Open Evening 15 October 2025

Informative busy Open Evening on 15 October

Almost 100 people filled the hospital atrium for our third annual Lymington Hospital Friends (LHF) Open Evening.

Thank you to all who took part … we had a great evening.

We set the stage for our guests as soon as the day’s clinics and blood tests finished. To keep the essential Urgent Treatment Centre (UTC) services running smoothly, they kindly moved their reception and opened a side door from the main corridor.

Insightful demonstrations were set up by the Stroke, Radiology, Medical Day Unit, MARC research and UTC teams and tasty refreshments laid out by the Friends.

After talks from the trustees and hospital managers and a Q&A session, people could talk with staff about some of the equipment provided by the Friends, tour radiology, endoscopy and the physio gym.

Many people took the opportunity to speak with hospital managers, trustees and volunteers and we received lots of very positive feedback and enquiries about how they might help us.

Speakers, Demonstrations and Tours

Arthur England (LHF Trustee and Joint Chair)

Arthur welcomed everyone and thanked all the hospital staff, managers, fellow trustees, our operations manager and volunteers for making the evening possible.

He explained that, thanks to generous local donations, fundraising, gifts and legacies, the Friends have been able to support more than fifty projects valued over £1m in the last six years. This includes investments in radiology equipment (notably the state-of-the-art CT Scanner at £575,000), stroke aids and new follow-on exercises classes, mobile scanners for community nurses, physio gym and much more. We also redesigned the hospital’s internal signage, and this year introduced a new WiFi system to improved service for patients, staff and visitors.

Local fundraising remains vital to continue to support the hospital above the funds available from the NHS alone. Find out more about how you can help us support the hospital.

Arthur thanked all our wonderful volunteers, those who helped out on the night and those regularly give their time to run our shop, visit patients on the wards, help in the office and with projects.

Alasdair Snell (MD HIOW) and Rachael Wood (Director of Quality and Professions HIOW)

Alasdair explained how the new Hampshire and Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (HIOW) provides community, mental health and learning disability services for around 2 million people across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, with over 13,000 staff .

Lymington is the trust’s largest hospital and key to how they will deliver the three big shifts in the NHS 10-year plan to deliver:

  • more community and home care (such as virtual wards)
  • more use of digital services
  • more focus on early diagnosis and preventing illness

Alasdair commended the passion and determination shown by the trustees and thanked them for their amazing support to hospital and patient care projects.

Rachael talked about her role leading the nursing, professional development and quality areas across the trust. She explained how Lymington staff are committed to providing excellent care both within the hospital and across the community nursing teams. She noted that they will be working evermore closely with other providers of care in the community to deliver for patients.

Rachael praised the valuable support the Friends provide for the community nursing teams and for patient and staff wellbeing, including the new physio gym and the wellbeing garden facilities.

Ross Brand (CEO PHL Group)

Ross explained how PHL Group deliver healthcare solutions under contract for the NHS. Lymington’s Urgent Treatment Centre (UTC), managed by Mandy Hawkins, is the only UTC rated Outstanding by the Care Quality Commission and delivers an amazing performance:

  • they saw 36,665 people in 12 months
  • 20,982 for illness and 18,914 with injuries
  • of which 8,205 were children
  • 99.35% were triaged in 15 minutes
  • 98.64% were seen within 4 hours

PHL also run a number of other UTCs across the country and provide integrated urgent clinical assessment as part of the 111 First Service, working closely with ambulance services to manage care and avoid the need for A&E visits where possible.

Ross thanked the Friends for their support with projects and funding, including vital signs monitors, eyesight equipment, the new paediatric waiting area and plans to help further increase capacity.

Mike Hodges (LHF Trustee and Joint Chair)

Mike talked about other major projects supported by the Friends to improve efficiency, patient care and increase capacity to enable more local services for patients. This includes three new colonoscopes for endoscopy, eye diagnostic kit and the vital signs monitor for the UTC and pressure mapping equipment for community nurses.

Mike outlined our commitment to supporting wellbeing needs for patients and staff, we have added a garden room and sensory garden to further enhance the wellbeing trail for patients and staff. This was possible thanks to a magnificent donation from the Leon Crouch Foundation and funding from the trust’s charity Brighterway for the sensory garden.

As a senior manager from University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust (UHS) could not be with us, Mike explained that they provide 15 specialist outpatient services, including blood tests and a range of clinics. UHS also carries out minor procedures and day care surgeries in Lymington’s operating theatres and manages Knightwood ward.

Talking about the future, Mike explained how trustees will be woking closely with HIOW, UHS and PHL to review how further services could be provided both within the hospital and in the community to meet the new NHS strategic aims.

Finally, Mike noted that he and Arthur have been working with the charity for over six years and that the Friends are now looking to recruit new trustees to take the charity forward. Find out more about becoming a Trustee.

