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Industrial action: attend your appointment unless told otherwise

Patients may experience some disruption to the services provided by Blackpool Teaching Hospitals next week when planned industrial action takes place. Junior doctors will begin a strike starting at 7am on Wednesday 14 June and ending on 7am on Saturday 17 June. Blackpool Teaching Hospitals provides services across a range of settings including Blackpool Victoria… Continue Reading Industrial action: attend your appointment unless told otherwise

Trish Armstrong-Child, Margaret Ford and Frankie the therapy dog

Frankie brings doggy cheer to hospital patients and staff

Volunteers come with four legs as well as two as Blackpool Teaching Hospitals. They are all members of Pets As Therapy (PAT), a national charity that supports owners who want to share their pets with hospital patients and staff as well as schools, care homes and prisons. Blackpool Teaching Hospitals has eight pet regulars including… Continue Reading Frankie brings doggy cheer to hospital patients and staff

NHS fundraisers and volunteers keep up charitable tradition

Health care before the NHS was unimaginably different to how it is today. Not only did you usually have to pay for care but the treatments on offer were very limited. More often than not, pain and discomfort were accepted as part of life to be endured with stoicism. Hospitals supported themselves with money from… Continue Reading NHS fundraisers and volunteers keep up charitable tradition

Clifton ‘Friends’ follow in footsteps of first NHS hospital volunteers

A League of Friends became a familiar sight at hospitals in the years following the creation of the NHS in July 1948. And it was at the former Lytham Hospital in Fylde where one of the first of them led the way before of the establishment of a national Friends movement in 1949. Friends groups… Continue Reading Clifton ‘Friends’ follow in footsteps of first NHS hospital volunteers

Drop off points now available for walking aids to be returned to the NHS.

Blackpool Teaching Hospitals is reinstating its walking aid reuse scheme, allowing people to return walking aids no longer needed so that may be refurbished and given to support other patients. Now residents across Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre who have walking frames, elbow crutches or aluminium walking sticks, issued by an NHS service, can easily return… Continue Reading Drop off points now available for walking aids to be returned to the NHS.

Steve Dyson with this Celebrating Success Award

‘Giving something back’ wins Steve volunteer award

Two episodes of bowel surgery inspired Steve Dyson to become a volunteer at Blackpool Victoria Hospital and “give something back”. “Volunteering has changed my life for the better,” he said. “I’ve made so many new friends. It’s given me so much confidence. It’s given me a new lease of life really.” Steve’s volunteering as a… Continue Reading ‘Giving something back’ wins Steve volunteer award

Volunteering proves route to work for Jorge

Volunteering at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals has been the route to a job for Jorge White. The biology graduate of Lancaster University became a volunteer helper on the haematology unit and A&E after doing work experience in 2019. “I really enjoyed the environment, talking to the patients, meeting the staff and learning lots of medical… Continue Reading Volunteering proves route to work for Jorge

Large group of volunteers at picnic in the park event

Volunteer’s Week – Picnic in the Park

Picnic in the park event launches volunteer’s week at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals Volunteers are part of everyday life at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals, giving their time to help and support patients, visitors, and staff in many ways. For 12 years the Trust’s chief executives have hosted a special thank you event to coincide with the national… Continue Reading Volunteer’s Week – Picnic in the Park

Life with the NHS is a family affair for the Finches

Irene Finch worked 25 years at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals but like many colleagues three family members are keeping up the tradition of service to the NHS. She started at Blackpool Victoria Hospital as a domestic in 1978 before becoming an auxiliary nurse in the 1980s. Retiring in 2003 Irene, now aged 81, worked on the geriatric… Continue Reading Life with the NHS is a family affair for the Finches

Central Sterile Supplies Department 1965

Sixties mark era of expansion and modernisation at Vic

The great and the good gathered at Blackpool Victoria Hospital on 29 January 1965 for the grand opening of a new operating theatre and sterile supplies department. The £132,000 building costs described in the event’s glossy programme and brochure was among the first phase of works to transform the Vic into a district general hospital. … Continue Reading Sixties mark era of expansion and modernisation at Vic