Radio Heatherwood 2014 Year Thirty Eight, January to June a look back
at the events and deeds of 2014 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 request
service can now only be heard on ward 4 by the Wi-fi system. The old
mental health unit has closed and the old 100volt bedhead system is
now no longer live in any ward.
Ward 8 closed this year and prior to closing, the hospicom bed head
system had ceased working on the ward.
The Rhapsody music service is delivering programs 24 hours a day
geared towards Heatherwood so those lucky enough to have a smart
device with them and logged onto the rhapsody network can tune in.
Against this backdrop of service delivery, the Radio station and it's
volunteers under difficult circumstances soldier on to deliver our
hospital radio service.
Another year of if's or but's as the future of the hospital is debated
in the press and wider community.
Stories and snippets of information taken from the staff newsletter
and from behind the scenes, It's 2014:-
January-March 2014
January
The ward booklets issued to patients are updated for Wi-fi.
The history web site updated with the year 2013.The main web sites for
radio and league were made more mobile friendly for viewing. History
and rhapsody web sites are to be worked on.
Work commences on build of a new rhapsody music computer.
20th January Ward Report
Went onto ward 4 tonight. No wi-fi takers but a couple of people were
already logged on. We gave out 3 radios and took a couple of requests
too.
25th January Ward Report
We decided after the last weeks poor show and availability of getting
to the patients at 09 15, starting this week, we will try earlier on
the ward, 08.30.
This proved yesterday to be good for us, no washing going on patients
in the throughs of being discharged. being the tale end of breakfast,
we seem to be able to see all that was in. We had three already logged
on, two to us, and a member of staff had issued a radio to a gent in
side ward and it was tuned to us.
The change of time for us might be good, the younger sound of the
station might also be reaping rewards for us, lets hope the message
continues to get through to the staff. Happy patients listening to
radio is better than bored staring at walls and being a pain. One lady
we visited and connected had her iPad and i-phone with her.
1st February Ward Report
Second week on ward 4 at 08.30, busy connecting people, including one
lady with i-phone and her iPad as well, one radio out, but not able to
tell if on, in busy side ward. Looking good for a permanent change of
time.
3rd February Ward Report
The iPad lady from Saturday was still logged on and keen to make
requests for the whole bay. Another gent up the other end already had
a radio. Asides from these two we achieved: 2 radio issuing's 4
requests.
A member of staff told us that an electrician had been in and tested
all the radios. He said this was being done because all the radios
were found to be out of date.
9th February Ward Report
I went to the ward and there was one chap using an i-Phone who was not
aware of the Wi-fi, so I showed him how to connect and gave him the
leaflets. Another chap in The same section was already using it. Both
said they appreciate it and said thanks.In the other sections,the
patients were asleep,being seen to or did not have a smart phone.
Overall most beds were occupied.
22nd February
Studio One Closed
A major output problem with the chilton mixer puts studio one off the
air for a number of weeks.
March
History Web Site Update
The history web site gets a makeover to make it more friendly for
mobile devices. All flash video's are converted to mp4 video to allow
proper streaming on mobile devices. A number of corrections have been
made to the content, with some additional information added.
1st March
The Victoria hall fund donate £200 for the radio licences.
Wi-fi Web Page
Over the last few weeks I have been making some subtle changes to the
information displayed by rhapsody. I have made a number of changes to
the layout of the page, which I was happy with until Thursday night I
noticed that the page wouldn't display properly on my wife's android
phone.
I have done some work on this, it is now working on the android phone
along with some other changes which depending on what they view the
page with, will determine the size of the rhapsody info on the page.
8th March Ward Report
Visit to the ward had three people connected, one gent in side ward
said he had found the Wi-fi and what a life saver it was, seem to have
a laptop, tablet and smart phone, Business as usual for him no doubt.
one of the smart phone users had a set of headphones off me, as I
pointed out he could listen to the radio on his phone. I also told him
to keep the earphones and take them home, as they will only be binned
because they can't be used by another patient. Very chuffed he was.
15th March Ward Report
New rhapsody music computer installed.
31st March Ward Report
Jenny and I have been on ward 4 tonight and had a fair bit of success.
1 lady had been using the wi-fi but had become flummoxed by the 24
hour auto timeout. We set her up again.
1 gentleman had already logged on and we helped him access the radio.
He made a request.
Jenny logged another 2 people on and I issued 2 radios, both of which
had requests as well.
Some people described the wi-fi as slow/stutter but they were enjoying
using it.
Trust Wi-fi Service
The trust has launched this month their own Wi-fi service. No
information was given to the league about this and their launch caused
clashes on the Wi-fi as they did not check which frequencies we were
using. A quick modification of our channels ensured continued service.
When you go to your Wi-fi settings “HWPH-guest” now shows
up on the list of available networks.
A new web site statistics analyser reveals errors by Wi-fi server but
also highlights the type of devices and browsers using the service.
Wi-fi web server suffers major hard disk problem and unit has to be
rebuilt from backups.
A review of delivering the radio service on the internet is carried
out but dismissed at this stage as not being viable and too costly for
any benefits.
May
History Web Site Update
The video content on the web pages has been enhanced with sound being
added to the video's, years 1976 to 1984 complete. In addition high
quality versions can now be viewed on the radio YouTube channel.
A YouTube channel is setup and new videos of the history of Radio
Heatherwood are added along with the i-phone help videos.
Spend and raise is replaced by easy fundraising, on-line shopping
raising funds for the league and radio.
Hospital Wi-fi Web Pages
May 16th
Last weekend the web pages were changed at the studio so now patients
on ward 4 will see an improved menu option and some changes to the
layout of the pages.
Gone are the logout icons and also separate pages for radio Berkshire
and radio two have gone. Links are now available from the radio choice
menu page.
Separate videos pages have gone and are now under one player on the
useful videos page. Help pages have been edited and new user guide
with updated info are also available from the links.
June
History Web Site Update
Opening speeches for fete participants is added to the player and new
information added to the fete page for 1986 including new video.
New video's added for 1987,88 and 1988 fete. New audio now available
from events of the years.
High quality versions of the video's, are also added to the radio
YouTube page.
Facebook Update
The facebook pages for the radio have been given unique user names so
now anyone can access the pages at the following addresses.
All our links on our web sites have been modified to the new
addresses.
16th June Ward Report
No requests tonight but we did meet a lovely lady on ward 4. We lent
her a radio, gave her some headphones, tuned her in and threw in a mug
for good measure. Everyone else was happy as they were or going home.
June 22nd
Last cassette deck dies, the recording cassette deck in studio one has
given up.No more cassette recording.
2014 Year Thirty Eight Story Unfolds
2014 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
As the year progressed it became evident that a possible
takeover by Frimley park trust was in the news. On the 1st
October Frimley Health took charge.
We await with interest on how this pans out for the hospital
and services.
