Woodlands Hospice has a Patient, Family and Friends Forum that meet on a regular basis to provide feedback on its services and facilities and help ensure we continue to meet the needs of the people who use our services.
Our Patient, Family and Friend Forum on Tuesday 4th July 2017
Since its launch in March 2014, the forum has contributed to many Hospice developments and improvements including patient information leaflets, the development of Family Support Services and updates to facilities such as the Quiet Room; a tranquil space where patients and families can go for peaceful reflection time.
“The feedback and insight that the forum provides to our senior management and service teams, is invaluable."
The Forum’s organiser, Gillian Harvey, said “The feedback and insight that the forum provides to our senior management and service teams, is invaluable. It helps ensure we stay grounded when implementing ideas, developing leaflets and making improvements. The forum ensures that patients and their families remain at the heart of everything we provide. It has been a tremendous success so far, so we’re delighted to see such a good turn out again for this month’s meeting.”
The most recent meeting, held on Tuesday 4th July, had a fantastic turn out of regular contributors as well as some new members. The Hospice also welcomed two visitors from Compton Hospice in Wolverhampton, Dr Janet Reiss and Grace Lee, who are interested in launching a similar initiative within their Hospice and came along to see how our forum operates.
Visitors, Grace Lee (Left) and Dr Janet Reiss (Right) from Compton Hospice, Wolverhampton with Forum organiser Gillian Harvey (Centre)
During the meeting forum members discussed ideas for the Hospice’s ‘Stop a Star’ initiative, aimed at promoting Advance Care Planning amongst patients. They also discussed the Hospice’s patient safety priority for 2017/18, the prevention and management of falls on the Hospice Inpatient Unit. They contributed to the development of patient information leaflets on the two initiatives, providing useful feedback and guidance on the best way to effectively communicate important messages.
Dr Janet Reiss, from Compton Hospice, found the time spent with the group extremely useful stating, “It was a really interesting afternoon and has given us some wonderful ideas to take back with us. The experience has helped to confirm in our minds how worthwhile initiatives such as this are and we will definitely be looking to set up a similar forum for our patients and their families when we return to Wolverhampton.”