TheTheTheThe CCCCourierourierourierourier Cwm Taf Health Board

Issue 1 / 2013

Baking cakes

and making babies - how long does it take?

Why I’m up at 5am

Mark Abraham tells us about mental health nursing

Cwm Taf photography contest back for 2013

What’s your passion for care? Ysbyty Cwm Cynon staff bring vision to life

By staff. About staff. For staff.

Issue 1 / Spring 2013

CONTENTS

News:

Features:

04

06

08

CONTENTS 03

12

Cover story:

16

20

14

12

The new all Wales menu launched at Ysbyty Cwm Cy-non page 6 A day in the life of a mental health nurse by Mark Abraham page 7&8 Five minutes with Esther Youd page 10 The Karen Dyer Memorial Award page 12 Keir Hardie Health Park - a dream come true page 14 A passion for care at Ysbyty Cwm Cynon page 20

How long does it take to bake a cake? page 16

Got a story to share? Want to see it in the next edition of The Courier? Contact sharon.draper@wales.nhs.uk

10

Issue 1 / Spring 2013

EDITOR’SEDITOR’SEDITOR’SEDITOR’S

EDITOR’S LETTER 05

LETTER

Welcome to the first edition of… The Courier—a magazine for staff, about staff and by staff. We’ve had a long tradition in Cwm Taf of producing newsletters and I know that many departments and directorates continue to produce them regularly, although the organisation-wide

newsletter has fallen by the wayside in recent times.

The Courier isn’t a traditional newsletter—it’s a quarterly magazine for you and about you. It will bring you news of events in Cwm Taf, stories about individuals, their work and achievements. This is not about reporting the latest directives, strategies or service changes but about reflecting your lives, the work you do and the things that

interest you.

The editorial team has put together the stories and content for this first edition of The Courier, which will be available electronically on SharePoint, however in future editions we hope that you—The Courier’s readers—will contribute your ideas, events, photos and stories to share across Cwm Taf. If you’ve got a story or an idea for a future

edition, please contact myself, Paul Edmonds or Sharon Draper.

I hope you enjoy The Courier—we’re very excited about it and we’re looking forward to

hearing what you think. Until next time,

Madeleine Brindley Head of Communications madeleine.brindley@wales.nhs.uk

Madeleine

Paul Edmonds Assistant Editor and designer

Sharon Draper Assistant Editor

THE EDITORIAL TEAMTHE EDITORIAL TEAMTHE EDITORIAL TEAMTHE EDITORIAL TEAM THE HERE

Share Point TEAM

COMMUNICATIONS ON

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c l i c k

NEW HOSPITAL MEALS 06

HEALTH Minister Lesley Griffiths has given her seal of approval to the new hospi ta l m e a l s b e i n g s e r v e d t o patients in Wales. She tasted the exten-sive menu – which in-cludes starters, main meals, puddings and vegetarian options - as she launched the all-Wales hospital menu framework at Ysbyty Cwm Cynon. The launch, on Janu-ary 31, comes a year after all health boards were challenged to improve services provided to patients

and develop an all-Wales hospital menu, which met new national nutrition and catering standards for food and fluid for inpatients. The result is a data-base of recipes - 18 soups, 38 main course items and 42 desserts, snacks and accompa-niments- which meet s t r i c t n u t r i t i o n a l standards. Mrs Griffiths said: “Hospital food is an essential part of patient care. Good food can encourage patients to eat well, giving them the nutrients they need to recover from surgery or illness. Food should

be viewed with the same importance as med ica t ion , w i th catering recognised as a clinical support service. “We are leading the way in Wales by improving hospital food with an all-Wales menu. “Standardising the food on offer so patients are assured of good food, wherever they are treated, will help them back to health and improve their experience of hospital greatly. “Having tasted some of the dishes on offer, I believe the old jokes about hospital food will soon become a thing

of the past.” Celebrity chef James Martin and Welsh Michelin star chef Stephen Terry helped to develop the new menu, contributing a number of their signa-ture recipes.

