Speech and Language Therapists (SLTs) covering acute and outpatient services at North Bristol NHS Trust for adults over the age of 18 years are based at Southmead and Cossham Hospitals.

Close links are maintained with SLTs working in the Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire areas. Joint working is promoted with the Adult Learning Difficulty SLTs for their clients, who may require access to specialist SLT Services (e.g. stammering, Videofluoroscopy) provided in North Bristol NHS Trust (NBT).

The Service does not accept referrals for adults with developmental speech or language disorders, congenital deafness and those with social communication difficulties related to Autistic Spectrum Disorders.

The SLT service for people with voice problems is based at University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust.

No dedicated SLT service is provided currently to Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership Trust.

The following clinics run weekly

• Videofluoroscopy swallow assessment clinics
• Stammering
• Outpatient clinics for people who have acquired swallowing difficulties or an acquired communication disorder as a result of a neurological or general medical condition

The Anaesthetic Department provides services at Southmead Hospital Bristol. 

• All theatre sessions
• Emergency surgery
• Post-operative care
• Clinical care of patients in the Intensive Care Unit and High Dependency Unit
• Analgesia and anaesthesia for obstetrics
• Chronic pain management

Following assessment, adaptive equipment is sometimes supplied to you for use at home following discharge. This may include items such as commodes, trolleys, perching stools, toileting equipment, chair & bed raisers and hoists. The equipment is issued on loan, without charge, and will either be delivered or given to you, a friend or relative to take home.

Equipment on loan is supplied by Medequip (Community Equipment), who should be contacted to request a repair or arrange collection of equipment. Please do not return any equipment to our hospitals.

Returning Equipment

If you have already benefited from equipment loaned to you that you no longer need, Medequip can arrange a free collection, to recycle and help others in need. Contact Medequip on 0330 053 3655 or email bnssg@medequip-uk.com.

Return to Medequip yourself:

Emersons Green

Unit 105
Farendell Road
Emerald Park East
Emersons Green
Bristol 
BS16 7FF

Weston-super-Mare

Unit 7 Weston Industrial Estate
Lynx Crescent 
Weston-super-Mare
BS24 9DJ
Opening Hours: 8:30am to 5:00pm Monday - Friday

For other areas please see Medequip’s website medequipuk.com

Alternative ways to access equipment

Individuals in the community who have not had recent intervention from a hospital Occupational Therapist, but require a review of existing equipment or feel some new equipment may assist them, have various options.

Contact Bristol Social Services department
Care Direct: 0117 9222700
Email: adult.care@bristol.gov.uk
www.bristol.gov.uk/housing/disabled-adaptations

Contact South Gloucestershire Social Services department
Adult Care Customer Services: 01454 868007
Email: csodesk@southglos.gov.uk
www.southglos.gov.uk/health-and-social-care/care-for-adults

Contact North Somerset Social Services department
Care Connect: 01275 888801
Email: care.connect@n-somerset.gov.uk
 

Contact the Red Cross to enquire about hiring equipment
Telephone: 0117 3012606
www.redcross.org.uk
Bradbury House
Caxton Business Park
83 Tower Road North
Warmley
Bristol BS30 8XP

Contact WE Care & Repair
Telephone: 0300 3230700
Email: info@wecr.org.uk

http://www.wecr.org.uk/

Wheelchairs

If a hospital inpatient requires a wheelchair for long term use (over 6 months) they will be referred to the Bristol Centre for Enablement for assessment (there are specific criteria that have to be met)

If you need a wheelchair for short term use (under 6 months), hospital and community patients will normally be directed to the Red Cross (contact number above). You can also purchase or hire wheelchairs from many local mobility shops.

If you are registered with a GP in Bristol, South Gloucestershire, North Somerset or BANES and feel you need a long term wheelchair but are not a hospital inpatient, please ask your GP to refer you to the Bristol Centre for Enablement Wheelchair and Special Seating Service.

Occupational therapists and support workers help people engage as independently as possible in the activities (occupations) which enhance their health and wellbeing.

