Information boards have been placed in Hull Women and Children’s Hospital in time for the start of Euro 2024 to support people experiencing domestic abuse.

Researchers at Warwick Business School discovered abuse and violence by partners increase by 47 per cent on days when the men’s England side win a World Cup or European Championship match.

Clinical support worker Tracey Walker

Now, Clinical Support Worker Tracey Walker has updated information boards in the Gynaecology Outpatients Department and the Early Pregnancy Unit with information about the link between domestic violence and football along with notices on the back of toilet doors to help staff, patients and visitors facing abuse and violence at home.

Tracey, who has supported patients experiencing domestic violence in the last three years as part of her role, said: “We want to offer our patients the best possible care and we know that domestic violence can increase when patients are pregnant and when we have major football events.

“We’ve introduced these boards in the departments and given information in time for the Euros starting on Friday so our patients know we can help them. We’ve also put the information on the back of toilet doors to help those who might not feel comfortable reading the board but still want to access the information.

Tracey Walker with one of the leaflets

“Our hospitals are a safe space for anyone experiencing domestic abuse, somewhere where they can feel safe to speak to us, talk about what’s been happening or get help from community services.”

Tracey and her colleague, Colposcopy Support Nurse Vickie Carter, were among hospital staff to undergo specialist training to support staff, patients, relatives or carers at a Domestic Abuse Champions study day organised by the trust and Hull Domestic Abuse Partnership (DAP) last month.

Tracey said: “We’re been trained to recognise the signs of domestic abuse and respond to anyone who open up to us about what is happening in their home lives. We want them to know we are here to help and will be happy to listen to them and refer them to services which are there to help them.”

Patients with major injuries and illnesses, including brain injuries and serious heart conditions, can now be given lung ultrasounds without leaving their hospital beds.

Physiotherapists Emily Cockshutt and Aaron Hales have become the first at Hull University Teaching Hospitals, part of NHS Humber Health Partnership, to qualify in a new technique to perform lung ultrasounds by patients’ bedsides, helping people with serious breathing problems.

Physio Emily Cockshutt

The technique, endorsed by the Intensive Care Society, allows physiotherapists to assess lung conditions more accurately, enabling them to design effective treatment plans to help patients recover more quickly.

Emily said: “Lung ultrasound is a form of imaging and it’s a non-invasive diagnostic tool that can be used right at patients’ bedsides.

“It is thought to be superior to chest x-ray and auscultation in diagnostic accuracy and has the added benefit of not using radiation and being more portable than chest x-ray.

“We can use it to assess lung conditions and, along with our other clinical findings, enables us provide more effective treatment and interventions. “

Physio Aaron Hales

Emily and Aaron attended a course at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals and had to complete 30 ultrasound scans, 10 under supervision and 20 without, before completing a triggered assessment as part of their training while they worked towards qualification.

Emily will be using the new technique to deliver tailored and more effective treatment to patients in the Intensive Care Units (ICU), Neurosurgery and Major Trauma at Hull Royal Infirmary.

Aaron will use the technique with patients who have undergone cardiothoracic surgery as they recover in wards and ICU at Castle Hill.

He said: “The patients will benefit as they should access specific treatment plans based on the ultrasound findings, allowing quicker treatment of their problems and therefore quicker recovery – so, hopefully, they will spend less time in hospital.”

They come in every age, shape, and size, and from many different backgrounds. Some aim to develop their skills, while some come to share their talents. Some seek friendship, while others simply want to give back to their community.

What unites all of the 650 volunteers working across NHS Humber Health Partnership’s five different hospitals* is the desire to help others.

This week, 3 to 9 June, is Volunteers Week and there can be no better time to say thank you to those who help keep our hospitals in East Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire ticking over.

Volunteers are not just a support to patients and visitors, however, they’re a support to hospital staff too, with many ward staff describing their volunteers as ‘priceless’.