New hospital menu passes the ministerial taste test

Health Minister Lesley Griffiths tastes the soup

“Hospital food is an essential part of patient care. Good food can encourage patients to eat well giving them the nutrients they need to recover from surgery or illness.”

Judith John, consultant dietitian at Public Health Wales and chair of the all-Wales menu framework task and finish group, said: “This has been a very positive process with a shared enthusiasm an d commi tmen t across all health boards to drive this agenda forward. “By developing an all-Wales approach this has enabled a sharing of good practice and pooling ideas. “Everyone has had a role in its development and now it’s to time start implementing it and engaging more with nursing, ward staff and patients to get feedback. “This is really only phase one of a continual process for developing a quality food service for the hospital population of Wales using a menu f r a m e w o r k w i t h standardised recipes and methods, which have all been analysed to meet the required nutritional standards.” You can see the new recipes and menus in full here

NEW HOSPITAL MEALS 07

MY CAREER as a mental health nurse began in March 1997. Nursing is not some-thing I’d really consid-ered as a future career but I was inspired following an episode when I had acted as a carer for an elderly grandparent. This, together with a close friend who had recently started his nurse training—he would share his experiences with me –triggered my interest in mental health nursing. Post-registration as a mental health nurse, I worked in both the older persons and adult mental health wards at St Tydfil’s Ho s p i t a l , b e f o re spending two years as a crisis assessment and mental health liaison nurse in Prince Charles Hospital. I thoroughly enjoyed this experience but the degree of specialism

within the role left me seeking a new chal-lenge. In 2005 I took up post as a community psychiatr ic nurse (CPN) in the rehabilita-tion team and I felt I was able to flourish as a practitioner who was driven by improving the lives of people disadvantaged through their experience of serious mental illness. I would go to take a lead role in developing the assertive outreach services across Cwm Taf. Following the creation of the health board, my role developed to include responsibility for inpatient rehabilita-tion services. I am currently the senior nurse for reha-bilitation and recovery services across Cwm Taf, which includes re-sponsibility for inpa-tient and community rehabilitation services.

5.15am: “ It’s up time.” This has been pretty much the pattern for the last 7 years follow-ing the arrival of my son Oliver “the Lark’ Abraham. Thankfully I share his early morn-ing motivation. Mother and daughter sleep soundly while father and son make a start on homework and packed lunches. 6am: Back upstairs with coffee and milk for the ladies. Before I give my apologies for another early start. 6.15am: My journey to work has changed over the years, from rolling out of bed and down the hill to St Tydfil’s, to tackling the dreaded A470 and more recently to include the picturesque views over the Rhigos mountain. On route to Ysbyty George Thomas, I’m still amazed by how these mountains and dramatic waterfalls were at the heart of the industrial Valleys. How things change. 7am: My destination at Y s b y t y G e o r g e Thomas is the Sup-ported Recovery Unit (SRU) - a high de-pendency rehabilitation ward for adults with complex mental health needs, which opened in September 2011. This development has been at the heart of mental health service redesign in Cwm Taf. It’s evidence of the

commitment of the health board for developing inpatient mental health services at the height of such financial pressures. Before the SRU opened, some of our m o s t v u l n e r a b le service users were re-ceiving their care and treatment outside the NHS, away from family and friends across Wales and, in some cases, in England. Such developments demonstrate the com-mitment of Cwm Taf Health Board to pro-vide a wide range of good quality mental health services in the areas we live. 7.15am:After an early morning greeting and some strange looks from staff on the morn-ing shift, I crack on with some precious quiet time to review my emails. I think I’m gradually embracing technology but how easy would it be to be consumed by this form of communication? It quickly becomes apparent that I’m not the only senior nurse in mental health who favours an early start. 8am: Another coffee is needed so I head back onto the ward. This provides a useful opportunity to have s o m e i n f o r m a l discussions with the staff and patients about their progress, their strengths and their challenges. Rehabilitation services,

A day in my life by Mark Abraham

08 A DAY IN THE LIFE

where you work with people over longer periods, creates close relationships where both friendships and f r u s t r a t i o n s c a n flourish. 8.30am: Time to crack on with short-listing for our occupational thera-pist post. This is the final part of the multidisciplinary team to be recruited for inpatient rehabilita-tion services - that’s if I can remember the many passwords for NHS Jobs. Short-listing completed with a promising seven worthy candidates to choose from.

