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Care Opinion

Patient Contact during Covid Restrictions

Posted By Lucyjc

"Patient Contact during Covid Restrictions"

About: Northern Devon Healthcare NHS Trust

(as a relative),

As unable to visit & phone calls arent quite the same my family were delighted to discover the Patient Correspondence Service offered by PALS in NDDH.  We were able to forward on emails from friends, type our own emails & updates, include photos and pictures - send them into PALS who would then print them early the next day & deliver them to the ward, at no charge - although we would have happily paid.  We always received an email receipt to say that our letter had been received and would be delivered which was very reassuring.  PALS also assisted in arranging the delivery of fresh clothes & other items and the retrieval of laundry from their office - always friendly & smiling at a time of stress for us.

Our only comment would be that these services could have been advertised more widely on the main hospital website or even a direction on the information given on the telephone answering service as we only came across this by chance when trying to trace some post that hadnt reached the ward.  We are sure that more patients & families would love to be making use of this brilliant service!  Thankyou.

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Responses

Response from Lisa Townsend, Patient Experience & Involvement Lead, Northern Devon Healthcare NHS Trust 3 years ago
Lisa Townsend
Patient Experience & Involvement Lead,
Northern Devon Healthcare NHS Trust

Submitted on 25/02/2021 at 16:51
Published on Care Opinion at 16:51

picture of Lisa Townsend

Dear Lucyjc

Thank you so much for the lovely comments regarding both our patient correspondence emails and drop off service. This is something that the Patient Experience team put into place early in the pandemic because we appreciate how difficult it is for patients and their loved ones when visiting restrictions are in place.

It has been an absolute pleasure to be part of a service that can deliver messages, photos and home comforts to our patients and are regularly told by the ward staff the difference it makes. The PALS teams have now delivered over 1000 bags and have been supported by a team of volunteers to achieve this. I will pass on your thanks to all of the team; it is appreciated.

We are using social media to publicise this service on a regular basis but I have passed on your feedback to our communications team regarding our website.

Best wishes

Lisa

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Response from Lisa Townsend, Patient Experience & Involvement Lead, Northern Devon Healthcare NHS Trust 3 years ago
We have made a change
Lisa Townsend
Patient Experience & Involvement Lead,
Northern Devon Healthcare NHS Trust

Submitted on 11/03/2021 at 08:20
Published on Care Opinion at 14:01

picture of Lisa Townsend

Dear Lucyjc

I wanted to let you know that we have made a change following your feedback. We really appreciated your comments on how valuable you have found our patient correspondence service but also how you could not find the information easily on our webpage and found out about the service by chance.

Our communications team have updated our website and we now have a link to the service from the front page. We hope that this change will allow more patients and families to make use of this service so thank you once again for your helpful input.

Best wishes

Lisa

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Update posted by Lucyjc (a relative)

Thats brilliant, more families & patients will be made aware of this fab service😊

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