Heatherwood Hospital
Jan to June 1989

Hospital Waste Food Cut

A costly meals problem at Ascot's Heatherwood Hospital has been solved.
A report last December showed the hospital was producing too many meals for patients.
Now over-ordering by patients has been reduced by the introduction of menu cards.
And portion sizes have been scrutinized to banish waste of staff meals, a report says.
Press spokesman for the health authority Brian Mackness said it was impossible to gauge just how much inefficient meal production cost the hospital but it was several hundred pounds.
Presented to the East Berkshire District Health Authority meeting last week, the report says the meals service will become even computerized system is introduced.
Brian Mackness said computers had been installed but were not operational. It was proving impossible to find the time to feed the system with information needed to get it underway, he said.
Once in action, the computers will control how many meals are needed and when.
And if a new style of hospital food preparation is given the go-ahead, the age-old problem of patients getting cold meals will be eliminated.
Brian Mackness said the new "cook chill" system could be introduced across the whole of the district. "This means food will be partly cooked and then frozen at a central base before being moved to each hospital.
"It will be re-heated nearer to the patients. This will stop the problem of food cooling as it gets wheeled across windy courtyards from kitchens to wards."
Extract Wokingham Times 23/03/1989

 

Patients Gift To Hospital

An Ascot man who was nursed back to health by Ascot's Heatherwood Hospital said a big thank you when he and friends raised £220 for the hospital.
Divided
John Readings had physiotherapy treatment at Heatherwood after a car accident left him seriously injured.
He got together with fundraising team-mates wife Sue, Frank and Evelyn Tuck, Jim and Sally Lapworth and Arthur Clark to present physiotherapist Ainslie Agar with two new pain relief machines.
Evelyn, of Kinross Avenue, South Ascot, said: "We held a charity dance at Charters school.
It was very successful and we plan to hold another one for more local charities in 1 November.
"We raised £440 at the last dance and divided it à between the Multiple Sclerosis Society and the hospital."
Mrs Agar said she was delighted with the two new machines and had made a cake to say thank € you.
Extract Wokingham Times 20/04/1989

 

Ten years ago

Health chiefs were planning to build a temporary maternity unit for South Bucks mothers at a cost of £42,000 at Ascot's Heatherwood, Hospital.
Extract Buckinghamshire Advertiser 26/04/1989

This paper carried stories from ten years ago and Heatherwood was mentioned

 

Reward for Red Cross Workers

Three dedicated members of Ascot Red Cross will be rewarded for years of hard work when they visit Shire Hall tomorrow (Friday)
After 76 years of combined effort, Kathlyn Healy, Cynthia Waller and Sona Watt have been recommended by their centre organiser, Jean Quartly, to receive the badge of honour for devoted service.
The three women will receive the award at the annual meeting of Berkshire Red Cross at Shire Hall in Shinfield.
They will also be made. honorary life members of the Red Cross.
Loan
During their years of caring work each of the women has contributed in different ways to Red Cross services in Ascot.
These include the running of the centre's 24 hour medical loan service and the supervision of the mobile library in co-operation with the Order of St John at Heatherwood Hospital.
They have also worked tirelessly raising money for the Red Cross.
Mrs Quartly said: "They all deserve recognition for their efforts.
This is the little that we can do."
Extract Wokingham Times 01/06/1989

 

Heatherwood Hospital, Ascot & League of Friends

Annual Fete at Heatherwood Hospital Ascot, Berkshire
Sunday 4th June 1989 Open 2pm By Sir Rex Hunt
Fun for all the family
Please come along and support your local hospital
Extract Wokingham Times 01/06/1989

 

Heatherwood's Record Year

Heatherwood Hospital treated a record number of patients last year but waiting lists at the Ascot hospital have grown.
A new report from East Berkshire Health Authority reveals that Heatherwood also dealt with an increased number of emergencies last year.
In 1988, the hospital now set for a major cash injection to broaden services recorded 11,320 discharged patients and deaths.
The year before the figure was 11,298 people and in 1982, 10,516.
Heatherwood also treated 25,387 emergencies nearly 3,000 more than the year before.
The only other East Berkshire hospital with an accident and emergency department, Slough's Wexham Park, treated fewer emergency cases than the year before.
Difficult
But waiting lists at Heatherwood have grown despite the increased turnover of patients.
Phil Jacques, assistant administrator of East Berkshire Health Authority, said it was difficult to pinpoint why lists increased.
He said: "It's partly to do with larger populations but not that alone.
"Many factors contribute. Also the more efficient a hospital is, the more patient referrals it tends to get."
He added this was a catch 22 situation that was mirrored across the country.
"We are forever looking at waiting lists and ways of reducing them," he said.
The figures for this March showed 8,395 people were waiting for surgery across East Berkshire. The largest waiting list of 2,152 was for plastic surgery.
But Brian Mackness, press spokesman for the health authority any longer than before because of the higher turnover of patients.
He said the average waiting time for an operation in East Berkshire was 21 weeks. "This is quite favourable compared with other districts," he said.
Outpatients
"And the patients at Heatherwood wait a short time purely because the operations with the longest lists are carried out elsewhere."
Outpatient numbers also increased across the region and particularly at Heatherwood in 1988, the report shows.
More than 50,000 people were treated as outpatients last year.
Extract Bracknell & Wokingham Times 29/06/1989