9.30am: Like a lamb to the slaughter, it’s man verses woman as we begin the first of our joint ward manager meetings. Sarah and Claire are the respec-tive ward mangers for SRU and Pinewood House and a grand job they’re making of it. Together we discuss a n y t h i n g f r o m

operational proce-dures, staffing require-ments, clinical de-mands and, of course, “Magic Sunday”. Working across Cwm Taf, I can’t say how pleased I am that we are finally taking a consistent view on things, however trivial they can seem. When writing up our notes later that night I realise I’ve been stitched up—the name M a r k A b r a h a m appears next to the majority of action points. 11.30am: Time to leave Ysbyty George Thomas Hospital for

the Royal Glamorgan Hospital to chair a clinical review meeting. As a senior nurse in mental health, one function is to take an active role in the risk management commit-tee. Clinical reviews offer a reflective opportunity to look closely at a person’s journey through mental health services, identi-

c a l o r i e s — m a k i n g sandwiches earlier this morning seems like a distant memory. Anyway, the radio’s on, the sun is shining and I’m heading back to my home town. 4.30pm : I arrive at the assertive outreach team in St Tydfil’s hospital. This is the community element of rehabilitation services for adults with serious mental illness. These ded ica ted outreach services aim to engage vulnerable groups of people, whose nature and degree of illness can lead them to become excluded from local communities, health and social care inter-ventions. Using creative and flexible approaches to engage service users has seen people bene-fit by spending less time in hospital and experiencing improved quality of life in the community. One mistake though—it’s slipped my mind that we’re now based in Keir Hardie Health Park! My life as a mental health nurse began in Merthyr Tydfil and, for now, this is where my desk remains. It’s back to the emails to finish the day. How can so many people you’ve n e v e r m e t b e interested in what you have to say? The beauty of email.

fying both areas of good practice and aspects of their care and treatment which can be improved. The benefit of hind-sight is a wonderful thing, evidencing why we do what we do as clinicians is so impor-tant. Fulfilling this role al-lows me to make a personal reflection on how far I have come in my career without los-ing site of the chal-lenges faced by front-line colleagues. It also provides an opportu-nity to consider the perspectives of all in-volved - the patient,

family and ser-vice providers. Mental health nursing takes place in a range of pur-p o s e - b u i l t facilities, in-cluding Keir Hardie Health Park, Ysbyty Cwm Cynon, Ysbyty Cwm Rhondda, Ys-byty George Thomas and the Royal Gla-morgan Hospi-

tal. These are health service I’m very proud to be part of. 3.30pm: Leaving Royal Glamorgan pre-sents a new chal-lenge—where did I park my car? My journey from Llantrisant to Merthyr Tydfil brings with it a welcome opportunity to take on board some

A DAY IN THE LIFE 09

Me and the team

Name Esther Youd Age 33 What do you do? I’m the clinical director of pathology and I’m also a consultant histopathologist What’s a typical working day like for you? My morn-ings usually involve specimen dissection or performing autopsies, mid-morning coffee then preparation for a multi-disciplinary team meeting and atten-dance. Afternoons are often s p e n t a t t h e microscope, reporting histology slides and preparing reports based on my opinion. I provide advice on death certification and do a lot of teaching with registrars, medical s t u d e n t s a n d scientists. What’s been your career to date? I was initially interested in forensic pathology (aren't we all fasci-nated by crime thrill-ers?) but was attracted by the diagnostic

challenge of surgical histopathology. Autopsies remain a special interest of mine along with lymphomas and breast pathology. I am passionate about medical education and recently completed a masters degree in medical education. Who or what inspired you to work for the NHS and Cwm Taf

Health Board, in particular? My mother was a nurse and I share my caring side with her. Having worked in Wales as a registrar, Cwm Taf Health Board was al-ways a welcoming place with opportuni-ties to do new things

and pursue my inter-ests in a friendly de-partment. What’s the best thing about your job? Seeing some-thing new or unusual, finding the final piece of the puzzle that makes a difference to a patient. Inspiring someone and sparking an interest science, medicine or pathology. What’s your ambi-tion for your time as a clinical direc-tor? To look to the future, never be com-placent and always strive for the best for my patients. What three words best describe you? Determined, inquisitive, enthusiastic Where’s your fa-vourite place in the world? Curled up on the sofa with my husband and cat. A n d f i n a l l y, describe your perfect weekend. It would have to be watch ing Jenson Button or Lewis Hamilton winning an F1 Grand Prix.

