Welcome to Ward 10 for young people

Accommodation will be in either a male or female only (same sex) bay or in a single room - Bay 10 or Rooms one and two. Patients tell us that being in same sex accommodation makes a big difference to how comfortable and relaxed they feel while they’re in hospital.

The remaining bays and side rooms accommodate younger patients and therefore we ask that you do not enter these areas.

On admission you will allocated a named nurse, who will be responsible for your care. At the end of your bed you will find a
board showing the name of your consultants and the nurses who will be looking after you. However, we are all here to help you.

If you wish to discuss anything about your stay with us, please feel free to speak to any member of the team. We will be happy to answer your questions.

Car park spaces are limited at Yeovil District Hospital and there are charges for parking. The surrounding streets are for resident permit holders parking only. If you are coming to hospital for a planned procedure we advise you not to drive yourself but to either use public transport or ask someone to drop you off.

The doctor’s round takes place in the morning on the ward. During the day there will be a doctor on the ward who will arrange blood tests, x-rays etc.

The consultants, surgical teams, Orthopaedic teams and other specialists visit the ward at other times.

To protect patients, their families and our staff during the COVID-19 pandemic, visiting to wards is currently restricted.

Visitors to our children’s unit must be a parent or guardian and are limited to a maximum of one visitor per patient, except in exceptional circumstances.

A hospital supplied facemask must be worn and you should observe social distancing and good hand hygiene throughout your visit.

Please speak to the Ward Sister for more information about visiting.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Stopping the spread of infection in hospital is vitally important, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Staff work hard to ensure the environment is clean and any contact with you, or procedure, is carried out following strict hygiene guidelines. This includes wearing personal protective equipment, such as masks and gloves, when providing care.

You can help stop infections spreading by:

• Wearing a facemask whenever you are advised to.
• Washing your hands regularly, especially after using the toilet and before eating and drinking. This applies to your visitors too. They should use the hand gel situated at
  the red hygiene station on entering and leaving the ward.
• Visitors should not use patient toilets - there is a designated resident parent toilet.
• Please feel free to ask hospital staff if they have washed or used alcohol gel to clean their hands and talk to them if you are concerned about infection or the cleanliness of the ward.
• Please ask your visitors not to sit on your bed, there are chairs available
• Please do not touch dressings, drips or medical equipment.
• Sharing:
  Do not share food/drinks with other patients and keep edibles in your locker.
• Visitors:
  Please DO NOT VISIT if you are feeling unwell with COVID-19 symptoms, sickness, diarrhoea, fever, sore throat or flu.
• DO NOT VISIT if you have tested positive for COVID-19.

Please observe social-distancing during your stay. This means keeping a minimum of two-metres from other patients or visitors (other than those from your own household).

We ask you to agree not to abuse the facilities in any way. We understand that there may be times when you are frustrated, angry or upset, and we will help you find the right member of staff to discuss any concerns you may have. However, shouting or bad language are not effective or acceptable forms of communication.

Yeovil Hospital has a “zero tolerance” approach to behaviour that is inappropriate or threatening to patients, visitors or staff. We will not tolerate any kind of threatening behaviour - verbal, physical or psychological, and we have a policy to ensure that this is dealt with appropriately. This involves asking the person to come to an agreement about the behaviour we expect from them. In rare circumstances where this agreement is not kept, we can, and will, remove the person from the hospital.

We ask that you are considerate to your fellow patients during your stay, they may need sleep or rest following an operation or be feeling unwell and want peace and privacy.

Always ask a member of staff if you need to leave the ward for any reason.

You are welcome to bring in your own DVDs or ipad/android device etc, but films must be of suitable certificate rating for everyone watching.

Free WiFi access is available on the ward but please use responsibly. If you have any questions about accessing the internet at Yeovil Hospital, please ask a member of staff.

