Staff and patients alike got into the Christmas spirit as they sang carols and other festive classics in the atrium of The James Cook University Hospital at the start of Christmas Week. The event made for an uplifting morning, with members of the Chaplaincy team leading the singing as well as members of a trust staff choir that will begin meeting after work again from January.
South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is urging people with symptoms of norovirus not to visit hospitals to help prevent it from spreading. The condition, known as the winter vomiting bug, is the most common stomach bug in the UK, affecting people of all ages and is now beginning to circulate in the community.
Outbreaks of norovirus, which causes vomiting and/or diarrhoea, are common in busy places such as hospitals as the virus easily spreads from one person to another and can survive on surfaces for several days.
A Peace light which has been travelling from Bethlehem to Britain every Christmas for 20 years was welcomed to The James Cook University Hospital. Children from Playdays Nursery on the hospital site sang Christmas songs, as an altar candle was lit in the Chapel of the Good Samaritan using the Peace Light, brought in by The Fourth South Bank Scout Group leader Arthur Wooff.
When teenager Elizabeth Mewett collected a wheelchair from The Friarage Hospital in Northallerton, she vowed to raise money to help other patients who could benefit from the service. And determined Elizabeth Mewett, 13, has not let having the fatigue-inducing condition Idiopathic Hypersomnia stand in her way.
An initial 150 patients per year are set to benefit from a new £95,000 investment in new lung surgery services at The Friarage Hospital, Northallerton. New specialist imaging equipment, increased theatre capacity for lung surgery and outpatient clinics will now be provided at the North Yorkshire hospital, benefitting patients from across Hambleton and Richmondshire and further afield, who currently face a long journey to The James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough.
A lifesaving Major Trauma Centre team is urging people across Teesside and North Yorkshire to celebrate Halloween and Bonfire Night safely this year. Julie Suckling, service manager for urgent and emergency care at the region’s busiest A&E, The James Cook University Hospital, in Middlesbrough, says A&E staff don’t want to see people having their festivities spoiled as a result of avoidable injury.
We are extremely busy at James Cook Hospital today, our departments are under a lot of pressure, please help us by only visiting A&E with genuine emergencies. Remember you can also access the Minor Injury Unit at Redcar Hospital and our GP walk-in centre in North Ormesby Health Village for minor injuries and illnesses.
Almost a third of staff at Teesside’s biggest hospital trust got their flu vaccine within 10 days of the start of a hard-hitting campaign.
A total of 29.6% of eligible staff at South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust had been vaccinated as at October 10, including 33.4% of doctors and 31.7% of support staff to clinicians.
Like most cancer patients, Graham Smith was very worried about having major surgery to remove the cancer from his right lung, and wanted to make sure he was receiving the most advanced treatment available. As a patient at The James Cook University Hospital, Graham learned about a new surgical procedure the hospital was the first in the world to offer. The cutting-edge technique, called microlobectomy, was pioneered by Joel Dunning, a thoracic surgeon at the hospital, to reduce the invasive nature of the procedure and help patients recover faster from lung cancer surgery.
The widow of a “true gentleman” who stayed at her husband’s bedside for four nights as he succumbed to leukaemia has thanked specialist palliative care nurses who made his final days so comfortable – as well as looking after her too. Carole Stiff, 78, said doctors, nurses and the “sweet” ward clerk on Ward 15 were “more like family than complete strangers,” supporting and comforting her at the same time as looking after her beloved Harry.