Special clinics will be set up at Hull Women and Children’s Hospital next week to help pregnant women protect their baby from serious illness this winter.

Midwives trained to administer the flu vaccine will run the clinics every Tuesday to ensure women are protected against the flu virus which has been linked to miscarriage, premature birth and stillbirth.

Women will also be able to receive the vaccine at the HEY Baby Carousel on the last Wednesday of every month throughout the flu season, which begins on October 1.

Healthy Lifestyle Midwife Caroline Clark said: “Becoming a mother means protecting your baby and getting the flu vaccine in pregnancy is as essential part of that role.

“Catching flu in pregnancy can be severe not just for the mum but for the baby too. We’ve made it as easy as possible for women to receive the vaccine so they can be assured of doing the best for their child.”

Around 5,500 babies born in Hull every year and studies have shown pregnant women are particularly susceptible to flu which can cause miscarriage in the early stage or stillbirth in the later stages of pregnancy.

As women’s immune systems are more suppressed in pregnancy, they are more susceptible to flu and it can have serious consequences for women and their babies.

Women will be able to receive the flu vaccine at one of the Tuesday clinics or at the Carousel providing they bring their green, hand-held pregnancy notes. You will not be able to receive the vaccine if you do not bring your notes.

Pregnant women are also able to get the flu vaccine from their GP or local pharmacy.

The next Carousel event will be held on October 30 at the Clinical Skills building near the Eye Hospital in Fountain Street between 6pm and 8pm.

As well as giving women the flu vaccine, Hull’s team of midwives, midwifery assistants and birth educators will also be on hand to give out hints and tips on having a healthy pregnancy.

Parents-to-be will be shown how to fit nappies, bath their baby and gain safer sleeping advice during practical demonstrations in a safe, non-judgemental learning environment.

Women living in the East Riding will now be able to book antenatal classes through Hull Women and Children’s Hospital from next month.

Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust will take bookings from women for antenatal classes at Children’s Centres in the East Riding via their HeyBaby page on the trust website from October 1.

The online booking is just one of the many services now offered by the trust’s HeyBaby team.

Around 200 prospective parents attend the Hey Baby Carousel events, held on the last Wednesday of every month at the Clinical Skills building next to the Eye Hospital in Fountain Street between 6pm and 8pm. The next Carousel takes place on September 25.

Melanie Lee

Women can learn about services to support them and their partners through pregnancy, can discuss their birth plans with our midwives and learn how to care for their newborn by watching demonstrations by our team of birth educators.

They can also find out about their options for birth, such as delivering their babies at either the labour ward or the Fatima Allam Birth Centre at Hull Women and Children’s Hospital, have their babies at home supported by the trust’s community midwives or use our new hypnobirthing service.

The Hey Baby team are also offering mums to be the chance to book breastfeeding classes or antenatal classes in Hull through the website.

Janet Cairns, Head of Midwifery, said: “We are now offering women a whole range of services that will see them through their pregnancies and birth into the first few weeks of becoming parents.

“Our midwives and birth educators can support women through every step of their pregnancy and we would encourage women and their partners to come along to our Carousel events to find out what is available to help them at this exciting time in their lives.”

Frontline staff at Hull Royal Infirmary are under intense pressure today with patients arriving at its emergency department almost every two minutes.

Around 35 people have turned up at the hospital’s Emergency Care Area, which normally treats the less serious illnesses and injuries, every hour since 10am.

However, most could have gone to the GP Walk-In Centre at Wilberforce Health Centre, the Urgent Treatment Centres or even gone to their local pharmacist for help.

Now, Teresa Cope, Chief Operating Officer at Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, is making an urgent appeal to people only to come to Hull Royal if it’s a genuine emergency.

She said: “We are seeing scores of people streaming through the doors of our Emergency Care Area, forcing us to move our doctors and nurses from other areas to cope with the demand.

“This increase in demand is not sustainable and we require people to think twice before coming here.

“If you come to Hull Royal with anything other than a genuine emergency, be prepared to wait hours and hours to be seen.

“And if you do show up at Hull Royal with less serious illnesses or injuries or just because you can’t get an appointment with your own GP, you could be putting someone else’s life in danger because you are taking our staff away from the patients who really need them.”

Urgent Treatment Centres are available in Bransholme, Goole, Beverley and Bridlington. Those in need of advice can also call NHS111, use their local pharmacist, or visit the GP walk-in service at Wilberforce Health Centre in Story Street.

