Nurses have been praised for helping a wife be with her dying husband in his final hours on their 66^th wedding anniversary after they were both admitted to hospital.

Mary Bilton was rushed to Hull Royal infirmary in the final stages of cancer while her husband Ron, 89, was suffering multi-organ failure in the Department of Elderly Medicine.

Rosie Featherstone, left, and Ellis Howard

Realising Mr Bilton was nearing the end of his life, staff on Ward 90 organised for patients to be moved safely to other areas so Mrs Bilton could see her husband before he died.

She then spent time with her husband by his bedside, holding hands with the man she had shared her life with before he slipped away.

Sister Rosie Featherstone said: “We were determined to do everything we could so they could be together at the end.

“We know it made a real difference to Mrs Bilton that she could be with him and she was able to sit in a wheelchair at the side of his bed holding his hand before he died.

“We were all crying when Mr Bilton died but glad we could help them be together. Everyone on the ward worked as a team to make it happen.”

Mr Bilton was admitted to Ward 90 first and staff found out from his grand-daughter that his wife had also been admitted to the hospital’s Elderly Assessment Unit nine floors below.

Within 24 hours, Mr Bilton’s condition had deteriorated so rapidly, staff knew he didn’t have long to live.

They contacted EAU to see if Mrs Bilton, 86, could be brought up to be with him but there was no bed free on the ward.

(From left) Rosie Featherstone, Stacey Healand and Ellis Howard

Rosie sought permission from hospital managers and, together with junior sister Ellis Howard, arranged a five-way bed swap to bring Mrs Bilton onto the same bay as her husband.

She was moved into a bed as close as possible to her husband without breaching national rules on mixed sex wards.

After Mr Bilton died, Mrs Bilton continued to be cared for by staff on the ward but she died just days later. The couple, from Barton-upon-Humber, were buried together after a joint funeral.

Staff on the ward have now been nominated for a Moments of Magic award, organised by Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust to recognise staff who go above and beyond their duties to help patients.

Stacey Healand, Senior Matron on the Department of Elderly Medicine, said: “We have a great team in the department who always put their patients at the centre of everything we do.

“We’re very proud of what the team achieved on behalf of Mr and Mrs Bilton and their family.”

School pupils from across East Yorkshire got plastered at Hull Royal Infirmary today.

Staff from the hospital’s fracture clinic welcomed children from Riverside Special School in Goole and Stockwell Academy in Hull to learn about the human body and get wrapped up in slings and bandages on National Casting Day.

The annual celebration, held this year on Tuesday 6 November, is designed to showcase the work of the cast room team who deal with breaks and fractured bones on a daily basis.

Gemma Constantine, nursing auxiliary working within the fracture clinic at Hull Royal Infirmary organised the day’s activities. She says:

“Hospital can be a scary place for children at any time, but if they end up breaking a bone, like many of us do during childhood, it’s important for them to feel safe and well cared for.

“The theme for National Casting Day this year was ‘Raising the Bar’, with a focus on training, education, innovation and fun. By bringing some of our younger patients in for a few hours, we were able to show them not only what happens when you break a bone, but to help them see how our team fits within the work of the wider hospital.”

As well as explaining the day-to-day work they carry out, Gemma and her colleagues also spoke to the students about the different bones in the body and how bones heal. Pupils then tried on slings, casts and bandages, and got hands on with the plaster of Paris used in casts to make their own Christmas baubles to take home.

Gemma continues:

“The best way for young people to learn about something is to make it enjoyable, and that’s exactly what we tried to do today.

“Behind all the fun is a serious message, of course. As we head into what’s set to be another busy winter, we took the opportunity to chat with students about the kinds of things people come to hospital with, and how they and their families can help us to help them by making best use of available health services this winter.”

He’s painfully thin, wearing a nasal cannula attached to the oxygen cylinder by his chair. But it’s important to him to make the effort to struggle up from his seat.

“Thank you,” he says, stretching out his hand to Dr Dan Harman. “You’ve covered everything and you’ve really listened to me.”