Five minutes withFive minutes withFive minutes withFive minutes with

Esther YoudEsther YoudEsther YoudEsther Youd

10 FIVE MINUTES WITH

If you’d like to feature in the next

FIVE MINUTES WITH contact sharon.draper@wales.nhs.uk

FIVE MINUTES WITH 11

Congratulations to senior biomedical scientist Kelly Ward, based in micro-biology. She has been invited by the International Conference ECMIID in Berlin to talk about how pathology is developing the Maldi instrument

A NEW annual award for outstanding contri-butions to primary healthcare has been set up in memory of Karen Dyer. Ka ren , (p i c tu re d above) who worked for Cwm Taf Health Board as a link between the health board and GP practices in Merthyr Tydfil and Rhondda

Cynon Taf, died sud-denly and unexpect-edly in July 2012. The award was set up in her memory by the Cwm Taf Practice Managers Group. June Williams, the primary care support manager at Cwm Taf Health Board, was named the inaugural winner.

hard. We wanted to do something to remem-ber her.” The award will be given to people the practice managers be-lieve have made an outstanding contribu-tion to primary care in Cwm Taf in the last 12 months – June Wil-liams was the unani-mous winner in 2012. Mr Rogers said: “June w o r k s a s t h e coordinator between primary care and the health board and she really does go over and above. “All the practice man-agers felt she had done an outstanding job in particularly diffi-cult circumstances.” Mrs Williams said: “Being presented with the first Karen Dyer

Kevin Rogers, chair of the Cwm Taf Practice Managers Group and practice manager at Pontcae Medical Prac-tice, in Merthyr Tydfil, said: “As a group, we’d worked with Karen for many years and every-one got along with her. “She was very popular and her sudden death in July hit the practices

12 THE KAREN DYER ANNUAL MEMORIAL AWARD

An award to remember Karen DyerMemorial Award was a very moving experi-ence, not least be-cause it reminded me of all the work Karen, along with the rest of the primary care team, have done over the years in building strong relationships of appre-ciation and mutual re-spect with our prac-tices.

NHS Wales Shared Service Partnership Services (NWSSP) is a n i n d e p e n d e n t organisation owned and directed by NHS Wales. Created in April 2011, it brings together 10 district services, from e-business to prescrib-ing services, which support the day-to-day work of health boards and NHS trusts in Wales.

DURING 2012, Cwm Taf Health Board has embraced and made good progress towards achieving our 1,000 Lives Plus goals and objectives. The health board has worked hard to encompass better standards of care, pa-tient-focused commu-nication and the delivery of improve-ments at every level. This has been evident in our reporting. Among the success has been the introduc-tion of sepsis bags on wards at Royal Gla-morgan Hospital to help patients who de-ve lop th is l i f e -threatening condition. Cwm Taf took part in the world-wide day to raise awareness of sepsis among staff, patients and the public. Outreach sepsis ser-vices have also been introduced and are currently available seven days a week on both hospital sites. The team is working continually to educate frontline staff about sepsis and deliver the sepsis six to wards and specific depart-ments. Cwm Taf has delivered and led the way for UK-wide change in prac-tice RRAILS (Rapid Re-

sponse to Acute Ill-ness) is working well on those wards which have been chosen to implement this 1,000 Lives Plus work area. The NHS Early Warn-ing Score Wales (NEWS) has been used on all wards in Cwm Taf since April 2012. The principles of Rapid Response to Acute Ill-ness (RRAILS) are im-plemented on both Prince Charles Hospi-tal and Royal Glamor-gan Hospital sites and the use of the SBAR format for reporting patients who are in need of intervention is increasing. SBAR reporting is now used across the medi-cal directorate.

