Radio Heatherwood 2013 Year Thirty Seven, January to June a look back
at the events and deeds of 2013 on Radio Heatherwood
Background
Radio Heatherwood now has a very much diminished listener ship, caused
mainly by the closure of wards and departments. An evening service can
now only be heard on ward 8 by the bedhead system and ward 4 by the
Wi-fi system. The old mental health unit has access to ward speakers
in some areas but this is on the old 100volt line system.
In addition the Rhapsody music service is delivering programs 24 hours
a day geared towards Heatherwood so those lucky enough to have a
bedhead terminal in the day surgery wards and have a set of earphones
can tune into the service during the day time.
Against this backdrop of service delivery, the Radio station and it's
volunteers under difficult circumstances soldier on to deliver our
hospital radio.
Another year of if's or but's as the future of the hospital is debated
in the press and wider community.
Radio Heatherwood starts another year with the promotion of the wi-fi
service.
Stories and snippets of information taken from the staff newsletter
and from behind the scenes, It's 2013:-
Former presenter Gordon Young contacts us after finding web site.
8th January
Greg Marston Wi-fi jingles are being played by the rhapsody service
from today, these were commissioned last year.
The main radio web site has had a bit of a makeover to update some
pages and the style of the site.The revision includes how patients can
tune into the service on the wi-fi if on ward 4.
Each Saturday morning David &PJ make a visit to ward 4 to
encourage patients to connect to the rhapsody service. Handing out
leaflets and advice on the wi-fi.
March Ward observation
3 loan radio's provided on the ward are not being used as their
intention, one radio is tuned to a national station and another is
tuned by a member of staff to a local radio station from up north.
The wi-fi service proves to be a success in getting patients and staff
connected to the internet but fails to pull in any listeners for the
radio service. After a return to broadcasting for the Saturdays after
two weeks it's abandoned.
The bed head system unit breaks down in mid march and staff on Mondays
are advised to stay at home as no one on ward eight can listen.
Here is a review which will be presented to the league in May:-
Wi-fi Hotspot (Three Month Review )
The hotspot equipment logs all the logins and the amount of data
uploaded/downloaded. Although the service has been running since
December the months January to March are used here.
A look at the months can see a consistent use of the service with an
average of four and half hours for each user.February shows a rise in
usage and this was reflection of the awareness made to staff and
patients by regular trips on Saturday mornings to assist in logging
on.March shows a slight drop off in usage this was due to lower
patient numbers through the month.The visit by radio staff does
increase the use of the service by patients/staff.
Mobiles/iPad's
The web server has shown a selection of iPhone, iPad's and mobiles
have all used the service.
Internet radio’s
Three internet radios have been provided with pre-sets.
There has been mild use of the radio’s and when put out to use, are
being switched to national stations which doesn’t assist the league in
promoting it’s services, also this puts a burden on the broadband
connection which is limited in bandwidth.The pre-sets if used would
use the internal network only and not the broadband connection.One of
the radios is missing the volume/selection control and will need a
repair.
The day room listening facility is under used and is rarely on. This
is caused by the use of the television.
Radio Heatherwood Listening
The aim of providing the service was initially to allow patients or
staff to hear the hospital radio service by the league of friends on
their mobile devices and provide local entertainment and news. In
setting up the service, what has transpired patients and staff will
use the access to the internet/email and little or no use of the Radio
Heatherwood radio streams. One of the reasons for this non use could
be because of the patient not wishing to use their available battery
power for their device.The other reasons could be members of the
public will have their own radio favourites and with access to the
internet they can tune in without any problems.
The hotspot usage reports show that in three months of operation 25
days of full 24 hour usage was recorded despite some missing figures
from the beginning of December. The internet part is being well used
and only one case of abuse had been recorded and this has been
rectified to prevent problems for other users.
Summary
The Wi-Fi service is being used as the figures have shown and access
to entertainment which didn’t exist previously, is now readily at the
fingertips of patients. The provision of the Wi-fi by the league of
friends has shown there is a need for this service.There is no measure
of how well this is being received and how useful it’s proving and if
this is lifting the spirits of the patients and aiding their
recovery.We can only assume it has improved their stay.It’s
disappointing for the radio volunteers as they are not able to reach
the patients in what would be an ideal one to one basis through their
mobile device.It’s a case of work in progress to improve the service
and promote the league of friends.
Wi-Fi Help Videos
Supporting the use of the Wi-fi has meant a number of methods in
getting the information to the users. In October 2012 the first video
was provided on-line on how to use the Loan radio.
Since that time 4 more videos have been added. In May 2013 how to
close app's,close web pages, and clear data. In October 2013 a further
how to close app's on the new ios7 phone was also added.
These are significant memory eaters on mobile devices and will cause
streaming problems of the hospital radio signal.
The video's can be found on our facebook page and is also available to
patients and staff via the intranet service.
On the 6th April a staff meeting is held on Saturday morning to
discuss the future. The loss of the bedhead service on ward 8 and no
indication of it being re-instated along with the failed attempt to
run programs on a Saturday morning prompts a meeting of the
volunteers.
What comes out of the meeting is for the girls on Mondays to attempt
ward rounds on ward 4 encouraging use of the wi-fi and also for
Saturdays and abandon broadcasts until interest picks up. Each week a
summary of the activity on the wards to be posted on the bulletin
board for others to read.
