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Comfortable Wait for Patients Counting Down
Heading Home from Hospital to Dry July
Patients heading home from
Middlemore Hospital are
now relaxing in a specialized
Discharge Lounge on the final
day of their stay.
Patients Frances Howe and Vaughan Brown enjoy relaxing in the Discharge
Lounge as they wait to head home from Middlemore Hospital
The Discharge Lounge is a new
initiative to help keep patients
flowing smoothly through
Middlemore Hospital over
these busy winter months.
It caters for well patients
on their day of discharge
and patients awaiting an
ambulance transfer.
The lounge is a pleasant place for patients to wait while doctors prepare their discharge
information. It is staffed by health professionals who can help with any final questions and
information. Food, tea and coffee, television and magazines are available, and it is fitted
out with lazy boy chairs.
Family or friends can use the pick-up/drop-off zone at Middlemore’s main entrance to
collect their loved ones from the lounge, located nearby in Ward 31 of the Edmund Hillary
Building.
“From here in the lounge, I can look out the window for my ride and then out we go,” says
Vaughan Brown, one of the first patients to use the lounge.
“It’s better than being sat in a bed and more relaxing before you leave. It gets you in a
good mindset, having a chat with another patient, having a coffee. Everyone seems pretty
friendly. It’s nice,” he says.
About 100 patients are discharged from Middlemore Hospital each day. By moving these
well patients into the lounge, beds in the rest of the hospital are freed up early in the day.
This in turn means that people who are seriously unwell can be moved to a hospital bed
earlier, reducing the amount of time they spend in the Emergency Department.
COUNTIES MANUKAU DISTRICT HEALTH BOARD
Alcohol will be off the menu for some Counties
Manukau Health staff next month as they raise money for adults living with cancer.
‘Dry July’ sees participants give up alcohol during July to raise money for
projects that benefit adult cancer patients and their families. Funds from last year’s
campaign were used to buy trolley beds and lazy boy chairs for Middlemore Hospital’s
Haematology Inpatient Ward and iPads for the Haematology Day Ward.
The campaign is also a chance to raise awareness of individual’s drinking habits, think
about living a balanced, healthy lifestyle and develop a healthy attitude to alcohol
consumption.
If you want to lose the booze for a good cause or make a donation, please take a
moment to visit www.dryjuly.co.nz.
Stop Sore Throats
Turning into
Rheumatic Fever
Every time your child has a sore throat it could be serious. If left untreated it can lead
to rheumatic fever, an illness which can cause heart damage.
The Ministry of Health is delivering a Rheumatic Fever Prevention Programme to
reduce the rates of this illness in high risk individuals and communities. The extensive
programme includes nationwide messages (such as TV and radio ads in different
languages) and free sore throat clinics, including in Counties Manukau.
For parents, it is important to take your child to a doctor or nurse if they have a sore
throat. Call Healthline on 0800 611 116 to find out where your nearest free sore throat
clinic is. If your child is prescribed a course of antibiotics, it is also vital that they finish
the whole course or the medicine may not work.
For more information, visit www.health.govt.nz and search for ‘rheumatic fever’.
JUNE 2014
Help Stop the Spread of Bugs
As colds and flu do the rounds this winter, there are some steps
you can take to help keep yourself and your family/whaanau
well. We suggest you:
• Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when you cough
or sneeze, and then throw the tissue in a lined rubbish bin. If
you don’t have a tissue, cough or sneeze into your shirt sleeve
above your elbow instead. Covering your nose and mouth
helps reduce the chance of infection between you and people
nearby.
• Regularly wash your hands with soap for 20 seconds, then
dry them thoroughly for another 20 seconds. This is especially
important to do after coughing or sneezing, using the toilet,
before eating or preparing food, before touching any cuts or
grazes, whenever your hands feel dirty, after stroking a pet and
after changing a nappy.
• Hand gel sanitizers are a good option if you can’t wash your
hands with water. Rub it into your hands until the gel is absorbed and your hands are dry. Try to use soap and water if
your hands are visibly dirty.
• Stay away from others if you are sick. Colds, flu and infections are highly contagious and are usually spread by sneezing
and coughing. Once people are sick, they can rapidly infect
other people so limit your contact with others if you are unwell.
• Phone Healthline on 0800 611 116 at any time if you need
more free health advice from a nurse.
Counties Manukau Health is providing weekly Winter Wellness
tips to help keep you and your family/whaanau well. Just listen
to Yolande Ah Chong on 531PI every Thursday morning or Dale
Husband on Radio Waatea (603AM) every Friday morning.
www.countiesmanukau.health.nz
CMHAdvJune2014