19 May 2020
A donation of 10 tablet-devices by Jersey Electricity Company (JEC) to Jersey General Hospital have helped patients to stay in contact their family and friends.
The Hospital now has a range of 35 Android and Apple tablets for use on wards to allow patients to stay in touch with loved ones during a time of COVID-19 restrictions on visitors.
Ricardo Da Silva, Nurse in Health and Community Services’ Digital Health Team said: “Due to the Coronavirus restrictions, critically ill patients and those receiving end of life care can have one family member visit them at a time, while visitation for other patients is limited for public health and safety. We wanted to find a way of ensuring that any of our patients can speak to groups of loved ones at a time when social contact is very limited. The benefit of using the tablets has been priceless for our patients.”
Health and Community Services’ Digital Health team has been instrumental in setting the tablets up for patients and families to use. Patients can use the tablets to make video calls to stay in touch with people who might otherwise be unable to visit in person, or to have multiple people on one call at a time
Chief Nurse Rose Naylor said: “The emotional impact of being physically separated from loved ones at this difficult time is challenging for the service as we aim to keep patients and staff safe. However, the positive impact these tablets have had on patients who can speak to their family and friends via video link all over the world, is powerful and feedback from patients has been very positive. I’d like to particularly thank the JEC who kindly donated 10 of the tablets.”
Health and Community Services has received numerous donations from the public, which can be offered through the Acts of Kindness email: ActsOfKindness@health.gov.je. This ensures all donations are fairly distributed among health staff.
gov.je