Leeds Teaching Hospitals has a public health strategy that is physically signed by senior leadership in the Trust and the Local Authority.
Among a range of joint initiatives from sexual health to sustainability, one programme has seen a £1m CQUIN deliver systematic smoking, healthy weight and alcohol screening for cardio-respiratory patients and onward referral for prevention support where relevant.
But one of the best programmes has been encouraging each one of our directorates (we call them CSUs) to work on and deliver their own public health objective. All CSUs signed up and produced great work, based on their own enthusiasm, at no additional cost than already planned.
Excellent examples of services delivering their own public health goals were:
• Child health teams running ‘Schwarz rounds’ to promote staff well-being in stressful and sometimes difficult situations
• An all-round complement of public health work in maternity services, including action on smoking, healthy weight, breast feeding and alcohol
The outstanding contribution to promoting health was implemented by the cardiology service, led by cardiologist Muzahir Tayebjee, who describes what they did.
“The ‘Know Your Heart Rhythm’ campaign set out to:
• show members of the public how easy it was to potentially save a life with basic cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR)
• demystify automated defibrillators; and
• screen for and raise awareness of atrial fibrillation, the most common heart rhythm disorder and a major cause of stroke.
The first ‘Know Your Heart Rhythm’ event took place on Saturday 21 December 2013 in a Leeds shopping centre (the Merrion Centre). We screened 200 people, taught 200 people about the basics of CPR and also dissuaded a member of the public from developing a home-made defibrillator! We were joined by the charity Community Heartbeat Trust and they have been supporting the event ever since. We arranged the next event at a bigger shopping centre (the White Rose) in May 2014. We had more volunteers and screening numbers increased to 700 with 500 CPR and defibrillation demos. Then in October 2014 we partnered with Yorkshire Ambulance Service who
arranged 3 flash mob demos during a further event at the White Rose Centre which you can see below
Screening numbers were around 750 with 600 demos. Our most recent event, held in October 2015, involved around 30 volunteers including very talented musicians in the team who performed “Staying Alive” to the live demos. We screened 800 with 700 demos. The hospital resuscitation team also supported us at this event. At all our events, which are funded through our electrophysiology charitable fund, we distribute information leaflets to the public about cardiac arrhythmias and basic life support.”
Further information about the Leeds Teaching Hospitals public health strategy - contact [email protected] or [email protected] , or for more information about ‘Know your heart rhythm’ contact [email protected] @lthtrust @drphilnhs @YorksAmbulance #lthtpublichealth