2002 Our Presenting Stars and Backstage Information

Low Power AM

At the end of 1999 the Low Power AM project was put on hold as the hospital informed the league the radio station would have to move.

Although we were more or less consigned to the fact that the service was all but dead, it didn't stop us from revising the project folders and adding pages to the web site in an attempt to perhaps influence someone within the hospital who might feel this was a good idea.

In August 2002 with the announcement of the award of the contract to one of the patient power companies for the Heatherwood hospital installation.
The project was consigned to the history file, and would no longer be actively pursued.

Patient Power Initiative At Heatherwood

This was was a UK wide initiative to provide television telephone and radio at the bed head of every patient in a hospital with 150 beds or more.

260 hospitals fell into this category. No cost would be born by the trust it was the patient power contractor who would be responsible in recouping their costs through the charging of television or telephone usage. Use of the radio would not be charged.

In April we were briefed at a league meeting patient line had been ditched and a new contractor would be chosen.

In August 2002 we were advised contractor HTS would be installing at Heatherwood and Wexham.

Previously the trust had looked at Patient line and even approached the league of friends to ask if we would perhaps part fund some of the installation, because a low bed count at Heatherwood meant it would not be profitable. patient line required at least 350 beds to make a profit.

It later transpires Heatherwood were instructed by the government to choose HTS as the contractor, hence the shift.

A number of documents were available from the NHS estates department web site to download of which we still hold. They are not printed here but with hindsight make interesting reading.

Liaison with the company installing was nil, despite contrary claims in the NHS documentation, we were not included in any direct discussions.

We passed to our hospital rep at this stage some basic requests

1) Link to system.

This needs to be a two pair twisted cable link minimum, for us to deliver a stereo signal to their control room. Our end to be located in our complex in the equipment room

2) Terminal

If we can have a terminal in our premises this to be located in the equipment room. This will allow for training.

3) Channel Allocation 3

Our adverts for us at the moment carry the id of channel 3 if this is not possible we need to know what number we will be on ?.

4) Patients to have access to ring the studio to place requests internally on the system.

5) What appears on the display of the terminal when they select the radio service ? are we in a position to generate a picture/page which will show our contact details etc

Survey

A 36 page survey taken at a Birmingham hospital by the NHS in 2000 was downloaded and displayed at the studio for presenters to digest on how well the system is received and what impact it has had on the ward staff and hospital radio.

November 2002

The trust had their first talks with the company in April this year but by November, no work had commenced and the trust were not happy with the situation.

Response to our request for Channel id

The radio choice on the system is fixed and distributed centrally so the standard installation of Radio 1,2,3,4 etc will be on screen for patients to choose. There are no numbers for them to choose they just highlight i.e. Radio Heatherwood and they get us. So we can carry on saying channel 3 but in reality it's not significant. Don't know how many of our patients would actually be tuning into radio 1.?.

In early December the first signs of the installation of some of the cables commenced.

At the time, we were optimistic about the benefits but we could see some issues which appeared to have been overlooked.

Comment 2011

By the time this got off the ground,mobile phones were already tumbling in price and the expensive equipment being placed at the bedhead would generate large recurring costs.
Having been involved with various bed head systems over the years each has it's plus and minuses but a system as technically advanced as this would always run into problems with the age of the users and also on-going costs.

Welcome to our Picture board

Some captured moments of our volunteers,during this year.

Our Stars of 2002

2002 Year Twenty Six Story Unfolds

2002 was a very busy year for the station management and as the year unfolded there was much to do and organise

For further information about this year:- Follow the links

• 2002 Year Twenty Six Summary
• 2002 24 Hour Service
• 2002 Our Stars & Backstage Information
• 2002 Archive News Stories
• 2002 Staff Newsletter
• Story Of the Archive
• Radio Video Archive
• History Site Map

Jingle Lists May 2002

Some captured moments of our volunteers,during this year.

Mini-Disc or CD Track Listings

And in the End

2002 will be remembered as the year which was the prelude to the launch of Rhapsody.

Other events which made their mark this year was an upsurge in recruitment and also the news that patient power would be installed.

A lot of behind the scenes work was being conducted by the station engineer and other members of the radio using their computers.

Securing the funding for the new service was the icing on the cake as the year neared it's end.

The downside to securing the funding for us, meant a whole new amount of work in completing the install, training the staff and launching.All this to come in 2003.

P Davidson-Smith Secretary June 2011

Archive Gems

Just some extra's we found:-

• 25 Year Mugs

  Celebrating the first 25 years of the radio service 350 mugs are commissioned. The first of the mugs was issued in April.

• Loan Radio Sponsors

  As the year drew to a close and the news of the installation of the new bed head terminals.

  It was decided not to promote the sponsors for the loan radio's anymore.

  A donation which came in late December, was returned to the individual explaining the reason for the return.

• Sink

  Since the move to the new premises it was envisaged that the radio would share the kitchen with the porters in reality this was never going to be practical because of the security issue.

  Cups would have to be taken to ward 10 for washing up and also to collect water.

  A remedy was to provide a sink.

  In Early September a sink unit is installed into the engineering room and fitted with some splash tiles awaits the connection by the hospital estates dept.

• Sheda Travel Club

  Station manager Dave Smith finds a surprise in the local paper.