'The treatment of people with physical and psychiatric illness or disability through specific selected occupation for the purpose of enabling individuals to reach their maximum level of functioning and independence in all aspects of life. The occupational therapist assesses the physical, psychological and social functions of the individual, identifies areas of dysfunction and involves the individual in a structured programme of activity to overcome disability. The activity selected will relate to the consumers personal, social, cultural and economic needs and will reflect the environmental factors which govern his/her life.’ College of Occupational Therapy 2000

For further information on the College of Occupational Therapy, visit www.cot.co.uk

Occupational Therapy enables those who are recovering from illness, or adapting to permanent or temporary disability, to be as independent as possible. Intervention is directed towards:

• providing comprehensive assessment
• improving or maintaining functional levels
• organising a safe home environment
• facilitating discharge from hospital
• ensuring, when appropriate, continuing rehabilitation at home

Examples of occupational therapy intervention in a hospital setting may include:

• Assessment of activities of daily living (ADL)
• Physical rehabilitation
• Cognitive rehabilitation
• Providing equipment to enable ongoing independence following discharge from hospital
• Training in alternative techniques and use of equipment to achieve independence.
• Home visits and adaptation of the home environment
• Splinting to aid good position, prevention of contracture and return of function
• Providing advice to patient and carers
• Promotion of health and coping strategies.
• Planning and facilitating hospital discharge
• Mobilisation of joints, building up strength, dexterity and work tolerance
• Retraining in specific movements and skill

Assessment for the provision of wheelchairs when there is a long term need (over 6 months).

The Occupational Therapy service within North Bristol NHS Trust provides high quality, efficient and patient centred services to achieve the best possible outcomes for all individuals who are referred.

There are around 90 occupational therapists working within a majority of the specialities within the trust, providing excellent care for inpatients and outpatients.

The services covered are:

• General Medicine
• General Surgery
• Care of the Elderly (Acute & rehab)
• Rheumatology
• Palliative Care
• Neurosurgery
• Neurology
• Burns & Plastics
• Trauma and elective Orthopaedics
• Upper Limb Rehabilitation
• Day Hospital
• Stroke Rehabilitation/ Stroke outreach
• Rheumatology
• Dementia Services

Occupational Therapy Outpatient services include:

• Rheumatology
• Scar Management
• Burns and Plastics
• Upper limb rehabilitation for wrist/hand fractures
• Upper limb prosthetics
• Wheelchair Services

If you have a burn affecting a joint you will often be seen by the therapy team. The team consists of Physiotherapists and Occupational Therapists.

Therapy may consist of exercises, assistance with walking, practise with functional tasks, a fitness program and/or splinting.

Physiotherapy

Physiotherapy helps restore movement and function to as near normal as possible when someone is affected by injury or illness. The burn may be painful and make it difficult for you to move.  Your Physiotherapist will ensure you are given adequate pain relief for your therapy sessions and will provide you with exercises to help regain your movement as quickly as possible. Where a patient is having difficulty walking, a physiotherapist has access to a range of walking aids to help get you back on your feet.

The Physiotherapy team has access to a large gym with the latest exercise equipment such as a treadmill and exercise bikes. You may also be offered use of the Nintendo Wii computer gaming system to help distract and entertain you while you exercise.

Occupational Therapy (OT)

OT helps to restore movement and function by practising functional tasks such as dressing. They assess your ability to manage at home to ensure once discharged home you will be able to manage your every-day tasks. OT’s have access to a wide range of equipment to help you with tasks you are finding difficult e.g. dressing.

Psychology/emotional support

Recovering from a burn injury can be a difficult time. The ward has access to a Psychologist who may visit you at your bedside to talk about any difficulties you may have coming to terms with your injury.

The Acute Burns Clinic (ABC) is next to the burns unit on Gate 33A, Level 2, Brunel Building (in the pink zone).

When visiting this clinic please enter the Burns Unit and speak to the receptionist who will ask you to take a seat in the waiting area just outside the ward. There is limited space so please try to avoid bringing children where possible and limit additional family members.