But if you think you know volunteering, think again, as those seen giving their time around our hospital wards and departments may just surprise you.

Did you know there are more than 200 young volunteers, known as Young Health Champions, working in local hospitals, many of whom are giving their time to learn essential skills on route to a healthcare career?

Others come to share their skills, whether it’s playing piano to lift the mood, helping people relax through complementary therapies, or providing advice on wigs to patients with cancer who have lost their hair during treatment.

Some of those walking the wards even come in a four-legged variety, with therapy dogs regularly visiting staff and patients on the intensive care units, stroke wards, paediatric wards, the Queen’s Centre for oncology and Castle Hill’s complex rehabilitation unit, and our neuro rehabilitation centre at Goole, to help people relax and act as a conversation-starter.

Rachael Hardcastle-Pearce is the Voluntary Services Manager for Hull Royal Infirmary and Castle Hill Hospital. She said: “Volunteering today is much more varied, with plenty of opportunities for people to share their skills and experience but also for people to gain experience which could help them in other areas of their own life or career.

“One of the things we’re really proud of right now is the links we’re forging with local partners, schools and colleges to give young people an insight into healthcare through voluntary placements. Not only will this help to build confidence at a young age and give school or college-leavers experience to put on their CVs, but as a potential employer, it gives us the opportunity to showcase the many and varied healthcare careers available and hopefully inspire the next generation of clinicians, scientists, and support staff.”

Julie Dobbs, Voluntary Services Manager, looks after those giving their time to volunteer across hospitals in Goole, Scunthorpe, and Grimsby. She said: “Our volunteers are an important part of our teams and complement the work of our paid staff to enhance the experience for our patients, carers, visitors, and staff. They bring a wealth of skills, experience, and energy to the roles they undertake, and we are so grateful for the time they give.

“Volunteers have a huge impact on our patient services, supporting staff by doing the little things that make a difference. We think they are amazing!”

Amanda Stanford, Group Chief Nurse for NHS Humber Health Partnership, said: “Volunteers donate thousands of hours each year to help support our patients, visitors and hospital staff. They each bring different skills and life experience, but the real gift they all bring to the team is the gift of time; the fact that our volunteers are able to chat with patients while nursing staff are busy or help direct a lost visitor while reception staff are helping others. These small things all add up to help deliver a much better experience for people across our hospitals.

“We’re proud to have so many volunteers on our team, and while we’re grateful for their support year-round, there’s no better time than the present, Volunteers Week, to say a public thank you on behalf of the whole Group to those who give their time to others.”

The hospitals’ voluntary service teams will be treating volunteers to a number of different activities to say thank you this week, including a walking tour of the city of Hull followed by coffee and cake, and a specially organised quiz night.

If you would like to know more about volunteering opportunities across our local hospitals, contact:

• Voluntary Service Team – Hull Hospitals
  Tel: 01482 623089 / 07775 546434 or email r.hardcastle-pearce@nhs.net
• Voluntary Service Team – Northern Lincolnshire and Goole Hospitals

Tel: 03033 305577 or email nlg-tr.twvolunteering@nhs.net

Ends

Note to Editors

The five main hospital sites covered by NHS Humber Health Partnership are:

• Castle Hill Hospital Cottingham
• Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital, Grimsby
• Goole and District Hospital
• Hull Royal Infirmary
• Scunthorpe General Hospital

A woman who became a mother, lost her partner and discovered she had HIV within 18 months is to appear at a conference in Hull to explain the impact of bereavement.

International speaker and award-winning social entrepreneur Lizzie Jordan will attend “At A Loss For Words”, a conference aiming to help company bosses and employers support staff returning to work following the death of a loved one.

The event, at the MKM Stadium in Hull, will feature presentations, discussions and workshops to empower employers to communicate well with bereaved employees, ensuring a supportive environment as they navigate their way through grief.

Lizzie is CEO of Think2Speak, a social enterprise company she set up to support people to have conversations about difficult topics, will deliver “Rising from the Ashes”, her personal account of returning to work following the death of her partner.