If you live in Hull, visit www.hullccg.nhs.uk/other-services-2/local-services-and-your-health/find-local-services/ find out where you can go to be seen quickly.

You can visit http://www.eastridingofyorkshireccg.nhs.uk/choose-well/ to find the alternatives to A&E if you live in the East Riding.

If you are unsure about where to go for help, call NHS 111.

Rugby star Shaun Lunt is appealing to people to “think sepsis” after he developed the life-threatening condition following a rugby tackle.

Shaun, former captain of Hull KR, suffered an abscess in his spine following the tackle during a game in August 2018 which became infected and he developed sepsis.

Now, as the first anniversary of his battle for survival approaches, Shaun, 32, is supporting Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust to mark World Sepsis Day on Friday.

He said: “None of us want to make a fuss but there’s a risk that we don’t take this seriously enough.

“People are scared to look stupid if they mention sepsis but we need to be more cautious and think sepsis, whether they work in the hospital, are looking after someone or feel the worst they’ve ever felt in their life.

“You can lose a limb affecting the rest of your life or even lose your life if you don’t.”

Sepsis is when your body reacts in a toxic, life-threatening way to an infection that can lead to tissue damage, organ failure or death.

Shaun’s health began to deteriorate after he suffered the back injury during the game in August 2018. He was taking painkillers but, by the end of September, he had gone to different hospitals twice as his condition worsened.

One morning, unable to get up off the floor between his bed and his wardrobe, he knew he had to get to hospital immediately.

“I’m one of those that don’t like to make a fuss but I phoned my wife Grace and said I needed to go to hospital,” he said. “It was the worst I’d ever felt.”

Shaun was taken to Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield where doctors initially suspected bacterial meningitis before he was diagnosed with the abscess on his spine and sepsis.

After eight days, Hull KR arranged for him to be transferred to Nuffield Hospital in Leeds for 12 days. He was then given antibiotics intravenously through a PICC line for a further six weeks.

Shaun said: “When I came out, I thought I’m getting better and, a couple of months later,  I went to watch a football game with one of my friends. He told me how bad sepsis was and how someone he knew had died from it.

“I was quite naïve about it and hadn’t realised how serious it had been.”

Although he recovered enough to return to playing in March, his battle was far from over.

Shaun struggled with post sepsis syndrome, a condition affecting around half of sepsis survivors. It can leave people with depression, loss of self-esteem, debilitating muscle or joint pain and hallucinations.

“About 10 weeks after being in hospital, everything hit me like a tonne of bricks,” he said. “I’d come off the medication but that was when the real battle began.

“Post sepsis syndrome was an absolute nightmare and the worst thing was that no-one had warned me what was to come.”

His love for wife Grace and their two sons, Noah, 7, and four-year-old Jude helps Shaun find the strength to continue his recovery and he rejoined Leeds Rhinos on loan in June.

He missed Noah’s seventh birthday because he was admitted to hospital just three days before on September 27 and then spent days in quarantine so this year’s celebration will be extra special.

He understands how close those who love him came to losing him and he’s determined to return to full health.

“I’m not afraid or ashamed to admit I’m still not 100 per cent,” he said. “It’s just an on-going process but I know I’m getting better.

“In the beginning, I was lucky to get a couple of good hours because every day was a bad day. Then it was one good day in a week. Now, I maybe have a tough day every couple of weeks but I know what it’s about now.

“I can talk to my wife and we know it’s all part of the healing process and something I have to go through.”

Hull’s A&E department sees at least 50 patients with sepsis every month while other people already in hospital with other illnesses and injuries can also develop sepsis.

Since the trust introduced its sepsis team in 2015 as part of a national initiative to drive up survival rates, around 90 per cent of patients brought to A&E with signs of severe infection are now screened for sepsis.

Around 80 per cent of those diagnosed with sepsis receive life-saving antibiotics within an hour.

Donna Gotts, Clinical Nurse Specialist in Sepsis at Hull Royal Infirmary and Castle Hill Hospital, said: “We are so grateful to Shaun for the work he is doing to help us spread the message.

“We need all health professionals to think sepsis and to be ready to take swift action so we can save more lives.

“In Hull, we’ve got a really good pathway which begins with Yorkshire Ambulance Service staff who can start the escalation pathway, alerting our Emergency Department so they’re ready for the patient arriving.

“This means that we can start the treatment for sepsis quickly. “

SIGNS OF SEPSIS

If your child is under five, call 999 or head straight for A&E if they have any of these symptoms – looks mottled or bluish, is very lethargic or difficult to wake, feels abnormally cold to the touch, is breathing very fast, has a fit or convulsion, has a rash that does not fade when pressed.

