Celebration to mark the opening of the new physiotherapy unit at Ripley Hospital
A celebration to mark the opening of the brand new physiotherapy unit at Ripley Hospital was hosted on Friday 17 January.
The physiotherapy unit has been completely remodelled and extended at a cost of £163,164, fully funded by Ripley Hospital League of Friends.
The unit now offers purpose-designed facilities for physiotherapy outpatients, including individual treatment cubicles to promote greater privacy and dignity for patients during treatment and consultations.
Phyllis Holmes, chairman of Ripley Hospital League of Friends, was invited to unveil a plaque to commemorate the completion of the newly refurbished and extended physiotherapy unit in front of a packed crowd of nearly 80 guests, who were later invited to tour the new facilities.
The guests included Ripley mayor, councillor Tony Holmes and Amber Valley mayor, councillor John Walker, as well as many members of the Ripley community who are active in supporting the work of the league of friends on behalf of the hospital.
John Briggs, who has been treasurer of Ripley Hospital League of Friends for 45 years, opened the event by paying tribute to everyone involved in supporting the league for their hard work, energy and time.
He said: “We are here to celebrate yet another milestone in the long and proud association between the league, now in its 64th year, and Ripley Hospital. I think it is true to say that never has the strength of commitment and support, particularly financial, given by the league of friends in recent years been as strong as it is today.”
The newly revamped unit was handed over by building contractors, J Lee and Sons, on schedule on Friday 29 November 2019. The physiotherapy team took ownership of their new space just after Christmas and the first patients were welcomed in on 30 December 2019.
The building work has been overseen by the capital and estates team from Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Foundation Trust which runs Ripley Community Hospital.
William Jones, chief operating officer for Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We are extremely grateful to the league of friends. £163,164 is a massive amount of money and every penny comes from donations from local people, legacies from families and from things like selling cups of tea and coffee at the tea bar. It’s a huge amount of work which goes on in the background to support our services.”
He added: “We are at a particularly important time in physiotherapy services in Derbyshire. Demand has never been higher and we are also in the process of transforming the way we provide services under the banner of musculoskeletal (MSK) services. We are working very closely with local GPs, with consultants and the multi-disciplinary teams at local hospitals and also importantly with our clinical commissioning group.”
During the construction work, the physiotherapy team devised temporary arrangements to ensure patient care could continue and members of the hospital’s integrated facilities management team were fantastic at keeping the place clean. Clinical services manager Sue Buckley was instrumental in drawing up the business case for the redevelopment and securing the support of the league of friends to finance the building work.
Physiotherapy team leader at Ripley Hospital, Steven Palmer, said: “The new facilities offer much better privacy and dignity. Everyone who works here likes it and it is less noisy for the patients. It’s so much better and I can’t thank the league of friends enough for their support with this project.”
It is 30 years since the league of friends funded the building of the original physiotherapy department at Ripley Community Hospital, in 1989. Bertie Masters, retired former head of the physiotherapy department, was among guests welcomed to see these latest improvements in physiotherapy facilities for the people of Ripley.
Ripley Morris, who are supporters of the work of the league of friends, were guests at the event and performed a dance to round off the celebrations.
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