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As you may already know, South West Blood Bikes (SWBB) is a remarkable Plymouth-based charity who utilise the motorbike skills they have for the benefit of the service that they provide, with a fleet of ten liveried blood bikes. South West Blood Bikes comprises of teams in Plymouth, Torbay, and North Devon to cover all Trusts across these areas. This impressive service is run entirely by volunteers who cover a seven day-rota, 365 days a year to provide an out of hours service to support NHS Trusts to transport essential urgent supplies such as blood, pathology samples, medication, medical equipment and notes and occasionally donor breast milk to the NHS hospitals and hospices throughout Devon and beyond, at absolutely no cost. It doesn’t stop there, they also have two four-wheel-drive cars for inclement weather, as well as a support van which can be used as an on-call vehicle if needed, or for events.

Ground-breaking work from the Trust’s headache team is providing improved patient outcomes and national leading innovations for one of the world’s most under-recognised conditions.

University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust’s Learning Disability and Autism team were invited, along with DUG (Derriford Users Group) members, to a Parliamentary event in the House of Commons on the 15^th June 2022. The event served as the launch of MENCAP’s latest report: Loneliness, Mental Health and Coronavirus: research findings as well as a good opportunity for attendees from across the country to share their experiences of living with a learning disability during the last few years.

This month saw the launch of the new Hospital Passport (HP) app at University Hospitals Plymouth. The app has been created to support people with a learning disability to be able to tell hospital staff what their needs are, what they like and do not like and details that might affect their care. The Hospital Passport has traditionally been a paper document that patients needed to carry around but with today’s technology, it is more practical and efficient to use a phone or portable device, to keep the information safe and readily available. The Derriford User Group  (DUG) (a local group of people with  learning disabilities) has helped design the new digital version. Funding from Plymouth Hospitals Charity has built the app and will support the roll out of this new service.

Within the first year, 50% of ICU patients will be readmitted to hospital, resulting in not just greater resource utilisation, but also a greater loss of working and school days for patients and their carers. This was recognised as a public health issue in 2009 by NICE, although surveillance in 2018 noted that only 27.3% of organisations reported any form of post-critical care follow-up of patients, and 6.8% reported the availability of a rehabilitation programme.

UHP have recently welcomed their first Harvey’s Gang patient, Kaston, as a Trainee Scientist for the day. Kaston is currently undergoing a 4-year treatment plan to tackle leukaemia and was interested in learning more about what exactly happens to his blood after his frequent blood tests. 

University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust is pleased to have secured planning permission on two major developments that will see more than £140m invested in the region’s largest acute hospital.

During recent months, the garden behind the Post Graduate Medical Centre at University Hospitals Plymouth (UHP) has undergone a remarkable makeover.

With donations received during the pandemic, Plymouth Hospitals Charity has funded the building of this new, serene garden. The main drive behind this special space is for colleagues to be able to reflect, refresh and destress - in turn, ensuring they can deliver the best patient care possible.

South West Blood Bikes is a remarkable Plymouth-based service run by volunteers who use their advanced motorcycle skills in providing an out of hours service to support NHS Trusts to transport essential urgent supplies such as blood, pathology samples, medication, medical equipment and notes and occasionally donor breast milk to the NHS hospitals and hospices throughout Devon and beyond.