In older children or adults, early symptoms of sepsis may include a high temperature or low body temperature, chills and shivering, a fast heartbeat, fast breathing.

Symptoms of severe sepsis include feeling dizzy or faint, confusion or disorientation, diarrhoea, nausea and vomiting, slurred speech, severe muscle pain, severe breathlessness, less urine production than normal, cold, clammy and pale or mottled skin and loss of consciousness.

More than 140 nurses are due to start at Hull Royal Infirmary and Castle Hill Hospital this month as part of a plan to address the national shortage of nurses.

Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust has recruited 142 newly qualified nurses from the University of Hull and universities further afield as part of its hugely successful Remarkable People campaign.

Many of the new nurses were offered posts during their training, on condition of passing their final exams, in a radical approach by the trust to recruit as much of the locally-grown health care talent as possible.

Chief Nurse Beverley Geary

Chief Nurse Beverley Geary said: “Not only are we able to offer students jobs upon qualification, we can also support them throughout their training and time at university so they are more likely to pass their exams with flying colours.

“That means that when they arrive at the hospital, they are already part of the ‘HUTH family’ and we will continue to mentor them throughout the early stages of their careers to ensure they can achieve their full potential.”

The trust, in line with other hospitals around the country, has experienced a shortfall in nurses in recent years and the new recruits will fill the 143 vacancies for nurses.

In addition to the newly qualified staff, the trust has also recruited 60 nurses from the Philippines in the last two years with just two leaving thanks to a concerted effort to welcome the new staff to the trust and help them settle in the city as well as in their jobs.

A further 10 nurses will be arriving from the Philippines later this month and will work in the hospital’s theatres and endoscopy department to ease the pressure in particular areas affected by staff shortages.

The trust has also launched its “Once A Nurse…Always a Nurse” advertising campaign aimed at international staff now working at Hull Royal and Castle Hill although not in nursing roles. So far, seven members of staff have been supported to obtain the qualifications they require to attain registration with the Nursing and Midwifery Council.

Ms Geary said: “We have to come up with innovative ways of bringing nurses into or back into nursing and we’ve been really successful in what we’ve done so far.

“Creative thinking is required to tackle the nursing shortfalls experience by hospitals all over the country. We have to do all we can to showcase the fantastic career opportunities we have here for people are lucky enough to live and work in the wonderful, vibrant city of Hull.”

Staff in the new infectious diseases ward at Castle Hill Hospital have been  undergoing training to protect themselves from highly infectious diseases including Ebola.

Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust has trained 15 nurses and health care professionals on Ward 7 to help patients with suspected haemorrhagic illnesses such as Ebola, dengue fever and yellow fever.

Matthew Shipley joined the trust as Senior Infection Prevention and Control Nurse six months ago after working for the British Army, training defence forces in Sierra Leone to deal with suspected cases of Ebola during the height of the outbreak in 2015.

Ward 7 opened last year

Over the past few weeks, Matthew has been training staff on Ward 7 on how to “don” and “doff” – put on and take off – specialist protective gear to ensure they are not at risk of contracting any infectious illness from patients.

He said: “We have yet to see a case of Ebola or any other haemorrhagic illness and it is highly unlikely that we ever will. However, we have to ensure we know how to respond if anyone comes into hospital with signs.

“These are highly infectious illnesses and it is crucial our staff are aware of the correct procedures for using personal protective equipment (PPE) so they can keep themselves safe while continuing to provide an excellent standard of care.”

More than 1,676 have died in the most recent outbreak of Ebola following the epidemic between 2014 and 2016 which claimed the lives of more than 11,300 people.

More than 111,000 people, many of them relatives or health professionals who cared for people with Ebola, have received the rVSV-ZEBOV vaccine in an attempt to halt the spread of the epidemic.

Chief Executive Chris Long cutting the ribbon to open the new ward

Hull is one of the UK’s designated centres for treating patients with multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (TB) and for the assessment of possible haemorrhagic illnesses.

Ward 7 opened last year with 12 specialist rooms treating patients with these highly contagious viruses and drug-resistant infections.

Five rooms are “negative pressure” isolation facilities with lobbies and en-suite showers, including one designed to care for vulnerable adults. Special ventilation systems prevent contaminated air escaping to other parts of the ward.

