Patient and Family Support Team | News

Throughout Covid-19 we have seen teams coming together in innovative ways to support inpatients separated from their loved ones and also the families who have had to face difficult news.

The Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) Team, made up of Tracey, Melanie, Marjorie, Tina and supported by Claire, Carla and Francis, has helped to develop initiatives to bring patients and families together through messages and virtual visits. Together, they have made the Patient and Family Support Team. 

They have also developed and run services to improve the experience for bereaved relatives, establishing new processes to streamline the registering of the death of a loved one and to return property to them.

Activity to improve the experience of our patients and to improve communication with families includes:

• The “Message to a loved one” service. Families and friends can ring a dedicated telephone number to dictate a message, send through the mail or email a message or photographs through to a dedicated email. The team then deliver these to the ward for the staff to share with the patient
• The “Matching heart” initiative. One knitted heart is given to the patient and the matching one to the relative which can be kept with them and held during this challenging time of being separated
• Virtual visiting which allows patients and their families to hold a video call so that they can maintain contact during these times of no visiting.

Their innovative work for bereaved families includes:

• Streamlining the process for bereaved relatives to register the death of their loved one
• The nursing team have developed a contactless property collection service for bereaved relatives, ensuring the return of safe property.

More information on these initiatives is available on the website.

Thank you to the team for all you have done in a short space of time and are continuing to do.