A follow up report on John’s Campaign at University Hospital of North Tees

John’s Campaign was founded in November 2014, with the aim of encouraging Trusts to make a commitment to enable family and carers of patients living with dementia, to remain with them in the hospital outside of visiting hours to support with care needs. The founder of John’s Campaign spoke to Healthwatch and informed them that the University Hospital of North Tees (UHNT) was not signed up to support this campaign. This resulted in Healthwatch Stockton-on-Tees carrying out an Enter and View visit and providing several recommendations with the purpose of improving visiting accessibility for families of dementia patients and quality of life for dementia patients. For instance, the following recommendations were made: the UHNT to sign up to John’s Campaign; to ensure the ‘All About Me’ document is available on all elderly care wards; to have a designated ‘Dementia Volunteer’ role(s) to be created to support patients and families of those with a diagnosis of dementia; to allow flexible visiting hours to be available on all wards, wherever possible; to have a designated ‘Dementia Champion’ on each ward.

A follow up visit was conducted on Thursday 24th January 2019 to identify how these recommendations had been actioned.

They were pleased to find that UHNT had signed up to support John's Campaign in May 2018, improved documentation which further supported John's Campaign, the introduction of dementia symbols,TRAKCARE, SBAR communication tool, All About Me documents and individual care plans, all of which help to improve the understanding and management of individuals with dementia. Additionally, 170 staff members had been trained in advanced dementia awareness, resulting in at least 1 dementia champion on each ward area. Furthermore, UHNT also implemented flexible visiting arrangements for dementia patients and drop in clinics.

This report demonstrates the impressive impact Healthwatch recommendations can have.