One of the rooms has been designed to treat patients with Ebola or similar conditions who are awaiting transfer to specialist treatment centres in London or Newcastle.

The first room of its kind in the Humber region, the high-level isolation room has a dirty/clean route where staff are able to take personal protection equipment on and off.

Some of the staff working on the Infectious Diseases ward with Chief Executive Chris Long (second from left) and Duncan Taylor, Director of Estates, Facilities and Development (fifth from left)

Although no patients have yet been diagnosed with Ebola since the unit opened, one patient was suspected of having the illness when they developed a fever after travelling in an area affected by the outbreak.

They were cared for in the specialist room while awaiting transfer to one of the specialist centres before further tests showed they had malaria rather than Ebola.

People are being urged to consider alternative services before attending Hull’s Emergency Department this weekend after a large spike in attendances after dark.

As the hospital prepares for a busy weekend, Chief Operating Officer Teresa Cope made a direct appeal to people to keep away from Hull Royal Infirmary over the weekend unless they have a serious or life-threatening illness or injury.

She said: “We continue to see high numbers of people attending the ED and large proportion of patients could have been seen in other services.

“At midnight on Thursday, we had 100 people in our Emergency Department with 120 patients arriving between 7pm and 11pm when all the Urgent Treatment Centres at Bransholme, Beverley, Bridlington and Goole are open.”

Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust was already coping with an usually high level of bed occupancy this week after an influx of very sick people who needed to be in hospital and an increased number of patients waiting for discharge to other services in the community.

However, huge numbers also turned up at the Emergency Department when they should have gone to the GP walk-in service at Wilberforce Health Centre in Story Street, used their local pharmacy or visited an Urgent Treatment Centre.

If you live in Hull, visit www.hullccg.nhs.uk/other-services-2/local-services-and-your-health/find-local-services/ find out where you can go to be seen quickly.

You can visit http://www.eastridingofyorkshireccg.nhs.uk/choose-well/ to find the alternatives to A&E if you live in the East Riding.

If you are not sure where you should go for medical attention, call NHS 111.

One of the trust’s best-loved porters is hanging up his uniform after almost 50 years.

Denis Carter, 66, started working for the NHS at De La Pole Hospital as a fresh-faced boy of 18.

This afternoon, he’ll finish his last eleven and a half hour shift at the Queen’s Centre, clocking up almost 46 years’ service to patients.

Looking back over his long career, Denis said: “I have to go and I’m ready to go.

“But walking out that back door for the last time will be the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”

Denis Carter, seated, with (left to right) John Cunningham, John Burley, Andy Fisher, Dave Houghton and Phillip Morton

Denis was born in Chesterfield but moved to Hull when he was four. He worked in Hull’s fishing industry gutting fish after he left school before applying for a job in hospital stores at De La Pole.

However, the job had gone and he was offered a porter’s job instead.

“I hadn’t even thought about it,” he laughed. “I just thought ‘Wow. Ok.’”

It was a steep learning curve for the teenage Denis, given the task of moving patients who had died to the mortuary.

“It was hard at first and I had nightmares but I soon got used to it,” he said. “I moved 36 bodies in a week once.”

He loved his job at the hospital, known to him as ‘Delly’ and a place where everyone knew everyone else, from the patients to the senior bosses and everyone in between.

With the re-organisation of the NHS, Denis moved to Castle Hill Hospital in 1988 working as a nightshift supervisor in the switchboard control room.

He was then headhunted as a portering supervisor before he worked for three years transporting staff to and from Castle Hill on a half-hourly shuttle service. He then returned to Castle Hill as a portering supervisor and has spent the last 18 months at the Queen’s Centre.

Today, patients come over to him to shake his hand, knowing it is his final week.

“The best part of my job has been looking after patients and helping their families.

“They don’t want to be here, they go through hell and back. They need medicine, of course, but they also need kindness.

“And that’s what I see my job as, to make them smile.”

Not many patients greeted by his beaming smile will know the heartache Denis has endured in his own life. He cared for his mother for 25 years, upholding her final wish to die at home. But he also watched his own grandson Daniel, known throughout Hull as ‘Bransholme’s superhero’, die of cancer after a brave fight when he was just seven years old, days before Christmas.

Tears fill Denis’s eyes, lost in his grief. “He was a hell of a fighter and he was chosen by Hull’s mayor to switch on the Christmas lights,” he said softly.

“They asked if I wanted to move after Daniel died but I wanted to stay here.

“I think that’s why I can relate to patients. I’ve been in their shoes. I know what it feels like.”

