Getting to know West Middlesex University Hospital

On Friday 23 October, West Middlesex University Hospital welcomed 30 visitors to a special ‘Getting to know your hospital’ event to help improve the overall experience of patients with learning disabilities and to dispel any fears or concerns they might have about coming to hospital.

The afternoon event started off in West Mid’s Rumbles Restaurant with a welcome from Karin Burke, West Middlesex’s Deputy Director of Nursing. Visitors were then taken in small groups for tours of a range of the hospital’s facilities. This included: Accident and Emergency (A&E), the Ambulatory Emergency Care (AEC) unit, the fracture clinic’s plaster room, the Anaesthetic room, as well as the Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) and Audiology outpatient departments. 

Karin Burke said: “We know coming in to hospital can be a daunting experience so we organised this event to try and make it a less scary place. We were able to show everyone some of what we do here, so hopefully it doesn’t seem as frightening and overwhelming if they ever have to come in for themselves. We also received some great feedback and suggestions for how we can improve and make things even better for people with learning disabilities.”

Jaspaul Vilkhu and Vaishali Arora, both from Hounslow, attended the event: “It has been a really good afternoon and we have learnt lots of things about the hospital - we even saw how a plaster cast is put on. All the staff are very friendly and helpful and the hospital definitely seems less scary to us now. Please do another one!”