Charity Funding keeping our Wound Care clinic smelling fresh
Donations to our Charity provide funds for improvements where they’re needed most. With your support, our Croydon Health Charity helped to keep the Wound Care Clinic, on Fairfield one ward smelling fresh and welcoming, reducing any of odours and enhancing the patient and staff experience in a clinical area.
Our wound care (tissue viability) service provides specialist support and advice to staff, patient and carers with complex wound management needs. The NHS treats 3.8 million patients with a wound each year, which is equivalent to 7% of the adult population. Here at Croydon we see over 7,000 patients a year, which works out to roughly 15-20 patients a day.
The air purifiers help maintain a fresher smelling environment for all, patients and staff can feel at ease and reduces any embarrassment for patients. Chronic wounds such as pressure ulcers, often emit foul smelling compounds called cadaverine and putrescine which can sometimes make patients feel self-conscious and cause some anxiety around coming to their appointments.
The team have received many compliments from patients, and plan to share the purifiers with other Croydon clinics as they help to improve the overall patient experience.
Patricia McGinley, Tissue Viability Nurse “We run busy clinics, seeing patients with a variety of chronic wounds, and inevitably odour management is an issue.
Patients can feel very self-conscious when their wounds are odorous, particularly when they know that the next patient will be in immediately after, so, it is lovely to be able to reassure them that the purifiers can neutralize any unpleasant smells.
Colleagues passing through have commented how pleasant and fresh the clinic smells.”
Croydon Health Charity provides practical and emotional support for staff and patients of Croydon Health Services NHS Trust.
Donate to Croydon Health Services Charity