His friends and colleagues at work have seen him through dark times. But he’s also shared plenty of happy times with them too – like the time he took a day off work and came back married to wife Gaye.

Denis and Gaye are planning to move to Sigglesthorne to enjoy his retirement near the coast, just waiting for their bungalow to be completed.

“All that has happened to me has made me a better person,” he said. “I like to think I’m a caring person – you couldn’t do this job if you weren’t.

“I’ve met thousands of thousands of patients over the years and sometimes, I’ve gone home and cried for them because it can get to you.

“Just the other week there, I lost one of mine. I’d seen them at the end of my shift and when I went to check on them the next day, they had died an hour or so earlier. That hit me hard.

“But I’ve never regretted what I’ve done, not for a single minute. I could have left this job a long tme ago but I didn’t want to.

“I look back and I think of the patients and the people I’ve worked with who have helped me and I can’t thank them enough.”

Staff will gather this afternoon to bid a fond farewell to Denis at the end of his shift.

Ann Mason, Head of Facilities, said: “Denis has been a wonderful asset to the trust and he will be sorely missed, not just by us but by the patients who have grown to love him for the care and compassion he has shown them every day of his working life.

“We thank him for his decades of devotion and wish him all the best for a long and happy retirement.”

Hospital staff will turn Hull Royal Infirmary and Castle Hill pink next week to highlight a change in the law about organ donation.

Catering and mailroom staff at Hull Royal Infirmary and Castle Hill Hospital will wear bright pink “Yes, I Donate” t-shirts to mark National Organ Donation Week from Monday, September 2 to Sunday, September 8.

The garden in front of Hull Royal Infirmary will be lit up pink throughout the week and the Organ Donation flag will flutter from the flagpole outside the tower block.

Specialist Organ Donation Nurse Fay Turner said: “The law will change next year, meaning everyone will be presumed to have consented to organ donation in the event of their death unless they opt out.

“We want to make sure people know about the change and National Organ Donation Week is a great time to spread the word.

“The ‘opt out’ system is a fantastic step forward in organ donation, meaning more lives could be saved and fewer people will die waiting for a transplant.”

Staff from the Organ Donation Team at Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust will also be at St Stephen’s shopping mall on Tuesday, September 3, from 11am to 3pm to encourage people to talk about organ donation.

Members of the team will be able to answer any questions on the forthcoming change to organ donation legislation, due to come into force next Spring.

According to NHS Blood and Transplant figures, 1,600 people donated their organs after they died last year, saving or improving the lives of 3,941 recipients.

However, over the same year, 400 people died waiting for a transplant and a further 777 became so ill they had to be removed from the list, with many dying soon afterwards.

At the moment, more than 6.000 people are waiting for the call to say a donor has been found, a call which could mean the difference between them living long enough to become teenagers or adults, see their children grow up, attend the wedding of their son or daughter or spend precious extra years with their grandchildren.

In Hull, 12 families consented to the use of the organs following the death of a loved one, with 18 transplants undertaken.

Hospital bosses are appealing to the public to use urgent treatment centres and pharmacies as Hull’s A&E comes under unseasonable pressure.

Frontline staff at Hull Royal Infirmary are working round-the-clock to help hundreds of seriously ill people arriving at the Emergency Department.

Around 400 people have been turning up at ED every day this month, with almost 500 attending on some days.

Now, Chief Operating Officer Teresa Cope is warning people are facing long waits for treatment if they come to Hull Royal’s Emergency Department when they are not facing a serious or life-threatening illness or injury.

She said: “We have been seeing increasingly high numbers of very seriously ill people who need to come to Hull Royal Infirmary for our help.

“However, we are still having to deal with people who are coming to hospital when they could have been seen much more quickly if they had gone to the Urgent Treatment Centres in Bransholme, Goole, Beverley or Bridlington.

“We need people to stop and think and ask themselves if they really need to come to hospital. Our staff need to be here for the seriously ill and injured patients whose lives may be in danger and coming here with minor injuries and illnesses can put lives at risk.”

As well as the Urgent Treatment Centres, people can also call NHS111, use their local pharmacist or visit the GP walk-in service at Wilberforce Health Centre in Story Street.

If you live in Hull, visit www.hullccg.nhs.uk/other-services-2/local-services-and-your-health/find-local-services/ find out where you can go to be seen quickly.

You can visit http://www.eastridingofyorkshireccg.nhs.uk/choose-well/ to find the alternatives to A&E if you live in the East Riding.