SpaMedica facility becomes ‘dementia friendly’

SpaMedica Chelmsford has been recognised by the Alzheimer’s Society for the level of care given to patients with dementia.

The hospital received the charity’s ‘Working to Become Dementia Friendly’ award, which recognises its work on ‘identifying and improving its services and experience for people with dementia, their families and carers.’

Feedback from the Alzheimer’s Society highlighted how the facility, which provides NHS cataract surgery, YAG laser capsulotomy and wet age-related macular degeneration treatment, has worked closely with the charity, as well as the Chelmsford Dementia Friendly community, in order to enhance its patient offer.

As an organisation, SpaMedica has introduced a Dementia Action Plan across all 46 of its UK hospitals. The plan includes providing helpful resources, such as dedicated notice boards, posters and booklets for patients and carers, as well as memory boards and ‘twiddle octopuses.’

All SpaMedica hospital staff undertake dementia awareness training, with a dementia ambassador appointed at each site in order to ensure best practice is followed and information sharing methods are in place to enable it to continually improve patient service.

There are currently around 900,000 people in the UK living with dementia, SpaMedica highlighted.

Chief operating officer at SpaMedica, Simon Shepherd, said: “Patient care is our biggest priority, and our teams work consistently to ensure that our patients with dementia and their carers feel looked after and respected from their very first contact with us.”

He added: “We’re delighted for the team at Chelmsford that their hard work has been recognised. On a national level, I’m proud to say that their work is mirrored at SpaMedica sites up and down the country, as our national Dementia Action Plan demonstrates.”

Reflecting on the award, Melanie Williamson, chair of the Chelmsford Dementia Friendly Community, said: “By achieving this recognition, SpaMedica has demonstrated their commitment to improve the experience of people living with dementia, their families and carers in their local dementia friendly communities.”