Welcome to Bay Hospitals Charity
At Bay Hospitals Charity, we aim to make our local hospitals better for everyone.
We are a registered charity set up to hold and manage charitable funds given to University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust.
We rely on your support to help us improve the hospital environment; purchase the very latest in state-of-the-art equipment and provide extra care over and above that can be currently provided by the NHS.
Thanks to supporters like you, we’re able to create the best possible experience for our patients and their families, and the money we raise helps make a difference to local people, including patients with cancer, those living with dementia, those who’ve suffered a stroke or new-born babies born who may need extra support.
It means so much to our patients and staff that people like you are supporting our work.
Thank you from all of us here at Bay Hospitals Charity for your support!
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Charity News
16 January 2019
New parents room opens on SCBU at FGH
A new room, which allows parents to stay at Furness General Hospital (FGH) on the Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU) if their newly-born baby is poorly, or needs that little extra help officially opened on Find out more
5 December 2018
Christmas Jumper Day 2018
Bay Hospitals Charity, the official charity of University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust (UHMBT), the trust which runs the Royal Lancaster Infirmary (RLI) and Furness General Hospital (FGH) is calling on schools and businesses Find out more
How we spend your donations at Bay Hospitals Charity
Below are just a few examples of how we spend your donations:
Bay Hospitals Charity are helping prevent hair loss
during chemotherapy for our oncology patients
across Morecambe Bay Hospitals
Chemotherapy induced hair loss is widely recognised as one of the most traumatic side effects
associated with cancer treatment. Scalp cooling technology is clinically proven and helps cancer patients to
retain their hair during chemotherapy.
The use of scalp cooling or ‘cold caps’ is proven to be an effective way of combatting chemotherapy-induced
hair loss and can result in a high level of retention or completely preserve the hair. For patients,
this means the opportunity to regain some control, maintain their privacy and encourage a positive attitude
towards treatment.
Bay Hospitals Charity is helping to prevent hair loss during chemotherapy for our oncology patients
across Morecambe Bay Hospitals and we have funded 15 Cool Caps. The caps are now in use in our Oncology Units
and cost £1,875.00 to purchase.
As a charity we constantly strive to make a difference across our hospitals. Your donations help us to do this.
Kind-hearted patient donates new medical plinth chair
to the RLI Podiatry department.
Laurence thanks the NHS for the care he has received by donating more than £2,000 to fund
a brand new medical plinth chair for the Podiatry Department at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary (RLI).
Over the last 20 years, Laurence Wilson has been receiving treatment for a range of ailments at the
Royal Lancaster Infirmary (RLI). First diagnosed as diabetic in 1976 and an amputee,
Laurence regularly attends the RLI Podiatry Department.
Laurence noticed that the medical plinth chair was in need of repair.
A plinth chair allows the patient to be reclined ensuring work on the heel of the foot can be examined.
The Podiatry Department offers patients professional foot care and also deals with correcting foot problems
relating to the way people stand and walk.
To say thank you for all the treatment he has received, Laurence purchased a new plinth chair for the
department at a cost of £2,000, which he kindly funded it out of his own pocket.
Laurence said; “The old chair was in poor condition so I funded a new one to say thanks for all the
wonderful treatment I’ve received from the NHS over many years. I hope it will help many patients
for years to come.”
Tracey Loder, Senior Podiatrist at RLI added; “I would like to say a huge thank you to Laurence.
His kind generously will benefit patients for years to come.”
Generous staff at UHMBT are helping to
make a difference too thanks to ‘Pennies from Heaven’
simply by donating the ‘extra’ pennies from their pay packets every month.
Staff sign up to a scheme called ‘Pennies from Heaven’, where every month their salary is rounded down
to the nearest pound with the pennies donated to our charity.
The most someone can ever give is 99p each time they’re paid, but the overall amount soon adds up.
The eye level reading rulers were bought using charitable funds after our disability staff network group
made a successful bid to buy the rulers to coincide with Dyslexia Awareness Week this year.
The rulers will enable visual stress sufferers to combine page tinting with tracking support. They are
convenient and unobtrusive and come in an assortment of colours so that they can be used by a
wide range of people.”
The rulers will benefit both staff and patients in a number of ways, including:
* Giving staff the tools to perform tasks quickly and efficiently to minimise the impact on
patient waiting time
* Helping to reduce the risk of errors
* Increasing reading speed by up to 25%
* Enhancing reading comprehension
* Improving reading accuracy
* Improving attention span
* Helping cost savings for the Trust – as the rulers can reduce the need to print
on coloured paper
* Helping to improve health & wellbeing – reducing reading time and the need for higher levels of
concentration which often leads to tiredness and headaches therefore helping to enhance the
patient experience.
The rulers will be available in a range of different colours and are available on each of our wards and
on reception desks. They can also be used by patients with dyslexia to read a book, if they’re staying in one
of our hospitals, or to read an information leaflet in one of our out-patient units.”
The money that our colleagues donate through the Pennies from Heaven scheme is used to help us
buy those little ‘extras’ that fall outside the NHS remit. We’re extremely grateful to every staff member
who takes part in the scheme each month and I cannot thank everyone who donates their ‘pennies’
to help raise these vital funds.
Bay Hospitals Charity donates over £23,000 to help
to make blood pressure monitoring more effective.
Thanks to charitable funds, UHMBT were able to invest over £23,000 into 162 blood pressure monitoring
mobile stands for wards across Furness General Hospital and the Royal Lancaster Infirmary meaning
patients now benefit from more effective blood pressure monitoring.
The Trust had already invested in a number of hi-tech manual non-invasive blood pressure units but
they were fixed to the walls of wards. Now, thanks to a charitable grant, using money donated by you,
the blood pressure monitoring stands have become completely mobile – enabling clinical staff
to spend more time with the patients.
Sue Smith, Executive Chief Nurse and Deputy Chief Executive, at UHMBT, said; “The use of
manual sphygmometer – the type of blood pressure monitoring now in place at UHMBT –
is considered the gold standard for patient monitoring. “I’m thrilled that all of the units are now being used
in our clinical areas on a daily basis to complete the patient observations, and would like to thank
Bay Hospitals Charity and all our incredible supporters for their kindness and generosity.
