New ‘Swan Rooms’ to officially open at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital
Two rooms which will provide privacy and dignity for patients at the end of their life are to be officially opened at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital today.
Two rooms which will provide privacy and dignity for patients at the end of their life are to be officially opened at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital today.
The two “Swan Rooms” will build on the work being carried out by The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) to improve End of Life and Bereavement Care at RSH and at the Princess Royal Hospital (PRH) in Telford.
The introduction of the two rooms – on Wards 25 and 28 at RSH – is part of the Trust’s Swan Scheme, which uses a swan symbol to represent End of Life and Bereavement Care.
Jules Lewis, End of Life Care Facilitator at SaTH, said: “Death and dying is very difficult to deal with, even for staff who work in hospitals, but helping patients and their families at their time of greatest need is hugely important to us.
“It is a privilege to care for people at end of life and support their relatives and friends; we only have one chance to get it right, for every person, every time.
As part of the Swan Scheme, SaTH has been working hard to provide improved provision for people at the end of their lives.
A Swan Room has already been created on the Clinical Decisions Unit (CDU) that allows A&E staff to use the space for patients that are at end of life, allowing relatives to spend valuable time with their loved one in a more peaceful and calming environment. This was made possible by kind donations to the Swan Fund, which was set up in the summer of 2015 with a donation of £500.
Since then, the fund has grown thanks to generous donations from individuals and groups including Shropshire Round Table, The Severn Hospice, the Harry Johnson Trust and SJ Roberts & Lowfield Timber Frames.
The fund allowed Jules and patient representative Jules Lock to work with Ward Managers Mandie Esp and Sharon Main and their teams to create the Swan Rooms on Wards 25 and 28.
Jules said: “Thanks to our wonderful painters and carpenter, the rooms look great. We have had some beautiful pictures donated for the rooms by Consultant Dr Nawaid Ahmad, Paul Durham from the RSH Macmillan Team and Shane Swannick, who saw an appeal on Twitter.”
Jules’s mother turned 70 in September and donated frames for some of the pictures and has purchased a CD player for Ward 25’s Swan Room.
Recliner chairs for relatives using the rooms have also been purchased to allow relatives to spend longer periods of time with their loved ones.
Jules said: “I can’t say a big enough thank you to all those who have donated money, furniture or their time to make these rooms a reality. This is a really important project for our Trust and we are only really at the beginning of it.”
Swan Rooms will be introduced at PRH later this year and into 2017; one within the Emergency Department and two on Wards.