8th April Ward Report
Katie and I went to Ward 4 on Monday to see if there were any patients
who were interested in using the wireless.There were not many patients
but we did help a member of staff get onto the wireless (they hadn't
realised they had to connect to the wireless each time they used it)
and we showed a patient how to get on as well.So, although we didn't
talk to many people, it was still worthwhile to go to the ward and we
did publicise that the radio played in the day room and there were
portable radios to one man who didn't have a smart phone/laptop etc.
15th April Ward Report
A pretty successful night if we do say so ourselves. No takers for the
Wi-fi over smart phones, etc but we had 3 people wanting to listen to
the radio. We set 2 of them up with the radios already on the ward,
then went back and got another one (number 12006). Overall there were
more patients in tonight than last week. Watch this space for next
week's progress!
22nd April Ward Report
Katie and I went to ward 4 today and had some jolly chats with some
patients.We gave out 2 radios and tuned them in. We also helped a
student nurse log onto the Wi-fi. She had been told there wasn't Wi-fi
but now she knows how to get on and the initial password to connect,
she said she will show other staff and patients - I think we've found
ourselves an unofficial ambassador!.
27th April Ward Report
Lots of screens around today. Two people with i-phones, one already
using the wi-fi and another lady, Glynis in a side room. We showed her
how to connect to rhapsody and also close all running
applications.Ward radio on(radio2) in ladies six bed room.
29th April Ward Report
Really great night tonight. 4 smart phone connections and one kindle
connection (for quite a senior lady, if I may be so bold). Good bit of
rapport going.One lady's son who was visiting was really technological
and he helped us with the kindle. He was hoping he could set Skype up
for the lady he was visiting so she could talk to family who weren't
near. Would that work? Great if it did. This man said the wi-fi
service was “extremely well organised” and another older
lady (visiting the kindle lady) said “what an excellent
hospital”. Couldn't really have had better feedback. I felt
proud that we are raising people's opinions of the hospital. Well done
team!
In May a change is made to the what's playing page of the web site.
When an item plays it will now show the picture of the artist along
with some info.To accommodate this 20,000 mp3's have to be altered to
show the new information along with downloading pictures for the
artist.
11th May Ward Report
Loads of empty beds today, One young lad was already using the Wi-fi,
We gave him the two leaflets. One nurse on ward 4 asked us when the
bedhead system would be returned, having explained to her the
situation, another nurse said we might not have the tv service but we
have got the wi-fi.
13th May Ward Report
We spoke to lots of patients tonight as the ward was quite busy but we
only helped 1 person get onto Wi-fi and loaned out 1 radio. However,
we told a nurse how to get onto Wi-fi as she wanted to know to help
patients get on. There were also a few patients who might listen to
the radio later tonight. Still positive despite connecting fewer
people.
20th May Ward Report
Pretty good night tonight. 2 wi-fi connections and 3 radios issued. We
also turned the volume up in the day room (we do this each week now).
I told one lady we had a radio service and she replied with,
“Anytime, Lady In Red”. I explained to her how we are not
doing a request show at the moment and we rigged her up with a loan
radio instead.
6th June Ward Report
Down On Ward 4 today, just one smart phone user, not aware of Wi-fi,
no radio's out. Always difficult on a Saturday, physio's on ward and
normal everyday nursing going on. Talked to a nurse today, she says
she will give out radio's to people who don't get visitors as well
etc. also told us the usual time in for a patient these days is just 3
days, usual encouraged to be up and moving 2 hours after op. Nurse
also told us that Barb's, she of everlasting Love fame, is now on ward
5, which is pre op, and a Mon to Fri job. Sad in a way that the radio
does not directly benefit from this, but our visits do a tremendous
amount of good on the ward, as a whole for the small team of Radio
Heatherwood and the League the goodwill this generates for us, just
cannot be measured.
6th June Ward Report
Tonight we gave 1 radio out for a patient to listen to Radio
Heatherwood and 1 patient was already making good use of another
radio. We helped 1 patient access the Wi-fi and gave another patient
the flyer as their phone had run out of battery but once their friend
brought their charger in they might use the Wi-fi. We are a bit
perplexed as there is 1 radio on the shelf by the nurses desks without
mains adapter so we couldn't offer that out. We had a look for it
around the bays with 1 of the staff but it was nowhere to be seen. The
staff will keep a look out for us.
Tonight we are happy to report the return of the prodigal plug! We
don't know where it's been but we sure are glad to have it back N.B.
It is now naked (label-less). Would the Saturday crew like to bring in
a sticky and re-clothe it? Other than this exciting news we have had
another nice night. 1 bay of ladies reported they had all listened to
the radio together during the day. We tuned 2 people in and another 2
thought they might listen tomorrow. We gave out one wi-fi code. We had
several nice chats with people too. One man didn't want to listen to
the radio. He said he wanted something to read instead so we fetched
him some books and magazines from the day room. The Radio Heatherwood
library service is born!.
After programs were stopped in March, John Murphy who lives in
Reading was given the option to not turn up but to keep in
touch in case circumstances change on Saturdays.
A sad day for us as he had contributed a lot to the launch of
the rhapsody music service.The original schedule and numerous
promo's were produced by John. Some of these are still in use
today.
We thank John for his wonderful contribution to our service,
and wish him well.
As the year progressed it became evident that a possible
takeover by Frimley park trust was in the news. As the year
closes this is the most likely outcome but this will not be
decided/approved until April 2014.
We await with interest on how this pans out for the hospital
and services.
