allpoints
north
JAN / FEB 2015
Our building
work is finishing!
We’re nearing the end of the
overhaul and modernisation
of the hospital’s buildings,
completing over five years
of major work on our site.
And we’re delighted with the results.
We’ve newly refurbished lots more of
the hospital’s buildings over the last
year, including:
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five new medical wards
a new maternity ward
a new paediatric day unit and
a new paediatric assessment unit.
All that’s left to complete are the
new ambulatory care unit and older
person’s assessment unit which will
be finished in the next few weeks.
Nearly all of our services are now
delivered from buildings that are
completely new or have been
modernised in the last six years,
including our brand new maternity
unit and our expanded
A&E department.
We’ve grown by over 500 extra staff
as a result of the programme and
that’s improved the care we offer
to patients.
www.northmid.nhs.uk
Our patients and staff now
benefit from:
• more specialty based wards
•
more consultant cover every
day of the week
•
more decisions taken earlier
by senior doctors
•
better patient pathways – for
faster, more efficient treatment.
It’s been a year of continuous
change that’s included the
transformation of our IT system – the
biggest change in our systems for 25
years – and the introduction of our
new staff values across the hospital.
The values – being caring, helpful,
open and honest and working as a
team – are designed to help all our
staff to focus on how they interact
with patients and each other
every day.
Chief executive Julie Lowe said:
“Finishing the building work is
another important milestone in our
transformation. Our staff have been
fantastic, dedicated and
hard working.”
“We’re all delighted with the changes
in our buildings and the services we
can provide and we’re confident that
going forward we can continue to
make the improvements we want
for our patients, staff and
the community we serve.”
Putting
people
first
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A bi-monthly magazine for patients, friends, members and staff of North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust
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Our new
New look tower!
North Mid’s eight storey tower block has
received a major make-over in the last year.
Builders have worked through seven wards,
refurbishing and modernising them.
It’s been a complicated programme of changes that has seen
several wards move to temporary locations in the hospital while
the work progressed – thanks to everyone for putting up with
some inconvenience!
But following a year of hard work, we’ve now got seven fantastic
new wards in the 1970s tower block and we’re delighted with
the results.
Here’s the modernisation tour from bottom up: on tower level
0 is our new maternity ward – for women and babies who need
antenatal and postnatal care. They moved in a few days before
Christmas and the new facilities are fantastic – see story on
page 5.
Next floor up, on level 1, is our new paediatric assessment unit –
known as Starlight ward – and our new paediatric day assessment
unit next door. They’re bright and spacious with new décor,
furnishings, treatment and play areas for children and rooms
where parents can relax.
The next big changes are on levels 3, 5, 6, 7 and 8. All five wards
have had new floors, new side rooms and new four-to-a-bay areas
that feel comfortable and spacious for our patients, including
medicine for the elderly, respiratory, gastroenterology, renal,
diabetes and endocrinology.
Director of operations, Richard Gourlay said: “It’s been a year
of upheaval but our staff and our patients have been absolutely
brilliant while all these changes have taken place. They’ve had
to move their services more than once, even on Christmas eve,
and they’ve been fantastically patient and hardworking
through all of this.”
Test your knowledge
Here’s your chance to win a £20 voucher
Congratulations to Kelly Eaton of the estates and facilities
department who won the November All Points North quiz and
receives £20 in vouchers for the hospital canteen, Spice of Life.
Here’s this month’s quiz:
 What bear celebrated its first birthday
in November?
 On what levels are the tower’s five newly
refurbished medical wards?
hich team has expanded from five to
 W
20 staff?
Send your answers to [email protected] before 10 March 2015. The lucky winner
will be notified by email. All the answers can be found inside. Good luck!
