Vale Hospital in Dursley has been highly commended by the Community Hospitals Association (CHA) for their work setting up the Stroke Rehabilitation Unit.
The unit – created in 2019 using 14 of the hospital’s 20 beds – was described as a ‘fantastic facility’ by judges of the Innovation and Best Practice category of the CHA awards.
They added: “This project was well planned and implemented and is subject to continuous evaluation and audit. Excellent patient experience feedback has been received. It’s great to see the work you have done to support Stroke patients along their rehabilitation pathway.”
Therapy lead Angela Dodd and ward manager Margaret Badger received their award from the Association’s Trish Jay in July.
Angela said: “We are very proud to have received this award – which was definitely for a team effort!
“Obviously, a lot of work happened pre-Covid and we have since increased our capacity for stroke patients throughout Covid, so hopefully it’s onward and upward!”
In June 2020, Stroke Rehabilitation was increased to 20 beds as part of a system-wide response to the Covid pandemic. This change is currently in place until March 2022.
“All the staff have been amazing, and we have had some real success stories with our patients.
“We’re now developing our service in ways we wanted to a year or more ago – had Covid not happened – such as participating in research and introducing art therapies.
“So we’re looking forward to taking our service forward in new ways to get the best outcomes we can for our patients.”
