County Hospital ward continues to shine

More than 4,000 patients have now been cared for on County Hospital's Ward 8. The ward was initially the sole domain of the bariatric service, but has now developed into a multidisciplinary hub of care. Over the last few years it has merged with the day and theatre admissions unit and is now home to different specialties, including gynaecology and breast surgery.

Julie Williams, Senior Sister, said: "We have received so much positive feedback from our patients over the few short years we have been in operation and we couldn't be more proud of what we have achieved so far. Needless to say, we really hope to continue providing this fabulous service for a long time into the future. Starting small enabled us to ensure care was safe and efficient, but it wasn't long before we had nursed 100 patients and this milestone confirmed that the service was now fully established. Gradually we recruited more staff and expanded our wonderful team. We have always had high standards and optimistic aspirations and with a team full of like-minded hard-working nurses, we continued to meet our objectives.  As the team has grown we have managed to maintain high standards and we continue working closely together to make the service the best it can be for our patients."

In the short time that Ward 8 has been open, members of the team have received glowing praise from senior staff within the trust, including one leading nurse being recognised with the Chief Executive's award. The wider team have also achieved 'Platinum' status across all five domains of the trust's locally developed Care Excellence Framework (CEF) - a unique, integrated tool of measurement, clinical observations, patient and staff interviews, benchmarking and improvement.