Partnership with charity supports family members and friends to share messages with patients in a new way

PATIENTS at The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust (PAHT) are now able to receive messages of support from their loved ones in a new way following the hospital’s partnership with a charity.

As the NHS manages the demands of coronavirus (COVID-19), visiting to the hospital has been restricted. This means that there are no visitors permitted, except in exceptional circumstances in agreement with the nurse in charge. At the children’s ward, one parent or carer only is allowed, and one birthing partner only with no other visitors is permitted at the maternity department.

The hospital encourages friends and family members to contact patients via phone and video calls during this time.

The Anne Robson Trust, a partner charity of the hospital, is supporting PAHT to provide the Message to a Loved One service to complement this. Family members and friends of inpatients can send a personal message or collate messages and send to [email protected]. Additionally, there is a dedicated phone line (01279 868128) which is available between 10am and 12noon each weekday and a staff member or volunteer will write the message down and get the message to patients’ loved ones.

All phone and email messages will be collated by a dedicated team during the morning on the day the message is received, to be distributed to the hospital wards during the afternoon. Messages will then be printed and distributed to patients by the ward staff, which they can keep. This service is currently only available for patients to receive messages, and there is not capacity for messages to be returned at this time. The service is open to family members and friends of patients on all wards.

Shahid Sardar, associate director of patient engagement, said: “We appreciate the understanding of our community as we work to protect the health, safety and wellbeing of our patients and people by restricting visiting to our hospital. We recognise that keeping in touch with loved ones is a vital aspect of holistic support for our patients and we encourage family members and friends to contact them via phone and video calls during this time.

“In addition, the Message to a Loved One service is an important way that friends and relatives can show patients that they are thinking about them during their hospital stay. We are extremely grateful to The Anne Robson Trust for generously giving their time to offer this service for our patients.”

Liz Pryor, director of The Anne Robson Trust, said: “We are proud that we are able to extend our partnership with The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust to create a new, supportive service during these extremely challenging times.

“We understand the importance of enabling families and friends to keep in touch with their loved ones. We will continue to work hard to support them.”