For the past 50 minutes, Dr Harman, our consultant in elderly medicine, has discussed every aspect of the man’s care, from the 19 tablets he takes to where he wants to die.

Living with heart failure, diabetes, dementia, severe breathlessness, low blood pressure and now undergoing tests for cancer, there’s much to discuss.

By the end, Dr Harman has changed the man’s medication, one repeat prescription has been removed, a referral has been made to dietetics and an appointment he no longer needs has been cancelled.

In a world where 10-minute doctors’ appointments are a precious commodity, the difference it makes to the man and his wife, who is his main carer, is obvious. People are working with them to help him.

It’s a new way of working. It’s meant to be.

Welcome to the Jean Bishop Integrated Care Centre (ICC) in East Hull, a place where buzz words so adored by the NHS – multi-disciplinary team working, integrated services, step change and system-wide approaches – have leapt from strategy to reality.

Opened in May, the ICC is improving how we look after frail people, reducing unnecessary hospital appointments and making the remainder of their lives better.

Severely or moderately frail people make up around four per cent of the population yet account for up to 38 per cent of hospital bed days. They are four times more likely to die within a year, five times more likely to end up in hospital and six times more likely to go into a care home than others their age.

Hull’s GPs, working with the trust’s geriatricians, have used 36 clinical indicators to identify 3,200 people as severely frail. All will be invited to the Jean Bishop ICC for a comprehensive geriatric assessment. Dr Harman calls it “a full MoT”.

But we have to get them through the door first.

Facing endless hospital and GP appointments, around 10 per cent of frail patients don’t turn up. Bad weather, transport problems and fear because no one has explained why the appointment is necessary are among the barriers to overcome.

But to help them, the ICC has to reach them first. And they are.

Clinical support workers visit patients at home first, explaining the appointment and filling in questionnaires with them. Answers give clinicians a wealth of information about the person, covering everything from ReSPECT forms and medication to spiritual needs.

They are driven to and from the centre rather than being expected to make their own way. They get a voucher for a free meal in the centre’s café.

It’s a special event, rather than just another NHS appointment.

With one third of the city’s frailest people living in care homes, the ICC team is also going out to them to conduct the full assessments as a new outreach service.

The centre is bright and airy, accent walls in flashes of sunshine yellow. Rest areas with high-backed chairs and water coolers are positioned next to toilets every few metres. A thoughtful design intention mirroring the compassion of the staff who work here.

Trust Consultants Dr Harman, Dr Anna Folwell, Dr Katie Athorn and Dr Soma Kar are supported by GPs and physiotherapists work alongside advanced nurse practitioners, occupational therapists, pharmacists and social workers from CHCP and Hull City Council.

The assessment is completed in a single morning, preventing multiple visits and ensuring the person’s entire needs, not just their health problems, are met.

The x-ray suite is staffed by trust radiographers two hours a day to save people a trip to Hull Royal. There’s a kitchen, bedroom and bathroom where therapists assess how someone manages day-to-day tasks, from getting out of bed or up from the toilet.

Patient flow has been carefully thought out, with no fixed order to consultations so waiting times are kept to a minimum. You see who’s free next.

Dr Harman is the ICC’s Clinical Lead and he and the other geriatricians have played a major role in developing the service to ensure an innovative and radical approach.

Nine GP with special interests in frailty also work from the centre, heralding a new era of cooperation between acute and primary care. Trust staff can access GP records through System One and EMIS alongside their Lorenzo hospital records for the first time.

That, for Dr Harman, is the game-changer. At the click of a mouse, he can see a patient’s medical history, seeing why they were put on certain medication, what recent problems have affected the patient and their GP’s input.

Each day starts with an MDT meeting. Today, there are 17 home visits and eight assessments.

In the first six months, more than 500 of Hull’s most vulnerable patients have undergone the comprehensive geriatric assessment. Most have seen unnecessary medication removed from their repeat prescriptions, saving about £100 per patient.