The ABC offers appointments daily, seeing burns patients referred to the service by:

• GP’s
• Emergency Departments
• Minor Injury Units.

The clinic offers the ability to:

• Provide specialist assessment and treatment of new burn injuries
• Provide dressing changes which are more difficult to perform in the community because they take time or require specialist pain relief such as Entonox
• Shower your burns if required
• Take an image of your burn with a Laser Doppler Imager (LDI) or a photograph if required. This can provide information to support the decision making process on how best to manage your injury
• Complex burns injury multi-disciplinary team (MDT) review on a Monday afternoon 2pm-3.30pm
• Allow reviews by others members of the burns team for example Physiotherapists, Occupational Therapists or Clinical Psychologist
• Allow you to take part in some of the additional work done in the department such as research and evaluations.

The Acute Medical Unit (AMU) is situated at Gate 31b and 31a, Level 0, within the Emergency Zone, Brunel building.

The Acute Medicine Unit provides the initial:

• assessment
• investigation
• diagnosis
• management of patients with an acute medical illness during the first 72 hours of their hospital stay.

They also provide expertise in the management of medical patients who can be cared for in an ambulatory setting.

The Acute Medicine Unit consists of Acute Medicine Consultants, nurses, pharmacists, junior doctors and physiotherapists and sees a complex mix of acutely unwell medical patients. Support is provided to the team by specialist nurses and doctors in other specialties.

The Acute Medicine Unit team have a vision that they will provide high quality acute medical care for every patient; delivered personally, professionally and compassionately by an expert team.

The Richard Bright Renal Service at Southmead Hospital Bristol is the largest of its kind in the South West of England.

It carries out more than 100 kidney transplants every year and has led the way with laparoscopic kidney transplants (keyhole surgery), spousal donation and non-heart beating donor transplants. The unit is also pioneering techniques to enable highly sensitised patients and recipients and donors with incompatible blood groups to have a live kidney transplant.

Southmead Hospital Bristol has been at the forefront of the living kidney transplant programme for many years and has some of the best success rates in the country. We are also the UK’s largest referring unit for the pancreatic transplants – one of only six hospitals in England to provide islet transplantation.

More than 430 patients receive dialysis at Southmead Hospital Bristol or one of our satellite units in Bath, Weston-super-Mare, Southmead, South Bristol, Taunton and Frome or our dialysis centre at the Cossham Hospital in Kingswood.

We are also leading the way in home dialysis treatment, offering patients the option of dialysing at home with a dedicated team of staff to support them.

Our paediatric transition service helps young people make the often difficult move from treatment at children’s facilities to the adult facilities at Southmead.

The service has a superb national and international reputation and is the only hospital outside of London to have had two consecutive presidents of the Renal Association working with us. We have a dedicated team of nurses, doctors and transplant co-ordinators to ensure all patients have the best experience we can offer.

North Bristol NHS Trust is a regional centre of excellence in plastic and reconstructive surgery.

The service at Southmead Hospital Bristol is one of the largest in England providing a highly specialised team experienced in the most complex cases.

Its core specialities are:

• Burns
• Hand surgery
• Lower limb
• Breast reconstruction
• Skin cancer
• Soft tissue sarcoma
• Head and neck cancer
• Bristol Laser Centre
• Cleft lip and palate

The co-location of regional specialties of neurosurgery and orthopaedics alongside plastics makes Southmead Hospital Bristol a key centre for trauma with access to experts in complex cases.

Patient care is a focus for the department with five clinical nurse specialists offering support for patients following surgery as well as a rehabilitation programme.

The core team of 52 clinical staff includes a clinical psychologist for patients with disfigurement through the Outlook service as well as speech and language therapists.

The service sees around 8,500 inpatients a year and 37,000 outpatients from across the region.

It carries out more than 150 micro-vascular reconstructions a year.

The Skin Cancer Centre provides an integrated service under the same roof, providing high quality care to more than 2,000 patients a year.