Inpatient Eye Ward

The inpatient eye ward at BMEC is based on the first floor of Sheldon Block, City Hospital. There are separate adult and paediatric beds in the inpatient ward.

There are experienced ophthalmic nurses, health care assistants and ward clerks on the unit. As we are a teaching hospital there are also student nurses.

Our Vision

The staff on the ward aim to deliver the highest quality eye care resulting in the best quality outcomes.

We care for our patients and as such, our concerns extend beyond the scope of Ophthalmology.

Our Commitment

Safety:  Ensuring safety to our patients

Clinical Excellence: By striving to consistently meet or exceed the services and patient-care expectations of our patients.

Courtesy and caring:  By maintaining a comfortable ward and pleasing environment for our patients and encompassing a programme of holistic care.

Healing Environment/Health Education: By supporting and maintaining the patients with physical, emotional and spiritual aspect.

Patient Information

On admission

We appreciate that admission to hospitals can be very stressful and we try to minimise this process in many ways.

On arrival to the ward, you will be personally greeted by a member of the ward staff.  We provide a warm welcome to yourself as well as any relatives or carers who accompany you.

You will then be shown to your bed. On the rare occasions when there are more than one empty bed in a bay, you may be given a choice of a bed to ensure that your stay with us is comfortable.

Each bay or area has a named nurse for a span of duty and will be the first point of call.  However, any patient can approach any nurse on duty or the nurse in charge of the shift, sister or manager.

Delivering clean and safe care

We now have hand gels on the ward’s corridor and at each bedside.

Infection prevention is everyone’s responsibility and we urge our patients, relatives, carers and visitors to adhere to the Trust policy by using the hand gels when entering and leaving the ward.

Another aspect that we would like to bring to your attention is the Trust policy’s “2 visitors per bed”, not sitting on patients’ beds and adhering to the ward’s visiting times, and minimum disturbances at meal times.

Your stay on the ward

Most of our nursing staff are ophthalmic trained. Others are well qualified from surgical and medical wards. As such, we have a good mix of staff who use their knowledge and skills to ensure that your medical/nursing needs are also attended to.  For example, we may involve a social worker if it was deemed necessary early on so that discharges are not delayed, or involve a diabetic specialist nurse. These planning and implementation are all carried out with the full knowledge of patients and/or their relatives and carers.

We use all opportunities we can get for health promotion as outlined in the Essence of Care (DoH 2006) guidelines.  We support patients who may require for example smoking cessation services, lifestyle changes, etc.

Discharge from hospitals

We aim to adhere to the best policy guidelines (DOH 2003) by ensuring that we negotiate with the patient and/or relatives/carers the discharges on arrival to the ward.

We recognise you as a valued partner in the discharge process, that you are well supported and that your needs are met on your return to the community.

Other information

We appreciate that your visitors, friends and carers want to know how you are getting on in hospital.

However, we would appreciate if you limit the calls unless URGENT, until after 10 am in the morning.

Our staff will endeavour to answer your call promptly.  If you have a large family, please try to nominate a contact person to make the calls.  This will ensure that our times are spent attending to the patients.

In addition, please be aware that we cannot give out any medical information over the telephone for security reasons.

BMEC has a number of sub-specialities consultants who have their own team of doctors e.g. cornea, glaucoma, retina. Therefore, your consultant may be different to the patient’s in the next bed and therefore you may be seen at different times.

All patients are seen once a day and necessary if required.  If you or your relatives wish to see the team, arrangements can be made for this.  Please talk to the nursing staff.

Lastly, we wish you a speedy recovery – from the ward staff.

Contacts

If you would like to get in contact with any part of BMEC, please dial our central number 0121 507 4440.