Staff training is a really important aspect of delivering patient care. The Friends were pleased to award £2,330 to fund the Phacon Throat Assist.

This is a ‘model head’ which is used in conjunction with a scope (camera) … and enables staff to be trained with intricate precision.

Where patients have difficulty swallowing …. using this technique therapists can determine many things … a patients’ saliva level, how food and liquid travels down the throat, if there are pockets in the throat where food is collecting and when things ‘go down the wrong way’.

When the scope is inserted into the nose and down the throat, the inside of the ‘model head’ replicates a human form. The level of detail is incredible …  as a practical step of the therapists’ training, this ‘model head’ enables staff to perfect their skills before performing patient procedures. 

The Friends at Broomfield Hospital recently awarded £4,200 to fund the ‘patient bedwarmers’.

Pictured here are hospital staff with ladies from the Friends who visited the department to see how this equipment is helping patients ….

Staff from the department kindly explained how the sealed ‘mattress pads’ sit on top of a mattress (between the mattress and the patient) and the pads are plugged in and heated to the required temperature to help raise and maintain a patients’ body temperature….particularly critical for patients who have experienced burns … as where the skin is lost it is difficult to maintain body temperature. 

On the face of it, these chairs look like a fairly standard armchair. Then you look a bit closer … staff can easily manoeuvre them … they have a tilt function to gently change the patients position, a footrest and removable arm, back and seat pads to give the highest degree of support and comfort. 

The seat pads are wipe-clean and made from material that specifically helps with patient ‘pressure management’. Not only that, the chairs are designed to work with the Sara Steady equipment used by staff to help patients to stand from a seated position.

According to Louise Panella, Lead Therapist “These chairs are already in full use and are benefiting patients who are transitioning from bed care to sitting. Patients have expressed how comfortable and safe the chairs feel and use of them is speeding up discharges from hospital.”

They are a total ‘game changer’ and allow patients, previously managed in bed greater potential to be able to progress to seated and standing positions. The Friends are pleased to have provided funding of £4,344 for the first two tilt chairs.