Dr Dan Harman

But to suggest the ICC is all about savings is missing the point. The focus always was, and remains, on better patient care. It’s giving staff time to adopt a holistic approach, seeing the person, not just the health condition in a community setting, away from a busy hospital environment.

“It has been so rewarding to do this properly and not just try and sort something in five minutes,” said Dr Harman.

Once the patients have been seen, a second MDT meeting is held in the afternoon. “Progress chasers” are appointed to each patient, ensuring all actions needed to help the patient are actually done.

From booking scans and home adaptations to monitoring drug changes and setting up specialist appointments, nothing and – more importantly, no one – falls through the gap.

As always, it’s the people themselves who highlight the difference the Jean Bishop ICC is already making to lives.

Staff speak of Ray, a seriously ill man nearing the end of his life. When he came for his assessment, he told them how he would sit by his window looking out at the garden he once loved to potter around in. He was too sick to get outside now and hadn’t left his home in two years except to attend hospital and GP appointments.

Some of his medication was dropped. Others were introduced to try and make him feel better.

But that wasn’t all. Staff arranged for a ramp and hand rails to be fitted at his house, enabling him to spend time in his garden once more.

He died a few weeks ago, that man. Staff take pride in knowing they’d done what they could to make his last few months far happier and more comfortable.

It’s early days yet for the Jean Bishop ICC. But Dr Harman and trust staff working at the centre are playing key roles in shaping the future of health care for our most vulnerable patients.

“This has not just happened by accident,” says Dr Harman. “We’ve really tried to make it better.”

Over half of all frontline hospital staff vaccinated in under four weeks

More than half of all frontline healthcare staff working across Hull Royal Infirmary and Castle Hill Hospital have been vaccinated against flu in under four weeks.

Since the launch of its staff flu vaccination campaign, Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust has seen 4,600 staff, including 53% of all those who are involved in providing direct  care to patients, protected against this season’s most likely strain of the virus.

The Occupational Health team has been supported to deliver the vaccinations by a network of volunteer vaccinators, working round the clock to protect colleagues in their immediate teams and workplaces; this has enabled staff in different locations, working different shift patterns, to receive this essential protection. The volunteer teams have been vaccinating colleagues during their shifts and holding special drop-in flu jab clinics across both hospital sites, while Occupational Health staff have offered one-to-one appointments in their department.

Carole Hunter, Head of Occupational Health for Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust says:

“Staff vaccination against flu is an essential part of our winter planning. We want our staff to be protected against the virus so they can be at work to deliver care to our patients in sufficient numbers when we need them.

“Frontline staff are at a high risk of catching any viral infection and that means they are at a high risk of spreading it to others. This can be particularly dangerous for hospital patients as many are already seriously ill or have weakened immune systems.

“By getting the flu jab, staff are not only protecting themselves but by default, their patients, visitors and even their own friends and loved ones.”

All staff receiving vaccinations between now and the end of November will qualify for an extra day off as part of a Trust incentive scheme to ensure as many staff as possible get their jabs.

Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust Trust has been one of the country’s best performing NHS Trusts in terms of staff vaccination rates for the past six years. Last year, 76% of frontline staff were vaccinated against flu.

People in good health who catch flu are usually expected to recover within a week or so of contracting the illness.

However, it can have severe consequences in anyone aged 65 and over, pregnant women, children and adults with underlying health conditions such as long-term heart or respiratory diseases and those with weakened immune systems

At-risk groups are also more likely to develop potentially serious complications such as pneumonia.

Carole continues:

“We’re really pleased with the response so far. It’s great to see so many people involved in delivering direct patient care receiving the jab, but it’s also important for other staff who play a part in keeping our hospitals working, day in day out, to get protected too.

“We hope staff will continue to attend our clinics over the next two months so we can have as many people vaccinated as possible.”

Find out more about the jab and what you can do to protect yourself at www.nhs.uk/flu

Emergency staff at Hull Royal Infirmary are to appear in a new video urging people to use alternative services over winter if they need urgent medical attention.

