Hospital Opens Doors to Help School’s 999 Project

Poorly teddy bears and “injured” teachers were treated at Weston General Hospital this week as schoolchildren from Uphill Primary School visited the Emergency Department for their term project on “999 and people who help us.”

Youngsters toured the Urgent Care Centre, Radiography Department and the Seashore Centre for Children and Young People, as well as seeing the inside of a South West NHS Ambulance Trust emergency vehicle.

The tour was hosted by Emergency Department Sister Glenda Lenaghan, who showed the children how plaster casts are applied to injured patients, and how monitoring equipment is used to check heart rate and breathing.

The children also practised basic first aid, with their teddy bears and teachers standing in for real patients.

The Trust’s Medical Director Nick Gallegos said: “Although obviously our Emergency Department is a very busy place, we are always delighted, when we can, to open our doors to our local school and help the doctors, nurses and health professionals of the future gain their first experience of a potential NHS career.

“The session also helped reinforce our constant message to our community that the Emergency Department is indeed for 999 situations, and not to be used when a visit to a pharmacy, GP or dentist would suffice.”

For further information, contact Caroline Welch on 01934 647091