Royal Brompton Hospital's 'Modern Matron' thinks 'outside the box' to help long term patients

Steve Barton is a 'modern matron' on Foulis Ward at the Royal Brompton Hospital. One of his many simple initiatives is a ring binder full of take-away menus. This can be used by patients who often long for a change from hospital food. Vicky, a regular patient on the ward, wrote to us about this idea as one of many simple ideas that have made a huge difference to the long stay patients on the ward.....

Dear Jill and Nicola.

I am a regular long term patient at the Brompton Hospital, London... When I attend for treatment, treats like take-aways are a good morale booster especially as my family cannot get up to see me as often as they would like (due to the distance)which can be quite lonely. I know that the Cystic Fibrosis ward (Foulis) at the Brompton has a ringbinder full of local take-away menus that deliver to the hospital (with some even taking orders over the internet so you can pay by card). It is the only hospital i've been to that offers this and I think many other patients from differing hospital would benefit from a similar service.

A couple of other things that the Brompton has (Foulis ward anyway) for their patients, that may benefit other hospitals include: Video/DVD library, books/puzzles/games, laptop loan/wireless internet access, reflexology, hairdresser, newspaper/sweet trolley and a local doughnut company kindly donates donghnuts for the patients once a week as a pick me up also.

Hope this helps and if you want any other info or help please do not hesitate to contact me.

Kindest Regards

Vicky

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