BRADFORD Hospitals’ Charity has been awarded £50,000 by NHS Charities Together to support patients and staff at Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust who are disproportionately affected by Covid-19.
The grant – awarded as part of NHS Charities Together Emergency Covid-19 Appeal funding – will support four projects which benefit Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) staff, disabled patients and under-represented members of the community.
Karen Dawber, Chief Nurse at Bradford Teaching Hospitals, said: “We are absolutely delighted to receive this grant, which will allow us to invest in projects which support and promote inclusion and diversity across our Trust. Our population and our staff are often one and the same and we take our responsibilities extremely seriously. We want to support our staff to deliver outstanding care to the people of Bradford.
“This grant has enabled the Trust to do even more, pushing the boundaries to be truly innovative for the wellbeing of our staff and patients. These initiatives will enable targeted interventions that are tailored to our people, allowing us to be the best we can and flourish.”
Hayley Collis, Head of Fundraising for Bradford Hospitals’ Charity, said: “Since March, we have received around £257,000 in monetary donations and £140,000 in gifts in kind to support our staff and patients through the Covid-19 crisis. This additional £50,000 will go a long way to supporting staff and patients who are disproportionately affected by Covid-19. It will enhance the already fantastic work our Trust is doing to ensure the most vulnerable people stay safe and well.”
The projects to be funded are as follows:
- A health and wellbeing peer support programme which aims to assist BAME members of staff who, research shows, are more reluctant to seek help during times of stress.
Previous research suggests the best support to maintain resilience comes from within a team. The programme will recruit peer supporters from BAME and other vulnerable groups across the Trust to ensure they are skilled in listening and have an enhanced awareness of mental wellbeing.
- A library of specialist resources for patients with learning disabilities and demnentia, to help with comfort and anxiety during their stay in hospital.
Covid-19 has caused significant anxiety for many patients in hospital – none more so than those with learning disabilities and dementia. The funding will allow wards to provide a more supportive and flexible environment for those with a learning disability and dementia, by creating a library of items for each ward. These items include: communication boards, books, lights, textured items and items which create noise and smell to help put patients at ease during their treatment.
- Production of specialist videos aimed at patients who use British Sigh Language (BSL) and other languages, to assist them in using the Trust’s Attend Anywhere video consultation programme.
As a result of Covid-19, Bradford Teaching Hospitals now carries out more appointments over the telephone and via the Trust’s Attend Anywhere video consultation programme. Interpreting services are available for patients who have remote consultations, however many have not been able to access the Attend Anywhere programme due to a lack of understanding over how to access the service. The funds will mean videos can be produced in the most common spoken languages and in BSL, which explain how remote consultations can be accessed.
- Recruitment of a humanist chaplain to support under-represented patients who do not identify with the major religions in Bradford.
Since March, the demand for chaplaincy support has grown due to Covid-19. The service increased to a 24-hour rota over seven days a week and Muslim and Church of England chaplains were available at all times in person and by telephone. However, it has been identified that a chaplain who takes a humanist approach and does not affiliate with any religion would benefit both staff and patients, especially the under-represented members of our BAME community. It would also help patients for whom visiting is restricted.
You can see how some of the money donated to Bradford Hospitals’ Charity and NHS Charities Together has been spent across Bradford Teaching Hospitals at https://youtu.be/O_Ko1cCmFuc
You can find out more about the Bradford Hospitals’ Charity at https://bradfordhospitalscharity.org/
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Note to Editors:
- Bradford Hospitals’ Charity is one of more than 250 NHS charities based around the UK. It supports the strategic direction of Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust by funding projects which go over and above what he NHS provides.
- Did you know that, together, all NHS charities give £1million every single day to the NHS!
- In 2017, a new £28million wing opened at Bradford Royal Infirmary, which was part of a £75m investment to improve patient care across our hospitals. It provides world-class facilities for the elderly, children and a brand new intensive care unit. Bradford Hospitals’ Charity provided £260,000 to enable the Trust to create family friendly environments, state-of-the-art equipment and innovative distraction toys and games for young people.
- With the support of Bradford Hospitals’ Charity, BTHFT was also able to provide more cots, including intensive care and high dependency cots, new family accommodation, a revamped counselling suite and a dedicated room for mothers to express milk for pre-term babies when the new neonatal unit opened in 2015.
For further media information, please contact Kelly Thornham, Communications Officer, at communications@bthft.nhs.uk or call 01274 382265
Note to Editors:
- Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust:
Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is responsible for providing hospital services for the people of Bradford and communities across Yorkshire. We serve a core population of around 500,000 and provide specialist services for 1.1 million people.
Our 5,500 staff work over several sites, including Bradford Royal Infirmary, which provides the majority of inpatient services, and St Luke’s Hospital, which predominantly provides outpatient and rehabilitation services. We also manage local community hospitals at Westwood Park, Westbourne Green, and Eccleshill.
In early 2017, a new £28 million wing opened at Bradford Royal Infirmary, part of a £75m investment to improve patient care across our hospitals over a five-year period. It provides world-class facilities for elderly care, children’s services, a state-of-the-art intensive care unit with increased single-room provision and a retail concourse.
The new wing is a continuation of our work to improve patient experience after our new £2 million neonatal unit officially opened in January 2015. Our maternity services were recently shortlisted for the Royal College of Midwives’ (RCM) Midwifery Service of the Year Award, recognising excellence and innovation in the provision of maternity care.
In 2017, we also completed a £2m refurbishment of our Emergency Department (ED) as part of an ambitious vision to create a more efficient acute medicine service for the people of Bradford. It has been designed to provide a slicker and more efficient service, with faster senior clinical involvement at an early stage in the patient pathway.
As a teaching hospital, we are at the forefront of education and development in healthcare, and have an excellent reputation for research performance. We are one of the leading centres in conducting applied research in the country, particularly in quality and safety, elderly care and rehabilitation.
The Trust is home to the Bradford Institute for Health Research (BIHR) where researchers have led the development, validation and implementation of the award-winning Bradford Electronic Frailty Index (eFI) which helps calculate an elderly person’s risk of disability, impairment, falls and complications of chronic diseases, as well as their diminishing independence and capability. This is now being used by 98% of all GPs across the country.
Our award-winning Ophthalmology department is home to numerous worldwide clinical trials taking the lead in eye care research and we are one of only three sites in the United Kingdom to be enlisted in the Perioperative Enhanced Recovery Hip Fracture Care of Patients with Dementia (PERFECTED) study, which will investigate how the NHS can introduce better standards of care to improve outcomes for people with dementia.