RAF Benevolent Fund swoops in to help The Queen Alexandra Hospital Home

RAF Benevolent Fund swoops in to help The Queen Alexandra Hospital HomeWing Commander, Paul Hewson from RAF Benevolent Fund (RAFBF) visited The Queen Alexandra Hospital Home in Worthing to present a cheque for £33,200 on Friday 6th August.

The RAFBF has supported The Queen Alexandra Hospital Home over the last 21 years and, including the latest gift, has so far donated a total of £758,000 to the charity.

QAHH is only one of three similar organisations specialising in ex-Service personnel in the UK and provides residential care and rehabilitation to those with a neurological and physical disability. QAHH supports 21 RAF residents.

The donation will contribute to the expansion of services which includes a Physiotherapy department, an Occupational Therapy, Speech therapy and recreational activities to enable residents to live as independent and fulfilled lives as possible.

John Paxman, Chief Executive Officer said: "This generous donation is a tremendous contribution towards our work for people with neurological an physical disabilities and we are very grateful to the RAFBF for its continued support. As a charity, The Queen Alexandra Hospital Home relies on voluntary donations to continue its vital work. The generosity of organisations like the RAFBF helps QAHH enables our disabled residents to live as independently and as actively as possible in an environment that they can think of as their home."

Phase III – Update

As you will recall, the beginning of 2009 saw Princess Alexandra officially re-open our Norfolk wards as the 'Phase II' refurbishment was completed. The residents are thoroughly enjoying the new spacious, bright and practical rooms and the completion of this £1.6 million project means that the Hospital Home now has continuity of facilities across all 60 beds.

In 2010, we will be looking to the bathroom blocks in the older part of the building. The bathroom blocks not been updated since 1986 and are very dated, dull and institutional. They are not in keeping with the high standards of the facilities that are now provided as a result of the Phase 1 and 2 refurbishment projects which you kindly supported in the past. The bathrooms are in desperate need of renovation.

We have raised over £355,000 towards the £615,000 enabling QAHH to provide state of the art bathroom facilities across the Hospital Home to the disabled ex-Servicemen and Women of today and in the future.

Advancements in medical science resulting in increased survival of brain injury and physical disability means that more people than ever call upon QAHH to receive rehabilitation and nursing in order to overcome their disabilities and regain their independence. This puts an enormous strain on the facilities at QAHH but we must always ensure that only the highest of standards are provided to the residents in their time of need.

A donation towards the appeal will provide residents with:

  • more accessible toilet and sinks at wheelchair height
  • bathrooms with ample room, improved lighting for better visibility ensuring safety
  • improved modern décor providing creating light and space and providing well being to residents
  • provision of specially equipped rooms so that residents can use them independently at ease despite their disability
  • non-slip floors and adapted wet rooms for easy and safe bathing and showering

The corridors and hallways have been completed which have improved the area dramatically. New lighting, handrails and fresher paintwork have uplifted this area to the benefit of our residents, their families, staff and visitors.

Open Day

Our annual Open Day took place on the 10th July. We were fortunate to have bright and sunny spells all day for one of the most important events in our fundraising calendar. We were delighted to welcome over 575 visitors to the Queen Alexandra Hospital Home.

Our long standing patron Dame Vera Lynn officially opened the festivities and visitors were entertained by the Band of the Royal Logistics Corp who were as impressive as ever as they marched along the road and into the grounds.

Amongst the attractions were the ever popular cake stall and book stall along with Dickies NAAFI BBQ, who supplied refreshments throughout the afternoon. The bottle stall, manned by our winning stall holders Gill Hastings and Karen Ruff took over £400!

Dancers from the Nicola Miles School of dance performed for us in the garden with some fantastic dancing and Worthing Musical Comedy Society did several performances from Beauty and the Beast. With a caricature, face painting and children's games it was an enjoyable family day out and we were delighted to raise over £10,000

The day was a huge success for QAHH and all who attended had an enjoyable day with everyone going home happy and tired with their arms laden with goodies. We would like to thank all volunteers and visitors for helping to make this a most successful and enjoyable day or everyone. Click here for photographs of the day...

Awarded Gold Standards Framework for excellence in nursing care

The Queen Alexandra Hospital Home has been accredited with a Commendation Pass for the Gold Standard Framework (GSF) for End of Life Care. The purpose of the GSF is to deliver a Gold Standard of Care to those who are nearing the end of lives – and is not an award that is lightly given or awarded.

This is a major achievement for QAHH who specialise in nursing care and rehabilitation for ex-Service men and women with an age range from 21-90+. QAHH has been delivering care of the dying for many years but this award recognises and publicly acknowledges the standard of care of the dying that is prevalent at QAHH. So it is a major achievement.

The Gold Standard Framework in Care Homes Programme grew out of the work of GSF in primary care, improving the care for people nearing the end of their life. Though it shares many common principles with the primary care programme, the work is quite independent of it, with a separately evolved programme tailored to meet the needs of staff in care homes. It has been grown and developed from the grass roots experience of over 600 care homes over four years, blending evidence based good practice with real-life experience from thousands of staff and residents. It is now a very successful, user friendly training programme that can bear fruit in any care home.

The GSF had three aims:

  • To improve the quality of care provided for all residents from admission.
  • To improve the collaboration with GPs, Primary Care teams and specialists.
  • To reduce the number of hospital admissions in the final stage of life, enabling more people to die with dignity in the home if that is their wish.

Valerie Walker, Director of Nursing at QAHH said:
"This is a very major achievement for all the staff at QAHH as it demonstrates and acknowledges their commitment and professionalism for end-of-life care for all residents at the Hospital Home. This award is not an easy qualification to achieve as demonstrated by the fact that there is only one other care home in West Sussex that has also been recognised. I must make particular mention of Dr Michael Twitchen and Dr Richard Orpin, the two QAHH doctors, for all their help and support to us in the long work-up and preparation prior to achieving this award"Back to top