsteps of last year’s Patient Day which was a huge success. Participants will be hearing from a variety of specialists on a range of topics, with 8 different sessions throughout the day, including:

• Recently Published Clinical Practice Guidelines
• Advanced Pulmonary Sarcoidosis
• Cardiac Sarcoidosis
• Neurosarcoidosis
• Sarcoidosis with Prominent Systemic Disease Features
• International Clinicians’ and Patients’ Experience
• Multi-Disciplinary Meeting
• Research Strategy

Opportunities to get involved

Could you help our research in Lung Fibrosis?

We are looking for healthy volunteers aged 18-75 to participate in a research study.

We are conducting a research study looking at lung function and genetics in healthy volunteers. You would be helping us better understand lung fibrosis.

We are seeking to recruit volunteers from 18 to 75 years of age, to take part in this study at the Royal Brompton Hospital.

Refreshments will be provided, and travel costs will be reimbursed.

If you are interested in taking part in this study, please contact:

The ILD Research Administrator, on

Email: [email protected]

Telephone: +44 (0)207 352 8121 ext 4923

Joint Programme for Patient, Carer and Public Involvement in COVID Recovery

Join our workshops: Long Covid, Waiting for Treatment, Virtual access to services

London South Bank University is working with Guy’s & St Thomas’, including Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals and King’s College Hospital and are hosting online workshops connecting people - living with Long Covid, people waiting for treatment, and people accessing services virtually - with health professionals, third sectors and communities; to co-design local support and establish a collaborative network.

For further information about dates of upcoming workshops, please contact [email protected]

News from our Charities

Brompton Fountain

Molly Rose, a little girl on a big journey

Molly, along with her mum Kelly, created a comic book about her condition and her feelings. After sharing it on social media they were approached by Fi and Books publishing who converted the comic into a book. Their book is now been sold and shipped all over the world and has helped many children and their families understand more about CF. 

They have very kindly pledged to donate some of the money from each book sold to our charity.

You can buy a copy here.

Meet Kate, Brompton Fountain’s new Family Support Manager

Kate will oversee our charity support services and projects for young patients aged 0 to 25, and their families.

We’re really excited to have Kate on board.

‘Hi everyone, my name is Kate and I'm delighted to have joined The Brompton Fountain. For the past 4 years, I've worked at the disability equality charity Scope. To share a little bit about me, I love hiking and exploring the outdoors and am a massive animal lover! If there is anything I can do to help please don't hesitate to get in touch with me, my email is [email protected].

I look forward to meeting you all very soon.

Royal Brompton & Harefield Hospitals Charity

Summer events

This summer, Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals Charity is holding a range of events to raise funds for the hospitals.

London Bridges Walk

You can join us for our London Bridges Walk in July. Go for a stroll through some spectacular urban scenery, which takes in the sites of central London and follows a route that covers six iconic bridges over the Thames, all whilst raising funds for the hospitals. For more information and to book tickets, click here.

Skydive

If high octane fundraising is more your style, then you can experience the rush of your life as you jump out of a plane 10,000 feet above the ground.

Sign up for our skydive and not only will you be able to get the most spectacular views of Salisbury and South West England, but you will also be raising funds to help our hospitals treat and beat heart and lung disease. Skydive with us here.

Young Patients’ appeal

Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals Charity is running a Young Patients’ appeal to raise funds for young people who rely on the hospitals to reach their full potential.

The Young Patients’ appeal will support a range of projects at the hospitals including a specialist paediatric physiotherapist and a project to help young patients with long and multiple stays in hospital with their schooling, qualifications and career prospects.

To learn more about your Trust membership, share your feedback or update your contact details, please contact Nancy Dickinson at [email protected]

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