Alex Wray, Matron for End of Life in Specialist Cancer and Support Services Care Group, said: “Lizzie will be able to share her own experiences to help people feel more confident speaking to a member of their team coming back to work after experiencing the death of someone they love.

“When someone loses a loved one, people around them often don’t know what to say or worry that what they say will make that person feel worse.

“Attending this event means employers will have the confidence to support any member of their staff experiencing bereavement, knowing they have the right tools to offer the right support.”

Other speakers will include Janis Hostad, a lecturer and staff development matron at the Queen’s Centre in Cottingham, Bereavement Consultant John Creasey and Lucy Vere, Director of Learning and Organisational Development, who will discuss the benefits of providing benefit support in the workplace.

The free event will run from 7.30am to 1pm on Friday, 14 June and delegates will also have the chance to learn about and meet representatives from bereavement services.

To register, email sandra.kelly12@nhs.net or call 01482 461260.

Hospital staff in Hull will be taking part in a major incident training exercise this weekend to test their emergency response procedures.

On Saturday 18 May, Hull Royal Infirmary will play host to ‘Livex Virgo’ which will see staff such as emergency department doctors, nurses, porters and managers respond to a simulated chemical incident as if it were real.

Under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004,  organisations which are classed as ‘Category 1 responders’, including acute hospital trusts, must test their major incident response plans regularly, and carry out a live exercise at least once every three years.

The exercise will run throughout Saturday morning, during which time patients and visitors to the site may see some unusual activity, as Shaun Stacey, Group Chief Delivery Officer for NHS Humber Health Partnership explains:

Shaun Stacey, Group Chief Delivery Officer

“Livex Virgo will take place at Hull Royal Infirmary throughout the morning of Saturday 18 May, and will see staff across various departments respond to a simulated chemical incident. We can’t share too much information ahead of the event, as it’s vital that those taking part respond as they would in a real life situation, but the whole idea is to test the plans and procedures we have now to see if they work and identify where any changes may need to be made.

“The exercise has been designed with input from emergency department colleagues and medical education staff to make it as real as possible, but it will be carried out in such a way that it should not impact on the delivery of routine services such as outpatient clinics or emergency care. Those visiting the site that morning, however, may notice some unusual activity such as decontamination processes underway or large groups of people moving around but should not be unduly concerned about this.

“The exercise will not affect any routine appointments so if you are booked into a Saturday morning clinic, please attend as usual, and if you need unplanned care, the Urgent Treatment Centre at Hull Royal Infirmary will be open as normal, as will the Emergency Department in cases where there’s a threat to life or limb.”

Exercise volunteers will be positioned at key locations across Hull Royal Infirmary to reassure visitors and ensure any patients arriving on site are able to access their appointments or other form of medical care as normal.

A team researching the factors which influence family health has smashed its annual recruitment target in the space of just three months.

The response to the Born and Bred in (BaBi) Hull and East Yorkshire study has been so overwhelming that the research team, based at Hull Royal Infirmary, has signed up more than 400 participants in the space of just 13 weeks.

Sarah Collins, Research Midwife for NHS Humber Health Partnership, says she’s thrilled with the response:

“When we launched the study in early February, our aim was to recruit 400 participants in the space of a year. We knew we were doing well when we managed to engage around a hundred people within four weeks, but the level of interest has continued and now 400 people have signed up to help us look at the issues which influence family health and wellbeing in our area.”

Sarah Collins (left) and Eloise Taylor from the BaBi Hull and East Yorkshire study team

The BaBi Hull and East Yorkshire project will use data held about local people to shape health services or highlight societal changes which could improve long-term health outcomes.

The BaBi project looks at both maternal health and children’s health in their early years. It is seeking to connect up all the information that health, education, social care and other organisations hold about young children and families to try and identify patterns that could drive improvements in the lives of the next generation and beyond.