NHS England is featuring Hull’s frontline team in the video, due to be released in December, to encourage people to play their part in reducing winter pressures on the health service.

Chief Operating Officer Teresa Cope said Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust will be including the video as part of its own #SeriousStuff campaign over the coming weeks.

She said: “All winters are tough for the NHS and we’re not expecting this one to be any easier for our staff.

“We are taking special measures to ensure our health service can cope with these additional pressures but we’re asking for the public’s support.

“Please only come to Hull’s Emergency Department if you have a genuine medical emergency. It should not be used if you’re asked to wait for an appointment to see your GP or just because we might be closer than an Urgent Treatment Centre.

“With your help, we can make sure our hospitals and our dedicated teams are here for the serious stuff to help people who need us most at a time when the NHS is under intense pressure.”

Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust has received £2m from the Department of Health and Social Care to put in additional measures to help staff cope with the expected surge in admissions this winter.

Additional beds will be opened at Hull Royal Infirmary and people who are not genuine emergencies will be diverted to other services if they show up at the Emergency Department so frontline staff can concentrate on our sickest patients.

A new discharge area will also be created for patients who are ready to move into a community or care home bed or to return home.

The trust will be working with Hull City and East Riding of Yorkshire Councils throughout the winter to ensure “step down” facilities are available for people well enough to be discharged from hospital but in need of additional support.

A hospital team is appealing for wigs to help cancer patients overcome the trauma of losing their hair.

The Living With and Beyond Cancer team at Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust set up the wig service last year to help patients undergoing treatment at the Queen’s Centre at Castle Hill Hospital in Cottingham.

With wigs costing anywhere from £100 to £1,000, patients can pick up a wig for as little as £10.

Now, because they have helped so many patients, the team is appealing to the public to donate new, used or unwanted wigs as their stocks are running low.

Claire Walker, a Macmillan Associate Practitioner who works with the team, said: “Losing your hair can be such a big thing because it’s tied in with your full body image and your identity.

“You go from having hair to having nothing at all, not even your eyebrows or eyelashes, so it does have a really big impact.

“Wigs can be really expensive so we thought this service would help people and make it far more affordable. But we need the public’s help because we’re now running out of wigs.”

As well as helping patients with cancer, the service can also accept referrals from people with alopecia and other conditions which cause hair loss.

People come to the team before they begin their treatment or after their first chemotherapy session.

They can make a £10 donation to buy a wig or pay £20 for a special package including shampoo, conditioner, a wig stand, a hairbrush and a special cap to be worn under the wig.

All profits are ploughed back into replenishing supplies and patient care.

A wig fitter comes into the centre on Mondays and Tuesdays to help patients to ensure they are happy with their purchase.

Claire said: “We try to match it as near as possible to their own natural hair although we do get some people who want to try something completely new. They say this is their one time to have something completely different so we try to accommodate that too.

“It can be a really frightening time for people so we try to make it as relaxing as possible for them.

“We just need the public’s help to keep on providing a service which means such a lot to so many people.”

Anyone who can is asked to call Claire Walker on 01482 461091, ask for a member of the Living With and Beyond Cancer team at the reception desk or speak to Tanya in the Macmillan Information Centre, both at the Queen’s Centre.

Staff at Hull Women and Children’s Hospital have been praised for helping women through more complex pregnancies to deliver the most babies born in a single month this year.

Midwives and doctors have helped women give birth to 480 babies in September.

Nine months on from Christmas, September is traditionally a busy time for maternity hospitals but almost 50 more babies were born in Hull last month compared to August, including 22 in a single day.

Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust said although the annual birth rate had fallen from 5,505 in 2016/17 to 5,285 in 2017/18, 2,676 babies had already been born since April this year.

More women were experiencing complicated pregnancies, requiring admission to the hospital’s antenatal ward before giving birth, and more were having caesarean sections, meaning they were staying longer on post natal wards after their babies were born.

