Donations help fund rehab trolley for patients

A physiotherapist at Medway Maritime Hospital is helping some of the hospital’s sickest patients on road to recovery thanks to new equipment funded by The Medway Hospital Charity.

Emily Haines, a physiotherapist in the Critical Care and Surgical Team came up with the idea of a mobile rehabilitation trolley, to help early rehabilitation for patients as they recover from a critical illness, after seeing a similar scheme being introduced at other hospitals in the south east.

Emily said: “I noticed that some patients who were in intensive care for long periods of time needed more mental and physical stimulation. Seeing the mobile trolley approach in other hospitals really helped me work on a project to help our patients recover quicker.”

Physiotherapist Emily stands with the therapy trolley funded by donations to the Medway Hospital Charity

After submitting a bid to The Medway Hospital Charity in May this year, she was successful in receiving £850 in funding.

The trolley includes games such as Connect 4 and Guess Who, communications aids such as whiteboards and pens, plus hand weights, beanbag toss and a hoop to throw a ball to help make physiotherapy sessions fun and engaging and improve patients’ strength as they recover.

Emily added: “Having the trolley is hugely beneficial to patients on the Intensive Care Unit and High Dependency Unit during our therapy sessions.

“One patient told me he was much more relaxed and less anxious after the team had taken the time to do this with him, especially using the hoop to throw a ball in.”

“I would like to thank The Medway Hospital Charity for their funding of this project.”

Donna Law, Manager of The Medway Hospital Charity said: “We were pleased to be able to fund such a great project which supports patients with their rehabilitation after illness.

“We are very grateful for all the donations we receive which go towards benefitting, patients, visitors and staff at Medway Maritime Hospital.”

You can find out more about the work The Medway Hospital Charity does on their website.

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Dr Jaroslaw Beta, who is known to colleagues and service users as Jarek, holds baby Jarek who is named after him. Mum Lauren Davies is pictured next to them.

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