THE KAREN DYER ANNUAL MEMORIAL AWARD 13

“To have been voted as the first award win-ner by the p r a c t i c e s themselves was espe-cially mov-ing and I hope the relationship between the primary care team and p r a c t i c e s will continue to flourish.” As well as setting up the Karen Dyer Memorial Award, GP practices across Cwm Taf Health Board also raised money for an inscribed memorial bench, which has been given to Karen’s hus-

band Russell, and they made a £200 donation to the British Heart Foundation. Sarah Bradley, Cwm Taf Health Board’s Cy-non and Merthyr Tydfil locality manager, said: “This award demon-strates just how well liked Karen was. “I am extremely proud the practice managers wanted to bestow the

award to June to recognise the support, commitment and dedi-cation she has given to the wider primary care team - it is well de-served.

“June and Karen were such close colleagues and it is fitting that she receives this award and I offer her my con-gratulations.”

Karen Dyer

June Williams collects her award

Have you got a story for The Courier? Contact Sharon Draper 01443 744 927

14 KEIR HARDIE HEALTH PARK

Speaking at the open-ing on January 31, Dr Chris Jones, chairman of Cwm Taf Health Board and Huw Lewis, AM for Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney, said the health park will help to turn the inverse care law on its head. Mr Lewis said: “Lesley Griffiths has shown a determination to tackle the inverse care law; this shows that the

best facilities are avail-able in the areas where people need them the most. “Together with the upgrade to Prince Charles Hospital, Keir Hardie Health Park puts the inverse care law to one side. “The people of Merthyr Tydfil and the sur-rounding valleys have the very best health-care facility.

“It’s a dream come true.” Mrs Griffiths, who toured the health park after unveiling the offi-cial opening plaque, added: “This building fits in so well with the vision I and the Welsh Government have for the health service in Wales. “As a government, we were delighted to give £33m investment to

fund the building and it’s a real pleasure to be here opening it.” The opening of the health park, together with the ongoing refur-bishment of wards at Prince Charles Hospi-tal, means Merthyr Tydfil now has some of the most modern healthcare facilities in Wales. For example, two of the seven chairs in the

Keir Hardie Health Park:

“A dream come true”“A dream come true”“A dream come true”“A dream come true”

THE ground-breaking Keir Hardie Health Park has been described as a “dream come true” as Health Minister Lesley Griffiths officially opened the £35m building. The health park is unique in Wales, combining health and social care un-der one roof.

KEIR HARDIE HEALTH PARK 15

community dental unit have been specifically designed to be acces-sible to disabled pa-tients and are the only facilities of their kind in the borough. Mrs Griffiths said: “I am delighted to be able to open this cut-ting-edge health park, which will bring so many benefits to peo-ple living in Merthyr Tydfil. “This new model of in-tegrated health and social care will help address health ine-qualities and turn the inverse care law on its head. “Cwm Taf Health Board has used the opportunities this de-velopment offered to provide a new model of high quality care, meeting the needs of the local population.” Keir Hardie Health Park provides new modern facilities for GP practices previ-ously based in the Hol-lies Health Centre, for

children’s health ser-vices, mental health care and it brings a range of therapies ser-vices out of hospital and closer to people’s homes. Plans are now being developed to build a medical school on the health park site to help train the next genera-tion of doctors in Mer-thyr Tydfil. During construction, more than 90% of the workforce employed on site came from within a 40-mile radius of Merthyr Tydfil. Sir Mansel Aylward,

More than 60 staff in Cwm Taf Health Board have signed up as Champions for Health, since its launch in O c t o b e r 2 0 1 2 . Full details about the scheme are available on SharePoint. Look out for regular tips and advice about keeping fit and well in the chief executive’s blog and on Twitter (#C4H).

chair of Public Health Wales, who developed the vision for the health park, said: “My dream has arrived. Thank you.” Dr Jones, chair of Cwm Taf Health Board, added: “Keir Hardie Health Park is a platform to launch a 21st century attack on the inverse care law and uniquely brings together all the ele-ments of health and social care to support people and help them develop healthier lives. “With these opportuni-ties, the future of healthcare for citizens of Merthyr Tydfil bor-ough can be improved and new challenges met. “This has been an as-piration and it’s now becoming an inspira-tion.”

