TEA PARTY AT THE SPIRES
What a year! £544,000 earned in the cafes! So there was a reward for our glorious volunteers at the Oxford Spires Hotel! Every year we celebrate the volunteers’ efforts by getting together for a tea party in the spring. This year we visited the Oxford Spires Hotel for something a bit special. On a lovely sunny afternoon we had a right good spread! We took the opportunity to recognise the loyalty and hard work of our longest serving volunteer, Dorrie Gethings, whose forty years of dedication have filled our archived photographs (which we will soon publish in an archives page) with smiles. Andrew presented Dorrie with theatre tickets, flowers and a certificate to adorn her mantle-piece. Andrew Bax carries out the Chairman’s happy role.
Multi-function Shower Chair £4,500
The Trauma unit here at the John Radcliffe asked for our help to purchase a Carendo Multi-function Hygiene Chair. The chair enables severely injured trauma patients to be transported to the wet room is a safe way whilst being positioned at an appropriate angle for their injury. The height of the chair can also be altered to assist staff with accessibility and manual handling, reducing the risk to them and improving the physical and psychological wellbing of the patient.
Nippy Clearway Cough Assistor £4,452
We enabled the Physiotherapy department to purchase a NIPPY Clearway cough assistor device, to help patients who have an impaired ability to clear secretions for their respiratory tract. This fantastic new machine also helps with easing breathless-ness for an acutely breathless patient and is now being used to help the physiotherapy team to treat more patients in Intensive Care, Emergency, Surgical, Medical and Neurosciences wards.
Breech Delivery Simulator £8,500
To train our staff to help patients with natural breech deliveries and more complicated births, we have bought a Sophie Simulator. This is a life like thigh to chest model that gives a realistic tactile experience for a better understanding of these types of births, including the ability to turn it on all fours, which is the recommended position for breech births. The Sophie Simulator will enhance the staff learning and ensure that a vital care solution is provided to expectant mums at the John Radcliffe.
Pressure relieving mattress £3,465
Preventing pressure ulcers or bedsores is an on-going concern for patients and nurses alike. The risk increases the longer the patient stays in hospital and in the Cardiac Wards especially, often all the pressure relieving mattresses were in use. We bought them a new Nimbus III pressure relieving mattress to add to their stock so that more patients would be able to use one during their stay to protect them from acquiring pressure ulcers.