A NEW leadership team has taken charge of Musgrove Park Hospital’s Exmoor ward and introduced changes to the way patient voices are heard and acted upon.

New ward manager Katy Howe and new junior manager Mawuta Logo, known as Jesse, have been implementing the changes during the summer.

Ms Howe said: “Although we have faced some challenges, we have achieved a lot in a short time.

“We care for adults from a range of ages, as well as those with additional needs, and people with dementia, pretty much anybody with a medical need.

“We have introduced a ‘you said, we did’ board on the ward and this has helped us to understand the thoughts and feelings of patients on the ward, from which we have already made some changes.

“Other changes we have made include adding a governance board, which displays our latest audit results, so everybody can visibly see the areas where we need to make improvements.

“For example, we have also been doing spot audit checks every week on peripheral venous catheters and wrist band audits, which was an area we felt we needed to improve our practice.

“We have implemented a urinary care bundle, a quality improvement project that I led to help improve our trial without catheter compliance, as well as to reduce our catheter-associated urinary tract infections.

“Our aim in the future is to maintain our high standards of care, reduce or eliminate complaints, and maintain a happy working environment.”

Senior healthcare assistant Adeola Fidudusola, whose role involves general care of patients, and making sure care plans around their feeding, mobility, and personal care are followed, said: “I will help to ensure our patients are comfortable, as although some of them are independent, others are not.

“We make sure we look after them according to their care needs, and if we notice a patient is deteriorating or there is a problem, we let the nurse in charge know.

“I love to sit down with my patients, especially if they enjoy talking, which can be really fun, getting to know them and their life stories.”

Student nurse Agnieszka Smolinska said: “I find Exmoor ward a really nice and welcoming place to work and it is generally a vibrant, pleasant environment.”

One Exmoor ward patient said: “The staff here have been so good to me, and they have treated me so lovely, I cannot fault them at all.

“Lots of people criticise the NHS, but if you judged it solely against the care I have received on Exmoor ward, then it would have to be top class, I am amazed, they are all wonderful.”

Another patient who was recovering from pneumonia said: “All the nurses, healthcare assistants, doctors, and cleaners are fantastic, just really kind and they have looked after me really well.”

A third patient, suffering an infection of a heart valve and aneurysm in his leg, said: “They have been really brilliant and I am happy with what they are doing with me, fair play to them, they have been good.”