Well done

Girija Teli, a biomedical scientist in microbiol-ogy, has been awarded her Masters in Medical Mycology (study of m e d i c a l f u n g i ) . She is the only scientist in Cwm Taf with this qualification.

Want to know more about Keir Hardie H e a l t h P a r k , i n c l u d i n g w h a t services have moved?

Click here for more details

COVER STORY 16

How long does it take to bake a cake?

I prefer to think of myself as a cook – baking is far too precise an art for me. Samia, on the other hand, is the cake baker at home – she makes a mean sponge and her chocolate brownies are

to die for. And she was about to do the most im-portant bake yet. This one would be 40 weeks at about 37 degrees. Or so we thought. There was no opening

the oven door or using a cocktail stick to check if this one was ready. Two weeks early, at 38 weeks, the timer pinged and it was time to come out. And this picture was

the result – two seconds old on December 21 – our son Eli Monty Ed-monds was born. Just as well I had my iPhone in my back pocket. This may sound like a

I have absolutely no idea! I think it’s something like 30 minutes

at 180 degrees if it’s fan assisted – or something like that.

by Paul Edmonds

COVER STORY 17

dream ticket so far but believe me, if I could have held my breath for 38 weeks, I would have. Things hadn’t gone well in a previous pregnancy so this was always going to be a journey of mixed emotions – one of ex-citement and hope tempered by nerves and anxiety. I knew I couldn’t hold my breath for the duration so I settled on making Samia cups of tea. Lots of cups of tea! We were classed as a ‘high risk’ pregnancy from the outset. It was a status that to me meant be afraid, be very afraid. It was a feeling that I think I hid fairly well – to a point. With both of us work-ing at Cwm Taf we quickly decided that we wanted to be on our patch – it was a practical solution but more importantly to us, it just felt right. Samia was put under the care of Mr Pembridge at the Royal Glamorgan Hospital and the frequency of our visits to the antenatal unit over the coming months meant Mr P e m b r i d ge s o on became just Jonathan. But for the purposes of this story, I think I’ll stick to Mr Pembridge. As the weeks went by

my Facebook status wa s pe r io d ic a l l y scattered with baby updates from: “He’s now the size of an avo-cado” (yes – we knew fairly early on that it was a boy and the fruits got fairly large, in fact, they got very large - it really does give us men a reality check!) to ever evolv-ing black and white scans which before we new it filled the screen beyond recognition. Each scan meant an-other visit to the antenatal unit. The routine would be something along the lines of: a once over with the midwives (I’d stay in the waiting area for this bit); some gel o n t h e t u m m y (Samia’s, not mine) and then a scan – this was always the best bit! (I’m sure he was blowing bubbles in one of them). Then a chat with Mr Pembridge as he’d talk us through progress and putting our minds at ease while making reference to our ever heavier yellow folder which followed us every-where. “Everything’s looking good”, “He’s growing nicely”, “Everything is as it should be” were music to our ears. At about 30 weeks it was time for home te-lemetry.

This oven didn’t come with a glass door and a handy light inside so there was no easy way to check that the cake was rising as you’d ex-pect. And high risk meant we needed to keep checking. Home telemetry meant wiring yourself up twice a day, finding the baby’s heartbeat and monitoring. If you think that sounds simple, try it yourself. And then try it twice a day for the next two months. This was yet another awe-inspiring effort from Samia. I made more tea! Then came the bit where I didn’t hide my fear so well. The home telemetry picked up an irregular-ity with the baby’s heartbeat. Samia got called in to the hospital and there she stayed, ward 11 at the Royal Glamorgan for pretty much the next two weeks. If we ever wanted re-assurance that decid-ing to be on our own patch was the right de-cision, this was it. The staff were quite simply amazing. I won’t flower this up - it really is as simple as that. Thankfully I was able to base myself at the Royal Glamorgan to

