A patient at University Hospital Llandough has become the first in Wales to receive a transfusion of monoclonal antibodies to treat COVID-19. Melanie James, from the Pontprennau area of Cardiff, received the transfusion as part of the RECOVERY (Randomised Evaluation of COVid-19 thERapY) clinical trial, after being admitted to University Hospital Llandough with COVID-19. The transfusion of monoclonal antibodies is the latest treatment to be added to the RECOVERY trial, which is the world’s largest randomised controlled clinical trial for…
With the new academic year underway, it isn’t just teachers and pupils who are having to get used to new ways of going to school. Cardiff and Vale University Health Board’s Children’s Speech and Language Therapy (SLT) team is changing how it provides services to schools across Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Children’s SLT team works closely with education staff and parents to support them in meeting the needs of children with speech,…
Cardiff and Vale University Health Board is introducing a new and innovative approach to how patients access urgent care, the main message being: you will need to phone first if you think you need to attend the Emergency Unit and do not have a life-threatening emergency. Traditionally, patients have been able to access the emergency department by walking into their local Emergency Unit (EU) or A&E. The ‘phone first’ system replaces this for non- emergencies with patients being encouraged to…
Cardiff and Vale University Health Board has made a substantial contribution to a major treatment breakthrough for COVID-19. The health board was the first in the UK to open the RECOVERY (Randomised Evaluation of COVid-19 thERapY) trial, which found that the low-dose steroid treatment, Dexamethasone reduces deaths of hospitalised patients with severe respiratory complications of COVID-19. The trial, which was implemented by the University of Oxford, found that dexamethasone reduced deaths by one third in ventilated patients, and…
Horatio’s Garden is a national charity that creates and nurtures beautiful gardens in the heart of NHS spinal injury centres. As part of the redevelopment project being undertaken by the Cardiff and Vale University Health Board at University Hospital Llandough, the charity is building one of its award-winning gardens in the Welsh Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation Centre to support everyone affected by spinal injury in Wales. The garden is currently being designed by two-time Chelsea gold medal winner Sarah Price and is due to…
Teenage Cancer Trust and Cardiff and Vale University Health Board have come together to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of the award-winning Teenage Cancer Trust Unit at University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff. Sarah, Duchess of York, who opened the unit in 2009 returned on 11 June, to be part of the celebrations. The unit offers a dedicated service to treat young people aged 14-25 and is unlike any other unit in Wales. In its first 10 years,…
Cardiff and Vale University Health Board is committed to the health and wellbeing of its staff, patients and visitors. Smoking on hospital sites is a major problem for patients who are already very ill or vulnerable as they are exposed to harmful second-hand smoke. A number of measures have been implemented to reduce smoking across all hospital sites but people smoking on site is an ongoing challenge. Since January 2018, the UHB has employed a No Smoking and Waste Enforcement…
A lady who has worked for Cardiff and Vale University Health Board for the past 54 years is named as Health Hero for April. Gwen Bunn, from St Mellons who works in Health Records at the University Hospital of Wales was nominated by her supervisor Sam Prosser. Sam Prosser, Request Team Supervisor in Health Records at the University Hospital of Wales (UHW) said: “I would like to nominate Gwen Bunn for the Health Hero Award as she is a committed…
Cardiff and Vale University Health Board is replacing 750 beds and mattresses across its sites in order to address its ageing fleet of products, as well as improve care for the ageing population of patients. The new beds and mattresses will be supplied and managed by the UK’s only independent provider of bed management services to the NHS, Medstrom Healthcare. The implementation marks Cardiff and Vale as the first Heath Board in the country to utilise the combination of P.R.O….
Photograph from CardiffandVale.art The creative arts can offer a powerful contribution to the experience of patients in care settings but, more importantly to a person’s wellbeing. There is an ever-growing body of evidence that demonstrates the benefits of the arts in health and social care settings. For example, a study in London found that after engaging with the arts, 79% of people in deprived communities ate more healthily, 77% engaged in more physical activity and 82% enjoyed greater overall wellbeing….