2
A bi-monthly magazine for patients, friends, members and staff of North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust
Our new
governance team
We’ve set up a new governance team (right) who help ensure the
standard and quality of all the services we provide. The team work
closely with external partners like the Care Quality Commission
and local health commissioners. They collect reports on problems
through a system, known as Datix, and manage investigations
into those which are serious. They help manage risk, complaints
and legal issues. They advise staff about clinical governance
issues and help ensure all our staff learn from any mistakes
across the NHS – helping to keep all our patients safe.
From left: Dane Satterthwaite, associate director of governance; Hazel McGwyne,
head of clinical governance and risk management; Perry Djahit, Datix manager;
Xose Lumor, risk and legal support officer; Back row: Izn Khan, clinical audit and
effectiveness manager; Andrew Whitworth, trust legal officer; Ana Julio de James,
clinical audit and effectiveness facilitator.
Our new mental
health team
The mental health team (left) has expanded from five to 20 to help
improve our services for patients throughout the hospital. The
team, managed by Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health
Trust, use the RAID model of rapid assessment, interface and
discharge and work with inpatients and A&E patients 24 hours a
day, providing mental health support and assessment. The team,
based in trust headquarters, include psychiatric nurses, a social
worker, a psychologist and consultant psychiatrists. They work
closely with community mental health teams to support discharge
and follow up.
Part of the mental health team including: (front from left): Pamela Oloyede-Oyeyemi
and Kwadzo Appiah, psychiatric liaison nurses; Jenn Nicholas, graduate mental health
worker; (middle): Dr Susie Lingwood and Dr Liz Sampson, consultant psychiatrists;
Simona Allen, trainee graduate mental health worker; Dr Anca Vaida, specialist registrar;
(back): Jabu Chikore, team manager, Dr Matthew Brown, clinical psychologist.
Thanks to our
brilliant staff!
Our brilliant staff have helped us achieve
so much over the last year!
In December we held a series
of lunchtime events to thank
them for their work and to
ask them how we can
keep improving.
We know that if our staff are
happy and enjoy coming to
work it means we provide
better care for all our patients.
So, as well as introducing
our new staff values – being
caring, helpful, open and
honest and working as a team
– we’re introducing some new
events and activities.
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We set up a hospital choir
which performed its first
concert in December – see
story on page 6.
And in January we launched
a staff ‘Bake Off’competition
to name North Mid’s
Master Baker.
Nese Izzett, a clinical
administrator in our antenatal
team, topped the ‘cake of the
world’ category with a cream
cheese, carrot cake. Stephanie
Barnes, healthcare support
worker on surgical ward 3,
became ‘cup cake’ champ with
her garden-themed cakelets.
Emily Snelling of our clinical
coding team scooped the top
baker’s award for her greeniced, chocolate cake, judged
by over 200 staff to be the
best “show stopper”.
The winners all received £30 of
M&S tokens and a free tea at
Baskerville’s tea shop in Palmers
Green. Special thanks to expert
judge, Diana Oddling Smee,
of Baskerville’s.
If you’ve got a story for us, please call the communications team on 020 8887 2935
Mum, Dementia & I
photography exhibition
We’ve opened a public exhibition of photographs exploring the challenges of living with
and caring for someone with dementia.
“Mum, Dementia & I” gives an intimate insight into daily home
life for Elizabeth Anang from Tottenham, and her daughter,
Annemarie, as they attempt to make sense of the changes
in their lives.
Elizabeth, now 71, was diagnosed with dementia in March 2013
shortly after her husband’s death. Her daughter Annemarie, then
30, witnessed the bewildering effects of the illness on her mother
as she lived at home, supported by up to 35 different carers
over six months. Annemarie moved in to look after her and, with
her agreement, captured their shared experiences in a series of
deeply moving and personal photographs.
the practical problems of living with someone whose memories
are fading.”
Chief executive Julie Lowe said: “We’re grateful to Annemarie
for allowing us to show her powerful photographs. It’s already
sparking a lot of interesting conversations among our patients,
visitors and staff.”
The exhibition continues in the hospital’s atrium until 26 April.
