Keeping in touch with friends and relatives who are in Hospital
It is so difficult for anyone who has a relative or friend in hospital at the moment. But how much more difficult is it for the patient who is cut off from us.
The new "Keep in Touch" schemes – operating at specific hospitals as listed – are here to help.
If you have a relative or a friend who is in the any of the hospitals, below, then type your message directly onto an e-mail or attach it to an e-mail as a Word document. If you want to, you can include a picture or two!
For patients in the John Radcliffe – send your “letter” to keepintouch@ouh.nhs.uk .
For patients in Witney, Abingdon, Bicester or any of the Oxfordshire Community Hospitals, or for patients in the Warneford or Littlemore hospitals send your “letter” to keepintouch@oxfordhealth.nhs.uk .
Make sure that you mark your letter clearly with the full name of the patient it is for - and which ward they are on. There is no need for their NHS number, or date of birth etc,
Sign it with your name as the patient would recognise it (no need for titles or Surnames)
A member of the Patient Experience team will acknowledge receipt of your letter and send it on to the Administration hub. It will be printed (in colour) and delivered in a sealed envelope, to the ward.
A member of the ward staff will then make sure that your letter gets to your loved one. All letter will be treated as confidential. If a patient is unable to open or read a letter, the staff will ask their permission before opening or reading it out.
You are welcome to send more than one letter – either all together from different family members or friends, or throughout the week, to stay in touch as regularly as you like.
NB: in addition patients in the John Radcliffe, Churchill, Horton or NOC are being provided with tablet devices free of charge so that they can video call their friends and family.
And also in those hospitals, Hospedia (who run the bedside entertainment systems on the inpatient wards) are enabling patients to make free outbound calls from their bedside during the duration of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Nikki Rycroft · Thu 28 May 2020, 21:20 · Link