The complexity of cases was also increasing, with more women with high body mass indexes (BMIs) giving birth.

Janet Cairns, Head of Midwifery, said: “We are seeing more women who need more support from our staff both in the hospital and out in the community.

“The whole unit has been busy and our community teams have visited all these families at home.

“I’m very proud of how hard our team has worked and thank them all for their dedication and commitment to provide great care and support to the women and families we look after.”

The next HEY Baby Carousel, where prospective parents can get a wealth of information and advice on pregnancy, birth and child care from our team of midwives and birth educators, will be held on Wednesday, October 31, at Hull Women and Children’s Hospital.

Held between 6pm and 8pm, there is no need to book an appointment and people can just turn up.

A grandmother has been fitted with a Batman-style prosthesis to help her twin grandsons overcome their fear of her false leg.

Mary Monahan, 66, was attending a routine appointment at Hull’s Artificial Limb Unit and mentioned to Prosthetist Jess Gilroy that her grandsons Toby and Finlay were frightened of her prosthesis.

Now, with Jess’s help, Mrs Monahan is the proud owner of a Batman prosthesis, designed by the team in Sykes Street from a pair of Batman leggings.

Mrs Monahan said: “The boys were just transfixed by Granny’s new leg and now we play special games they’ve devised using my leg when they come to visit.

“I’m just so impressed by what Jess did for me. Hull has a really lovely centre and they do such a good job. The atmosphere is great and the staff are all so nice.

“I can’t thank them enough, really.”

Mrs Monahan had her left leg amputated to mid-calf when she was just three years old after she was born with a congenital defect in her foot. She has always worn a prosthesis, only removing it at bedtime.

Although her own children had no issues, she realised Toby and Finlay, now four, were frightened of the prosthesis when she moved to the East Riding from the Isle of Man to be closer to them as they grew up.

She said: “For some reason, Toby and Finlay were very frightened of the leg and whenever they saw it, they were just aghast and I had to put it away.

“I tried calling it my ‘special leg’ or my ‘funny leg’ but they were just so spooked by the sight of it.

“I’d gone to the centre to get my spare leg adjusted and I was chatting to Jess and just mentioned the boys’ reaction to her. She suggested we could look at putting a special cover on it and I thought it was a great idea.”

With both boys Superhero fans, Mrs Monahan opted for a Batman leg and bought a pair of leggings featuring the character for the team to use.

Once the leg had been created, Mrs Monahan met her grandsons for a family get-together in the pub.

“I told Toby I’d a secret and asked him to get under the table and pulled up my trouser leg. He was utterly transfixed. Finlay then got a look at it.

“We went out into the garden so they could have a proper look and since then, their attitude to the prosthesis and to my stump has just changed completely.

“When they come and stay her, we play this new game of their own devising which involves them both taking off Granny’s leg, having a jolly good look and feel of my stump. I then have to go to bed where they are doctors in the hospital and they explain they’re going to have to cut my foot off and attack it with their swords.

“They then get to put on the Batman leg. And, of course, they like to try it on themselves and pretend they’ve got three legs.”

Jess Gilroy, who has worked with the service for 12 months, said the team in the centre’s workshop had designed special covers for laminated sockets on artificial limbs including unicorns and Spider Man by using fabric, carbon fibre and resin.

She said: “It makes a difference to people. Some are happy with natural skin colour but others think a special design makes it feel a bit more like their own.

“I was glad to help Mary and she’s the only one with a Batman socket.”

A hospital linen services worker turned detective to reunite a woman with memory books charting her life.

David Stothard, management assistant in linen services, was sent photographs, books detailing Hull’s history and other personal items in April from the company contracted to look after linen from Hull Royal Infirmary and Castle Hill Hospital.

Over the next few months, David refused to give up and the trail eventually led him to Sue Davis, the owner of the package of memories.

He said: “I didn’t want to give up because I knew I’d eventually get somewhere and find who it was.

“I’m just really pleased I could help.”