Yeovil Hospital cannot be held responsible for the nature and/or content of materials accessed through the internet, but we do
take every reasonable precaution to keep children and young people safe and prevent them from accessing inappropriate content.

You can usually use your mobile phone on the ward but please be aware that you may be asked to switch it off or use it away from medical equipment as it can cause interference.

Be considerate when using your phone, turning it off during consultations and keeping the noise down when other patients are sleeping nearby. Please do not take pictures or videos of other patients or staff.

YDH is a smoke-free zone, which means that you cannot smoke anywhere inside hospital property and adjacent areas, such as entrances to hospital buildings. Recreational drugs and alcohol are also not permitted.

Meals are served to you on the ward and you will be asked to choose from a menu by nursing staff.

Approximate mealtimes are:
Breakfast: 8am
Lunch: noon
Supper: 5pm to 5.30pm

Drinks and snacks are available in between mealtimes.

Visitors to Yeovil Hospital are welcome to use Coffee Pod based in Level 3 reception, serving freshly-ground coffee, tea, hot chocolate and cold drinks. Light snacks are also available.

As part of our COVID-19 restrictions, we regret that The Breeze Restaurant is currently available to staff only.

Newspapers, magazines, stamps, gifts, cards and toiletries can be bought from the League of Friends shop in the main entrance on Level 3. It is open Monday to Friday 9am to 8pm; Saturday and Sunday 2.30pm to 4.30pm and 6.30pm to 8pm.

A closed circuit TV and automatic lock on the main ward door are part of our security system to ensure your safety. Visitors may be asked for identification at any time when visiting the ward. Please do not bring in any valuables such as jewellery or a large amount of money. Your possessions are your own responsibility whilst on the ward. We also ask you not to allow others to follow you into the area if you don’t know who they are.

We provide an information board for items of interest. Please feel free to add to this.
We recognise that health promotion is appropriate to a hospital environment. Leaflets and information on display may help to answer any doubts or questions. If they don’t, please feel free to ask a member of staff or place a comment or question in the suggestion box and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

Please note that access to the information board and leaflets may be restricted to prevent the spread of infections.

We will always treat anything you tell us as confidential (unless there is a very good reason why we should not). If we do have
to inform another health professional about your care, we will discuss this with you first and request your permission to do so.

The Chapel on Level 4 offers everyone a place for calm. It is a place to take refuge in, if your time in the hospital feels stressed. Because it is a place for everyone we have laid it out with a number of different areas. There is an area for Christian prayer and worship, an area which Muslims and other faiths use, as well as an area which has no links with religion. Spiritual care includes sharing concerns for all the things which can cause worry or distress when someone is in hospital. A chaplain is on-call all the time and you can ask a member of staff to page them.

• Please be mindful at the privacy of fellow patients and respect their bed space.
• Mobile phones and devices are permitted on the ward but please use sensibly.
• Please do not take photographs or videos of others.
• Free WiFi access is available on the ward but please use responsibly. Parents have responsibility for their child’s access, Staff are unable to monitor this.
• Patients, please do ask a member of staff if you need to leave the ward so we are aware of your whereabouts.
• Please speak to staff if you have any questions or concerns and we will do our best to help you.
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• Please do not use abusive language, swearing or inappropriate behaviour on the ward. It will not be tolerated. Visitors can be asked to leave or removed by security; patients can also be transferred from the ward. Please remember we have very young and very sick patients on the
  ward, who need a calm environment.
• Patients over 18 are not permitted to mix with younger patients as this could pose a safeguarding risk to the child.

Planning your discharge starts when you are admitted. Before you can go home there may be a few things that need to be
done first:

• Making arrangements for follow up
• Getting medicines from pharmacy
• Completing paperwork
• Printing the discharge summary for you to take with you

Everyone will try to make sure that these things are completed as quickly as possible, but sometimes there will be a bit of a delay between the doctor saying that you can be discharged and the time you actually leave the ward as we get everything you need in place.