Come and see it. There are more details on the exhibition at
www.therealpicture.org.
For more information on dementia, visit www.alzheimers.org.uk.
Annemarie, a former teacher who was born at North Mid said:
“I wanted to understand what was happening to my mum and
to support her. She wanted to be independent but she found it
increasingly difficult to manage. When I was out of the house she
would worry about things like a boiler making a noise and might
try to switch it off, so I would leave a note next to it, to explain to
her that she didn’t have to worry. I wanted people to understand
Talking to Tasha...
Breast reconstruction
surgery after cancer
Thanks for your
generous help!
We run monthly free talks for the public, our
FT members and staff. It’s your chance to
hear our expert doctors and nurses talk and
put your questions to them.
We’ve received £3000 from
generous local fund-raisers to
help pay for new “cell separator”
equipment for our sickle cell
anaemia patients, improving
their quality of life by speeding
the time it takes to exchange
blood from four hours to one.
Our March talk is by North Mid’s consultant oncoplastic breast
surgeon, Tasha Gandamihardja, on the hospital’s new breast
reconstruction services following breast cancer.
Tasha, an oncoplastic specialist, joined North Middlesex
University Hospital last year, and is part of a multi-disciplinary
team which provides a one-stop breast clinic, support
for local women with breast cancer and advice about
reconstructive surgery.
What services are available? How does reconstructive surgery
work? Which women can get help? Come along to Tasha’s
free talk to find out and to put your questions to her about
our services. All welcome.
Many thanks to May Richards,
MBE, who helped raise £2000
from an annual charity gospel
concert held at Broadwater
Farm Community Centre in
Tottenham and to the congregation
of the New Covenant Church in
May Richards, MBE, and the
Wood Green who donated a
haematology team.
further £1000. We’ve now raised
nearly half the cost of the £50,000 machine.
Thursday 5 March, 6.30-8pm, boardroom, level 1, near
the main entrance.
4
www.northmid.nhs.uk
Follow us @NorthMidNHS
Baby, let’s move in!
The first babies and their mums moved
into North Mid’s newly refurbished
maternity ward in the tower just in
time for Christmas.
Mum Rhiannan Hooper and her baby daughter, weighing
7lb 10oz, were among 14 women moved from a temporary
location in Pymmes building to the spacious new ward
on 20 December.
The move marked the end of a year of improvements to
maternity services at the hospital. Rhiannan from Enfield
said: “The new ward is amazing. It makes such a difference
to mums to have a lovely place to be looked after in.”
Matron Stella Roberts said: “The maternity and
estates team did a fantastic job moving our mums
and their babies in. We made the ward change in
a single day. It was a tremendous effort. The new
maternity ward is beautiful, very spacious, with
brand new equipment and décor and
all in time for Christmas!”
Rainbow’s children
singing in the rain!
We’re singing in the rain…
thanks to the wonderful
feelings of 11-year-old
Leanna Theodorou from
Winchmore Hill. Leanna,
pictured, made a fantastic,
multi-coloured umbrella
out of rubber bands to raise
money for children on the
hospital’s Rainbow ward.
Leanna who was a patient on
the ward last year following
a virus raised £600 by making
bracelets and selling them to
school friends at Grange Park
primary and Ashmole Greek language school.
The new maternity ward has single,
double, and four-bedded bays decorated
in yellow, red and blue, with ensuite
bathrooms and a television by every bed.
There are comfortable waiting areas for
relatives and friends, armchairs for dads,
a nursery, training room and
discharge lounge.
Proud Mum Rhiannan Hooper (right) and her
new-born baby daughter with (right to left)
maternity matron Stella Roberts, midwife
Margaret Hill, and maternity volunteers.
Our babies’
1st birthday!
Our new maternity unit and mascot bear,
Midsy (pictured) celebrated their first
birthday in November with a tea party for
mums, dads and some of our youngest stars.
