Wye Valley NHS Trust

Back to Cardiac Services The Coronary Care Unit (CCU) and Lugg Ward The Coronary Care Unit (CCU) and Lugg Ward at Hereford County Hospital are the designated places for people who are admitted with heart problems.   The Coronary Care Unit, (signposted ‘Cardiac Care Unit’), is situated on the first floor at Hereford County Hospital.  It is a six-bedded unit and cares for patients who: •      have had heart attacks (known as myocardial infarction, often abbreviated to MI) •      require monitoring and assessment of chest pain •      with severe arrhythmias (irregular, slow or fast heart beats) that require treatment such as…

The Community Stroke Service provides therapy and rehabilitation for clients in their own homes post stroke within the Herefordshire area. The Community Stroke Service is made up of two pathways:  Early Supported Discharge (ESD)       Community Stroke Service (CSS)    Following referral, the Community Stroke Service will assess you and, if required, develop a programme of therapy designed to meet your individual needs.  The Community Stroke Service consists of different therapists:  Physiotherapy Occupational Therapy                   Speech and Language Therapy Therapy Support Workers Clinical Psychology As a team we aim to:  set realistic, meaningful goals understand your stroke and manage your condition as independently…

Your perineum Your perineum is the tissue between your vagina and your anus.  During birth you can experience perineal trauma/tearing.  This can be classified into four degrees of severity: 1st degree – these only affect the skin, they usually do not require any repair and heal quickly on their own. 2nd degree – these affect the skin and the perineal muscle layer, repair is usually needed. 3rd and 4th degree – 3.5% of women will experience a more substantial tear which involves the muscle that controls the anus. This degree of tear will need to be repaired in theatre. Episiotomy…

Maternity and Neonatal Voices Partnership

When dealing with a chronic health condition or the management of persistent pain it is best to consult with a physiotherapist to find the best exercises that work for you. Persistent pain (over three months) should not be treated the same way as acute pain. Staying active and mobile Keeping active maintains fitness and improves physical and mental well-being, both of which are of critical importance in the management of pain.   An excellent resource by ‘HealthTalk’ challenges some of the myths related to pain and exercise. It includes videos and shared experiences of those living with persistent pain. Also,…

In December 2017, Wye Valley NHS Trust embarked on a fundraising appeal to improve the maternity bereavement facilities, services and aftercare support provided at Hereford County Hospital. A project group was formed to oversee the project. This included patient representatives to look at existing practices and procedures to ensure the new facility offered meets the needs of bereaved families and continually developed, reviewed and improved. The vision was set out in three stages. The first stage was to provide a separate counselling room (to be situated at the end of the second floor corridor) to allow families a separate space…

There is now strong evidence to say that homebirth is as safe as giving birth in hospital with many other psycho-social benefits.  Hutton et al (2019) state that ‘The risk of perinatal or neonatal mortality was not different when birth was intended at home or in hospital’. The Birthplace Study which involved 17,000 cases showed that homebirth is just as safe as giving birth in hospital for second or subsequent births. A possible explanation for this is that labouring in hospital is much more likely to involve interventions, which can interfere with normal physiology and cause further problems such as…

We have introduced a new maternity electronic patient record system.  This means that we no longer use paper forms for recording information about your maternity care. It only applies to the maternity service, which is from your first point of contact with one of our midwives through to when you are discharged from the care of your midwife to a health visitor.  Our midwifery team now record this information on the new electronic system online on a computer or iPad.   This means that we can access information about your maternity care in one place, safely and securely at all…

1 in 13 babies are born prematurely (before 37 weeks) in the UK.  If you start showing signs of labour before 37 weeks you will need to ring our triage department as soon as possible and come in to be assessed.  Early labour signs can include: Your waters breaking Abdominal pain Regular tightenings Vaginal blood loss Our special care baby unit in Hereford can provide care for babies who are 32 weeks and above. Therefore if you were to go into labour before this then a transfer to an appropriate unit would be organised as a matter of urgency. Once…

Meticillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) patient information leaflet. MRSA is a micro-organism or germ that may be harmlessly carried by many people on their skin and in their noses where it usually causes no problem. If it gets into an area such as sputum, urine or a wound it may cause an infection, particularly in people who are already unwell.