In Bradford, where the BaBi study first began, the findings have contributed to bus route diversions in areas where pollution and childhood asthma were noted to be high and the creation of more green spaces to promote better mental health.

“Our midwives are doing a great job of explaining the study to parents and the value that their input can add,” Sarah continues.

“Lots of people are asking us why this hasn’t been done before, or whether their other children can take part, which just goes to show how beneficial our participants consider the study to be.

“I’d like to thank everyone who has agreed to help us so far, but it doesn’t stop there, as the more people we can recruit to the study, the more reflective the findings will be.

“I am really looking forward to seeing the results and, over time, the improvements we can make across Hull and East Yorkshire as a result of our work with local parents and children.”

Would you like to join the study? The research team is continuing recruitment to the BaBi study with a revised target of 100 participants per month from hereon. All pregnant women and birthing people booked for care with Hull Women & Children’s Hospital will be invited to take part in the study as a matter of course, but more information is also available on our website:  https://www.hull.nhs.uk/maternity/babi/ or by emailing hyp-tr.research.midwife@nhs.net

Message of hope as health experts prepare for event to bring our insides out

In 2019, Jenny Lake, a management consultant from Barrow-upon-Humber, was diagnosed with colitis. Already going through a very difficult time in her life, the news came as a shock. Yet ironically, the stress she was under could well have triggered the colitis flare-up which ultimately led to her diagnosis.

Jenny’s symptoms presented as many a classic case of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) does, with severe stomach pain, fatigue and needing to go to the toilet far more often than usual.

“The cramps were painful but when I began to pass blood I realised there was something much more serious going on. Looking back, I think I could well have experienced flare-ups many years earlier, but they went undiagnosed.

“Following a colonoscopy in 2019, I was told that I had colitis. It was a relief in some ways but that time in between, while I was waiting for results, was really quite frightening; you imagine the very worst. Even when I received my diagnosis, I was still worried; what if I’m not going to be able to manage my condition? What if I’m not going to be able to lead a normal life anymore?”

Jenny was put on a time-limited course of steroid tablets to manage her symptoms along with another form of regular medication. Her symptoms thankfully went into remission, but following another period of stress in 2021 – a common trigger for many with Crohn’s or colitis – a further course of steroids proved unsuccessful.

“That was another incredibly frightening time, as now the steroids were no longer working for me, I began to worry whether anything else would work, and the stress of that made my symptoms worse,” Jenny continues.

At that point, in April 2021, Jenny was invited to take part in a clinical study but it would take a further four months before she received her first dose of the new biologic drug, during which time she would continue to experience debilitating flare-ups.

Jenny Lake was diagnosed with colitis in 2019

“It was a difficult period in my illness,” she continues. “Friends and family would be organising events and parties and I’d be worrying about whether I could go and what might happen if I did. I was worried about urgently needing the loo while I was out, so I would often not eat at all to try and reduce the chances of that happening.

“It can be quite a lonely period too. As well as the physical symptoms, there was a feeling of isolation, like no one I knew really understood it, and then because people find the symptoms associated with colitis embarrassing, no one really wanted to talk about it either.”

But there is light at the end of the tunnel. Since taking part in the VERDICT trial at Hull Royal Infirmary, Jenny has found a treatment that works for her and has not experienced a flare-up of her condition since 2021. She has found support among family members with other long-term health conditions and regularly accesses support groups to talk with other people tackling the same or similar issues.

“They call it an invisible illness because you can’t see it from the outside, but I think colitis is even more so than some other illnesses because people don’t find the symptoms easy to talk about either. But it’s so important for people to come forward for help when they need it, not suffer in silence or be too embarrassed to speak about their problems.

“Since being diagnosed and put under the care of the team in Hull, I have felt incredibly well cared for and supported, and I feel very lucky to have them looking after me.

