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Last major move in City Hospital’s first month
(Front) Penny Brett, head of midwifery, with colleagues Angela Jeffers, Carol Lee, Mike Lumb, Mel Rackham, Laura Marsh and the new team of midwives at the new maternity unit of Peterborough City Hospital. (METP-08-12-10GM043) Picture: GEORGI MABEE/Peterborough ET
THE last of more than a million patient records will move to Peterborough’s new super hospital today (17th December) – marking the end of the transfer of services to the site.
It is now a month since the £289 million Peterborough City Hospital (PCH), at Bretton, opened its doors to patients on November 15 - with services from Peterborough District Hospital (PDH) and Edith Cavell Hospital moving to the site in stages.
Work has been ongoing to transfer around one million patient records to PCH and today the last of the records will be transported.
Rowena Barnes, PCH’s chief operating officer, said: “We have a good record with our library, 99.8 per cent of case notes are available for doctors.
“But because of the move records have been in transition and it has proved frustrating. We now need to get the move completed and the library fully up and running.”
In the hospital’s first month, it has experienced a variety of teething problems, including issues with parking, signage and its £1million telephone system.
But bosses at Peterborough and Stamford Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust say most of the problems have been solved and the remainder are well on the way to being sorted out.
Nigel Hards, trust chairman, said: “It is an immensely complex project. We have effectively moved three hospitals into one, including the maternity unit.
“We have had to deal with a number of issues such as the phones. It is disappointing we had these problems after all the planning but if that is the worst that happens on such a complex project, I suppose we have got away with it.
“What’s really struck me is the level of satisfaction with patients. Anybody who has been in here has been very, very pleasantly surprised by the fact they are being treated in a hospital that is as good as any private hospital in Britain.”
The phones problem began shortly after the hospital opened, with people calling the switchboard being cut off, or put through to an unrelated call centre.
Engineers from Dimension Data, who installed the phone system, have been fixing the problems and a spokeswoman for the hospital said yesterday that the system is “back up and running” with only a few recurring “localised” issues left to resolve.
To ensure staff could communicate with each other while the phone system was faulty, hospital bosses rolled out a new communication device called Vocera several months ahead of schedule.
Hospital staff now wear a voice-activated device around their necks, which allows them to contact any other clinician on site without leaving a patient’s bedside.
The spokeswoman said: “Vocera enables staff to communicate with each other instantly without access to phones and bleeps, making it much more efficient and much better from a patient safety perspective.
“We have ended up rolling out the system more quickly to ensure clinical staff could still communicate regardless of phone issues.”
In the first week of January, work will begin to demolish the old Edith Cavell Hospital to create a new car park, bringing the number of spaces on site to 2,006.
However, some staff have complained that there is not enough allocated parking for employees.
A free park and ride scheme is running between PCH and PDH, in Thorpe Road, and hospital chiefs say it is being well used, while other staff are walking or cycling in to work.
The spokeswoman said there is an appeals process for staff who feel they should have been allocated parking, though none have yet been escalated by managers.
She added: “We always knew that parking for staff would be a challenge. We are already looking at a number of options for future staff parking.
“Our priority is to make sure patients can park on site if they need to.”
Signage at the hospital has also been improved, after confusion over the fact that some departments, such as maternity, have their own entrances and car parks, allowing patients to get to their destinations more quickly and easily.
Guides, wearing yellow jackets, have also been deployed to direct patients to the right treatment areas.
Chairman Mr Hards said: “We have learnt things about signage since we opened.
“We felt they were clear enough, but people are used to going to one main entrance.
“One of the strengths of the hospital is having separate entrances and receptions for each department, but that can be several hundred yards from the main entrance.
“One of the things we have done is put more people on the ground directing people.”
Successful move for oncology...
THE hospital’s oncology department is among those which has been open for all of the new hospital’s first month.
Polly Grimmett, general manager for Cancer and Specialist Care, said the move of cancer services to the new site had been a success.
New radiotherapy machines will be operational in April, meaning patients no longer have to travel to Cambridge for the treatment.
She said: “As well as the fantastic new facilities, we also have our own car park for patients, just outside the door of our own dedicated entrance.
“We are developing outreach facilities to try and bring many of the treatments we undertake closer to people’s homes.”
The aim is to treat people at home, where possible.
She added: “We are aiming to ensure any trip into hospital for this vulnerable group of patients is as stress free and comfortable as possible and we aim to negate the need for a hospital visit at all.”
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Weather for Peterborough
Saturday 26 May 2012
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Comments
There are 9 comments to this article
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*Lula Mae Barnes*
Friday, December 17, 2010 at 11:39 PMbossyflower #6 God had nothing to do with it. Some lollipop sticks and sellotape cured Holly for good. And SCIENCE invented lollipop sticks and sellotape. Therefore God does not exist. Nor does Father Christmas or Jiminy Cricket.
*Lula Mae Barnes*
Friday, December 17, 2010 at 11:37 PMNurse? Is there anyone there............... oh....
Holly Golightly
Friday, December 17, 2010 at 10:23 PMGrottyflower 6; Seasonal greetings to you. Back after hand surgery. I am typing slowly with one finger at present..........nice to be back......
glossyflower
Friday, December 17, 2010 at 10:13 PMMay the lord help us all, for Holly has graced us with her return
Holly Golightly
Friday, December 17, 2010 at 07:49 PMJ J Carter...Is there any danger when you are cremated? or should they be taken out before hand?
Holly Golightly
Friday, December 17, 2010 at 07:40 PMJ J Carter...Is there any danger when you are cremated? or should they be taken out before hand?
J J Carter
Friday, December 17, 2010 at 07:01 PMYep, medical records could all be stored in a chip simply inserted under the skin. A boon for the elderly who could be scanned on arrival.
Holly Golightly
Friday, December 17, 2010 at 06:31 PMI never know why hospitals keep medical records. They should be held by the individual. If you have an accident in, say France, they don’t bother with them, they just get on with it. I think record keeping should be privatised and ill people and hypochondriacs should have to pay for their own extensive data entries. Another vast waste of money, which could be saved. I pay, so why can’t everyone else? Most of the records probably relate to people who have died or the hospital staff have killed!
wamdue
Friday, December 17, 2010 at 04:58 PMSilly question, but is the physiotherapy department there now?
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