David, who has worked for Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust since 2003, knew the books featuring photographs of someone called Sue Davis and postcards of Hull over the decades had been put together with great care.

He checked the trust’s staff list and asked patient administration to see if any patient matched Sue’s name but found no matches. He appealed for information on the trust’s intranet but no one recognised the name or the photographs.

With the package still in his office, he went through each photograph and document until he found a photograph of a Brownie certificate presented to the woman by St Martin’s Church in North Road decades before.

He contacted the church for help and a church-goer recognised Mrs Davis. She got in touch with Mrs Davis’s sister, who then passed on the message to Mrs Davis’s daughter Claire Moverley, who had collected the photographs, books and postcards as a memory aid for her mother, who has dementia.

The package had been lost when her mother was moved out of a nursing home and into temporary accommodation at Dove House Hospice in East Hull during a major refurbishment scheme in November 2017.

As the linen company serviced both the trust and the hospice, the package had been sent to the trust by staff who thought it must belong to a hospital patient.

Claire said: “It was just the most amazing thing when I heard what David had done. I’d almost given up hope of her things being found again and I was phoning every week to see if her stuff had been tracked down.

“I was in tears when I heard David had found us because these were my Mum’s memories.

“She’s regressed back to her childhood and the Brownies are a big part of her life now so it’s great that she can look at her photographs once again.”

David has been nominated by his colleagues for a Moments of Magic award in the trust’s internal staff recognition scheme for his efforts to reunite the books and photographs with the family.

Claire said: “He deserves every bit of it. He took the time and trouble to find us and we’re really grateful for all he’s done.”

Patients undergoing fertility treatment could soon be receiving their care in brand new, state of the art facilities.

The Hull IVF Unit has submitted an application to East Riding of Yorkshire Council’s planning team to build a new, two-storey treatment unit at the Hesslewood Estate, close to the Humber Bridge.

Clinicians working at the Hull IVF Unit say the current unit’s location within Hull Women and Children’s Hospital is limiting its ability to meet rising demand from NHS and private patients across the region.  A new facility would not only enable the team to continue growing in both the physical and technological sense, but would also provide a better, more sensitive patient experience.

The working relationship between the Hull IVF Unit and the local NHS is a long one and the Unit will continue to work closely with its NHS partners.

Dr Christine Leary, Consultant Embryologist at the Hull IVF Unit (pictured) says:

“The Hull IVF Unit is one of the most successful fertility treatment centres in the country. We provide over 400 treatment cycles for our patients every year, and our work continues to attract a growing number of patients seeking both NHS-funded and private treatment.

“Our patients come from all across the Yorkshire and the Humber area, so the right location and modern facilities are vital in enabling us to deliver the best possible patient care. After considering various options, we decided that a new, purpose built clinic would be the best solution to enable us to continue our growth and deliver a more suitable environment to meet our patients’ needs.”

The proposed building would contain state of the art, high tech treatment facilities as well as patient areas, a staff office and facilities, recovery rooms and a spacious waiting area. Dedicated private parking for the exclusive use of staff and patients would also be available.

Dr Leary continues:

“We regularly ask for feedback from our patients and with a satisfaction rating of 97.5%, we know we’re providing an excellent patient service, but one thing our patients comment on regularly is the unit’s current location within the Women and Children’s Hospital.

“Our patients can sometimes require multiple cycles of IVF treatment, and having to walk past lots of new parents and expectant mums can be incredibly difficult to deal with if you’re struggling to conceive. A new unit such as the one we’re looking to develop, in calm surroundings away from the hospital site, would take away a lot of that angst for those receiving treatment, some of whom may have been trying for a baby for years without success.”

Hull IVF Unit’s Practice Manager, Pam Andrew, has written to all patients to advise them of the plans and pledged to ensure the move has no negative impact on their treatment.

The planning application will be considered by East Riding of Yorkshire Council and, subject to the necessary approvals, work could begin as early as the New Year and the unit could be operational by early 2020.