18 COVER STORY

work for most of the next couple of weeks, periodically checking in on ward 11 to make sure everything was ok – or just nod reassur-ingly. Tea duty was even taken off my hands at this point too – it now came on a trolley with a smile. Cwm Taf Health Board suddenly felt like a huge extended family. Word had spread and everywhere I went it was the same: “How’s Samia?” It was time to breathe again. Things settled down – the irregulari-ties passed and it was time to come home. But let’s not kid our-selves here, the nerves would never be the same again – it was edge of the seat stuff from here on in. Days felt like weeks and weeks felt like months. Then it was December 21st 2013. It was 9:54am. We’d arrived a t t h e R o y a l Glamorgan two hours earlier. W e no w f ou nd ourselves in theatre and I suddenly became acutely aware of the radio in the back ground. The song was We Are Young by Fun. I’d heard it before but had never really taken much notice of it. This time the chorus ech-

oed around in my head: Tonight/We are young/So let’s set the world on fire/We can burn brighter than the sun. This time is seemed to mean something. I held Samia’s hand and everything just felt right. The next thing I re-member was someone asking me if I had a camera. “Yes,” I quickly replied. The next response was even quicker: “You’d better get it out then – he’s coming”. I fumbled around in my pocket and drew my trusty iPhone - with a few swipes of the screen – CLICK! 9:54am and two sec-onds later – it was the

best photo I ever took. But I would say that, wouldn’t I? She’d done it. Samia had baked the most amazing cake. Not only that, she’d done it in time for Christmas too! So, we’d like to say thank you. Thank you to Mr Pem-bridge and his team, to all the midwives at RGH and staff who work in the antenatal unit, eve-ryone on ward 10 and 11, the lady (whose name I never found out) who supplied the tea and our ‘extended fam-ily’ of friends all over the health board who where there for us every step of the way.

Thank you. And my final thought is this – last week – one of the questions that kept being repeated after the Francis report was published was: “Would you recom-mend your hospital to your own family and friends?” You’re damn right I would.

Paul, Samia, Sam and Eli

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20 PASSION FOR CARE

ART created by staff at Ysbyty Cwm Cynon and depicting their passion for care has gone on display at the Mountain Ash hospital. The unique pieces were created by teams of ward and office staff as part of a unique or-ganisational develop-ment project and com-petition at the newly-opened community hospital. A collage made up of handprints of patients’ relatives, nursing, ther-apy, clerical and portering staff on ward three, called Hands on Care (top, right), was declared the winner of the Passion for Care art competition. Lynne James, the ward sister, said: “This was trying to capture the fact that we’re a team, not just a nurs-ing team. We’re only as good as the porters, the dieticians, the physiotherapists and occupational therapists we work with. “This was a light-hearted look at a seri-ous issue but we never thought we’d win.” A three-dimensional passion flower, made by the administration

and clerical staff at Ysbyty Cwm Cynon took second place in t h e c o m p e t i t i o n (middle, right). The eight petals of the flower represent the different service areas covered by the team. Gaynor Davies, the admin manager, said: “As a team we under-pin a lot of the clinical and dental work that’s provided here. We are an essential service for the hospital.” The third place was awarded to a tree painting (bottom, right) by the palliative care team, which repre-sents the different aspects of the service and its ambition to provide new elements of care for patients. Teresa Williams, the ward sister, said: “This is a tree of life and each layer shows the care we provide. But it also shows how we want to branch out and look to build on the care we currently give to patients.” Bernardine Rees, Cwm Taf Health Board’s deputy chief executive, said: “This has been about look-ing through art at what Cwm Taf’s care values

are and the results are absolutely amazing. “What really matters is what happens at the heart of service delivery and the experience we give our patients.” As well as entering her own painting, Ceri Wil-

son, senior nurse at Ys-byty Cwm Cynon, also read a poem called At The Atrium YCC. A gallery of the art en-tered into the Passion for Care competition by Ysbyty Cwm Cynon staff can be viewed on SharePoint.

Passion for care on show at Ysbyty Cwm Cynon

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