Consultant midwife Fiona Laird said: “We had a marvellous
afternoon. It was great to see so many of our babies back after
being born here a few months earlier and hadn’t they grown!”
You can take a virtual tour of the new unit on the maternity
services pages of our website at: www.northmid.nhs.uk or
come and see for yourself – call the maternity booking team on
020 8887 3055.
5
If you’ve got a story for us, please call the communications team on 020 8887 2935
Baby, it’s 2015!
Jessica’s Angels
Many thanks to the charity, Jessica’s Angels, who presented our
maternity unit with a special cot, known as a CuddleCot, to help
grieving parents. Theresa Msanide, labour ward manager said:
“Very sadly and occasionally a baby dies during childbirth. It’s an
incredibly difficult time for parents and this special cot enables
them to spend more time with their baby, saying goodbye.”
Baby Nicole (above left) was born 29 minutes into Christmas day, weighing 6lb
14oz. Parents Elizabeth and Harry Spinthiras from Palmers Green said: “She’s
gorgeous”. And 8lb 9oz Kerem (above right) was the first baby born in 2015 at
3.15am on 1 Jan. His mum Aysin and dad Mehmet Enver-Yusuf, from Enfield
said: “He’s our gorgeous little prince.”
Arts in the Atrium
Hark, the North Mid
choir sings!
Jessica’s Angels founders Nicola Michael (centre) and Michael Michael (right)
present the cot to our maternity team.
Thanks, Spurs!
Our new North Mid choir
entertained staff, patients
and visitors for the first time in
December, with a range of popular
songs and carols. The hearty singers
included staff, volunteers, chairman
John Carrier and non-executive
director Robert Sumerling,
accompanied by hospital chaplain
Dominic Fenton on keyboard.
Thanks to Tottenham Hotspur Football Club whose players
cheered up patients and staff during a morale boosting
December tour of our children’s wards.
Anyone can join, no matter how good you are! They are also
seeking a choir leader. If you’d like to sing or help run weekly
lunchtime rehearsals, call Kerri Grieves on 020 8887 3211.
15-year-old Sabina, from Edmonton, who was receiving
treatment for diabetes agreed: “It’s great to see them.
It’s really cheered me up.”
Defender Jan Vertonghen, midfielders Mousa Dembele and
Benji Stambouli and Ladies team captain Jenna Schillaci,
accompanied by a plump Santa, brought presents for delighted
youngsters on Starlight and Rainbow wards. Vertonghen said:
“As well as playing football, we can make people smile –
sometimes children need those extra things at Christmas time.”
Wilbury wonders!
Special thanks to the wonderful children of Wilbury Primary
School choir who joined us in December to perform their annual
Christmas concert – a credit to the school. If you’d like to take
part in one of our live Arts in the Atrium lunchtime performance of
music, poetry or dance, call Maxine Malpass on 020 8887 2935.
Three-year-old Dylan, from Edmonton, undergoing treatment
for leukaemia, beamed as he unwrapped a toy telephone. His
dad Philip said: “It’s a great gesture from the players. He’s one
happy boy!”
North Mid playleader Emma Pledger said: “Some of the children
are very unwell. It’s fantastic to see their faces light up like this.
A big thank you to our local club!”
Best of luck to Spurs in the Capital Cup final on March 1!
Dates for the diary
26 April 2015
Arts in the Atrium: “Mum, Dementia and I”
– photography exhibition.
Thursday 5 March, 6.30–8pm
Public talk and FT members’ event
– ‘Breast reconstruction surgery services after cancer’
by consultant oncoplastic breast surgeon, Tasha
Gandamihardja, trust boardroom, level 1.
Thursday 26 March, 11am–1pm
Trust board
– meeting room 10, tower, level -1, opposite cardiology. All welcome to part one.
Produced by the communications team 020 8887 2935,
email us: [email protected], [email protected]
North Middlesex University Hospital Trust, Sterling Way, London N18 1QX.
www.northmid.nhs.uk
Follow us @NorthMidNHS