Over £220,000 donated to purchase vital equipment at Wrexham Maelor Hospital

Over £220,000 has been donated to Wrexham Maelor Hospital towards vital equipment thanks to the volunteers of the Maelor Voluntary Service.

Every year the Maelor Voluntary Service donates funds raised through their café at the hospital towards purchasing extra equipment for staff.

The funds have helped purchase items such as ECG machines for the Cardiology Day Unit and a bladder scanner for the Emergency Department.

Over £28,000 was also donated to the Trauma & Orthopaedic Department to purchase new revision hip surgery instruments.

Although elective hip revision surgery has been postponed due to COVID-19, the new equipment is improving care for those patients who are admitted to hospital requiring emergency surgery for fractures around their existing hip replacements.

One of those patients was Sylvia Evans, from Mold, who suffered a fall at home and required emergency treatment to fix a fracture on her existing hip replacement.

She said: “In the 1970s I had two hip replacements and I have been managing well but unfortunately I suffered a fall at home and needed to be admitted to the Maelor.

“I was in so much pain and I was told I would need surgery on my right hip to fix the fracture.

“The treatment I had was very quick and I feel so much better after the operation, I’m really grateful to the care I have received at the Maelor, I can’t fault them.”

Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, Mr Ibrahim Malek said having this equipment readily available has improved the patient experience and has reduced their stay in hospital.

He said: “Up until now we didn’t have any highly specialised hip revision instruments that are required to perform these challenging operations at the Maelor.

“We normally would hire these instruments from a company when needed, this would cost around £1000 each time we needed them for this kind of operation.

“Patients sometimes had to wait some time for the instruments to arrive at the hospital and then they are checked by staff, sterilised and made ready to be used, or they needed to be transferred to different hospitals away from their home causing further un-necessary delay in treatment and inconvenience to their family.

“These types of fractures are extremely painful so it is important our patients receive their treatment as soon as possible.

“We are extremely grateful to the Maelor Voluntary Service for this kind donation that is ensuring patients are receiving their operation in a timely manner and reducing their hospital stay, which is particularly important to us during COVID-19.”

Wrexham Maelor’s Emergency Department’s Housekeeper, Wendy Rogers, said the team were extremely grateful to the charity for their donations.

She said: “We would like to thank the Maelor Voluntary Service, their donations have made a real difference to both staff and patients within our Emergency Department.”

Due to the current pandemic the charity are unable to provide their café service in the hospital due to current restrictions but hope to return when it is safe to do so.

Nia Williams, Partnership Support Manager at Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, said: “Once again the Maelor Voluntary Service have supported many different departments, purchasing equipment that the Health Board would not necessarily been able to support.

“This has such a positive effect on staff morale, and the difference made to both the services and the patients’ experience is incredible. The volunteers that serve the MVS are part of the Maelor family, the service they provide and the support they give to the hospital is very much appreciated.”

Top pic: Members of the Wrexham Maelor Hospital’s Emergency Department team with the equipment purchased through donations from the Maelor Voluntary Service.