“I’m really grateful that the NHS has now found a treatment that’s working for me, which shows that IBD can be managed well and life can still go on as normal. You learn to adapt but that’s part of living with your condition, not being defined by it.”

Anyone who would like to know more about colitis, IBD or other digestive diseases is being invited to attend the free Science of Digestion event taking place in Hull next week, on Tuesday 14 May. Organised by the Guts UK charity and Hull Hospitals, the event is free to attend and will feature some of the region’s leading experts in the field of digestive, colorectal and liver health. Organisers will also be inviting guests to meet Colin, a 5m high giant inflatable colon designed to get people talking about digestive health in an alternative and interactive way. Families are welcome, though places should be reserved in advance.

Full event details including timings, location, and a full run-down of the expert line-up can be found online: https://hull-digestion.eventbrite.co.uk

Stomach pain. Digestive difficulties. Toilet troubles. Whatever you want to call them, not many of us like to talk about them.

But when you consider that more than 5,500 people in Hull and the East Riding are living with a diagnosis of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) and around 430 people in our region alone will be diagnosed with bowel cancer this year, it’s clear that we as a community need to get to grips with guts.

IBD is very different to irritable bowel syndrome, although it does share some of the same initial symptoms such as abdominal pain and diarrhoea. IBD is, in fact, an umbrella term for Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn’s. If left untreated, IBD can lead to the need for surgery or potentially life-threatening complications.

Consultant gastroenterologist and IBD specialist, Prof Shaji Sebastian

Professor Shaji Sebastian is a consultant gastroenterologist and lead clinician for the IBD Unit at Hull Royal Infirmary, and was recently elected to the governing board of the European Crohn`s and Colitis Organisation (ECCO), Europe’s largest forum for IBD specialists. He says:

“Getting a diagnosis for IBD is so important, as the sooner we do this, the sooner we can start to explore different treatments. IBD can have an impact on every aspect of a person’s life, including a person’s mental well-being such as feelings of stress or isolation, for example, and also affecting day-to-day activities that many of us take for granted, like eating a meal out or going away on holiday.

“Not everybody with stomach pain will have IBD, but the most important thing is to seek advice and not ignore symptoms like severe stomach pain, diarrhoea, fatigue and weight loss, especially if you’re experiencing some or all of these at the same time.”

And next week, some of the region’s leading health experts will be giving you the chance to do just that when they team up with the national charity, Guts UK, to host a special ‘Science of Digestion’ event. To be held at Hull’s Guildhall on the evening of Tuesday 14 May, the event will enable the public, patients and professionals to hear from experts in gastric, colorectal and liver health. Information on digestive diseases, the importance of early diagnosis, and advice on preventative steps we can all take to reduce the risk of digestive problems will also be freely available.

“There will literally be no question too awkward or that we haven’t heard before,” says Julie Thompson, Information Manager for Guts UK.

“When it comes to gut health, as a nation we can’t afford to be embarrassed. Some 10,000 people are dying in the UK from liver disease each year, bowel cancer is the fourth most common cancer and half a million people are already living with IBD. These are not small numbers, so the likelihood is that, even if you’re not affected personally, you’ll know someone who is.

“Not only will we be sharing information with patients and professionals at our Science of Digestion event, we’ll also be providing general advice to family, friends and those who care for someone with digestive issues so they know how best to support and look out for them.”

The Science of Digestion event will take place from 5:30 – 7:30pm on Tuesday 14 May at the Guildhall, Alfred Gelder Street, Hull (doors open 5pm). Guests will hear from some of the country’s leading experts in gut health, colorectal cancer and digestive diseases and be able to put any questions forward. There will also be the opportunity to get up close with ‘Colin the Colon’, a giant inflatable walk-through experience offering you the chance to see what a healthy colon does (and doesn’t) look like.

Families are welcome and refreshments will be available. Places are free of charge but should be booked in advance via Eventbrite, where you can also find full details of the speakers and topics: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/science-of-digestion-registration-807586522027