Members of the public are to be given a rare opportunity to go behind the scenes of Southampton General Hospital during an action-packed open day this weekend.
The innovative ‘A to Z’ themed event will give an insight into all areas of the hospital’s services via each letter of the alphabet, from a for ambulance, b for birth and c for cardiac, right up to x for x-ray and ZZZ for sleep therapy.
Tours of key departments including the operations centre, theatres and pathology are expected to be a major attraction, with people keen to understand how the hospital functions on a daily basis.
More than 150 staff from across Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust will be on hand, explaining everything from advancements in hearing aid technology to offering blood pressure and oxygen testing, as well as showcasing the latest professional skills equipment such as SimMan and SimBaby.
In addition, there will be a chance to get ‘hands-on in the hospital’ by scrubbing up with consultants, testing out steady hand skills on Giant Operation and finding out how it feels to carry a baby by trying on the pregnancy belly.
A sponsored tread water event led by the physio team will take place in the hydropool, while people can have a plastercast applied by the orthopaedic technicians.
Local Olympic medallist Pete Waterfield, who won silver in the 10m synchronised diving event at Athens in 2004, is to officially open a newly-refurbished cardiac clinic.
Children will be able to take their cuddly toys to the teddy bear hospital, take part in a fun quiz and try out specially designed children’s scrubs and surgical masks.
Mark Hackett, SUHT chief executive, said: “The open day will be an extremely enjoyable family event and we look forward to welcoming people from across the city who want to find out more about their hospital at the same time as having fun.”
The open day takes place on Saturday 26th September from 11am to 3pm at Southampton General Hospital and will be followed by SUHT’s annual general meeting in Lecture Room A, Level C. The AGM is open to all members of the public.
Posted on Tuesday 22 September 2009