Coming into Hospital

Please bring your admission letter and contact details for your GP and next of kin. You will also need to bring:

• Any medicines, inhalers, glasses and hearing aids that you use
• Any mobility aids you use (if you forget, please ask a friend or relative to bring them in for you)
• A small bag containing your toiletries, night clothes and some comfortable day clothes

Do not bring any alcohol, illegal drugs or tobacco. The hospital is a no smoking area and drugs and alcohol can interfere with your care.

Do not bring valuables or large amounts of money. We cannot accept responsibility for any items that are not handed in for safe keeping during your stay.

Airedale Hospital and Community Charity, the official NHS charity for Airedale NHS Foundation Trust, has benefited from an NHS Charities Together grant to fund two ChargeBoxFAST charging stations, each costing £12,000.

The units provide 30 minutes of free, fast charging for all mobile devices and can be used by patients, visitors, and staff at Airedale Hospital.

One box has been installed in the hospital’s main entrance, which is a central location for the wards, and the other is located in the Emergency Department (ED) where people may spend lengthy amounts of time waiting..

You will be cared for by a multi-professional team including:

• A consultant and their team of doctors
• Nurses and nursing support staff
• Other members of the team such as physiotherapists, occupational therapists, dietitians, pharmacists and porters.

You can identify most staff by the colour of their uniforms. If you are not sure who someone is, please ask them.

If you’re coming in for surgery and want to know more about what to expect during your patient journey you can visit our special site here to find out more.

It has information on your experience with us including before your appointment, your arrival, on the ward, anaesthesia, surgery and recovery.

There are videos from our team and patient stories to help you understand your care.

There is also a video on how we support people with disabilities.

We expect all our staff to be friendly and easy to talk to. Staff should always tell you their name, and if you have not met them before, what their job is.

All staff wear an identity badge which gives their name, occupation and picture.

If you have any worries, questions or problems, please talk to the nurse in charge of your ward, who will be able to help you.

We will provide you with breakfast, lunch and evening meal at your bedside each day. A choice of portion sizes is available.

Drinks are served on the ward throughout the day. There will always be water available at your bedside.

Cakes and biscuits are provided twice a day, and snacks are available 24 hours a day.

Special and therapeutic diets are also catered for. Please let ward staff know if you have any dietary needs.

We encourage family members to come and help feed their loved ones at meal times. We also have volunteer mealtime assistants.

We will tell you the date and time that we expect you to go home from hospital as soon as we can.  This is called your ‘expected date of discharge’. We will let you know if this changes.

We are committed to providing care centred around the individual needs of each person.

This includes people with disabilities or sensory impairments, people who speak languages other than English, and people with dementia.

We will involve you, your family and carers in assessing your needs and planning your care.

We want to make sure that you have access to information you can understand, communication support when you need it, and any other support to keep you safe in hospital.

Let us know what your needs are as soon as you can. Then we can put the right support in place for you, your family and carers.

Our hospital is committed to meeting the communication and support needs of our patients and their carers. We have developed a communication toolkit to help support conversations between staff and patients using pictures and symbols.

‘How do you communicate?‘

• You can use the Easyhealth website to find health information that is easy to read and understand.
• We can print easy read leaflets for you from other health websites.
• We can also help you to order easy read books and dvds on health topics.
• Just get in touch.

Our Armed Forces Advocate – Martin Flint-Johnson

Our armed forces advocate will work to identify and talk to ex-armed forces or serving personnel that come into the hospital and their immediate families to see if there is any additional support that could help them.

If you are a patient at Airedale Hospital or in the community, or a member of your family is and you have served in the Armed Forces, Martin is available to speak to, Monday to Friday, phone 07880 441352, email: martin.flint-johnson@nhs.net

Veteran Aware

The Armed Forces Covenant is a shared pledge across organisations to those who proudly protect our nation, who do so with honour courage and commitment.

It is a pledge that together we acknowledge and understand that those who service or have served in the armed forces community, and their families, should be treated with fairness and respect in the communities, economy and society they serve with their lives.

Airedale is a ‘Veteran Aware’ organisation in recognition of its commitment to improving NHS Care for veterans, reservists, members of the armed forces and their families. The trust has a number of key pledges including:

• Ensuring that the armed forces community is never disadvantaged compared to other patients, in line with the Armed Forces Covenant
• Training staff on veteran related culture and needs
• Supporting veterans, reservists and service families with signposting to appropriate organisations, services and charities beneficial to them
• Supporting the armed forces as an employer

When accessing our services at Airedale, please tell us if you are a veteran or member of the armed forces community so we can record this on your record.

For more information, read our leaflet

Looking for support?

Combat stress https://combatstress.org.uk

Help For Heroes https://www.helpforheroes.org.uk

Rock2Recovery https://rock2recovery.co.uk

PTSD Resolution https://ptsdresolution.org

SSAFA https://www.ssafa.org.uk

Walking with the wounded https://walkingwiththewounded.org.uk

Getting yourself in shape before your surgery is important, as it will positively impact on how well your surgery goes and your recovery afterwards.

We have a plan to support you along the way.

On this site you will find lots of information and you will hear from some of the team you might meet when you come into hospital for surgery.

Living Well aims to make the healthy choice the easy choice for people in Bradford District.

Our health can be affected by choices we make and the communities where we live, work and play.

Lots of people live with long term health conditions. Our goal is to lower the cases of these often preventable health conditions and to help people live longer, healthier lives.

If you would like more information and support to lose weight, increase physical activity or stop smoking then visit the Living Well website.