Chris Roseveare (Clinical Endoscopy Lead)

Chris outlined how endoscopy is a crucial part of the community diagnostic services at Lymington.

He thanked the generosity of the Friends and community fundraising that enabled the purchase of the three new colonoscopes which have increased the quality of images, raised completion rates and improved patient comfort.

The quality of endoscopy being provided in Lymington was commended by the JAG accreditation team during their recent visit and the National Endoscopy Database demonstrates that we are achieving a very high level of procedure completion and patient satisfaction.

The new scopes also enabled Lymington to take on cancer 2-week wait pathway patients, which now make up the majority of our increased colonoscopy activity. We have further improvements for endoscopy planned, please donate to help finance these.

Deerleap Stroke Ward

Kim Disney and Rachel Charles (specialist physiotherapists) demonstrated the MotoMed equipment provided by the Friends. It enables patients to sit in a chair or wheelchair and receive motorised support with arm and leg exercises to enhance rehabilitation after a stroke.

They also explained a range of activity and rehab aids including the GripAble device used to exercise their grip and hand positions, perform different wrist movements, measure muscle strength and aid rehabilitation.

Information was on hand to guide people ‘how to reduce the risk of Stroke’ and about the Stroke exercise classes funded by the Friends at the Lymington Leisure Centre to provide a 12-week set of classes for Lymington patients, run by physiotherapists and rehab assistants to improve cardiovascular fitness and reduce the chance of a further stroke in the future.

Radiology

Karen Kritter (Radiology Services Manager) and Jess Heyworth (DEXA Lead) explained how the DEXA Bone Scanner (a form of low-dose dual-energy x-ray) is used to diagnose bone conditions such as osteoporosis. This equipment was purchased by the Friends and we have recently supplied a set of bone models to help Jess and her team to better explain the results to patients. We have also supplied artwork and ceiling tiles and coloured lighting to for the DEXA suite to help patients relax and remain still during their scan.

They also had information about the other equipment in the radiology department, including the MRI and CT scanners, X-rays,  a Fluoroscope and Ultrasounds – a number of these have been provided by the Friends. Over the past 6 years we have invested over £640,000 to enable the Radiology Unit to purchase equipment that could not be funded by the NHS. This has been instrumental in enabling Lymington to have incredible resources as a Community Diagnostic Centre, helping to reduce waiting lists and delivering local facilities, removing the need to travel to major general hospitals.

Medical Day Unit / Outpatients

Jackie Hood (Clinical manager) talked about the Medical Day Unit (MDU) range of specialist services to deliver infusions, transfusions and medical procedures for day patients. This includes

  • Blood Transfusions
  • Endocrine Tests
  • Iron Deficiency Treatment and Monitoring
  • Medical Venesections (blood removal)
  • Rheumatology Infusions

They also provide the nursing care for patients taking part in two clinical drug trials being run in conjunction with Alzheimer’s Research UK.

Jackie also provided information on some of the Outpatient clinics provided by HIOW staff, including cardiac monitoring, pulmonary function tests, respiratory and spirometry breathing tests.

MARC Research

Suzanne Dodge (Manager) and Claire Firth (Study Co-ordinator) from the Memory Assessment & Research Centre (MARC) displayed information about the research being carried out in MARC’s Southampton clinical centre.

For over 35 years, their research team has been helping people to better diagnose, and live well with dementia and to develop new treatments for patients.

The MARC team, led by Dr Brady McFarlane, have been researching new treatments for people with memory problems since 1989 and carry out pharmaceutical trials, observational studies and science projects to improve the diagnosis and treatment of memory disorders.

Urgent Treatment Centre (UTC)

Simon Corral (Lead Clinician) demonstrated the multi-function RESUS monitor used to continually monitor patients with serious heart and other conditions. The monitor is on a mobile trolley so it can be moved directly to the patient’s bedside, it displays vital signs with an audible alert if an adverse condition arises for heart rate, blood pressure, oxygen saturation and respiratory rate.  This was donated by the Friends to allow clinicians to stabilise unwell patients until they can be treated, discharged, or transported by ambulance to A&E if needed.

Simon has recently designed a calm and engaging ‘safe space’ for younger children, particularly those with neurodiverse needs. Almost 15% of all patients visiting the UTC are younger children and this area features sensory toys such as an infinity mirror, a puzzle board, interactive floor tiles, fun ceiling artwork and new seating for parents and children. Simon has also designed a visual ‘now and next’ board to help young neurologist-diverse people understand how to look after themselves.

Mandy Hawkins (Lymington UTC Manager) explained the way their service has grown from the former ‘minor injuries unit’ to a very busy 365 days-a-year service with 53% of patients with minor illness and 47% minor injuries. The number of patients can now exceed 140 in a day. The UTC works very closely with the Friends to identify additional equipment to improve patient care and current projects looking at ways to expand their useable clinical/treatment facilities.

Tours of Departments

Finally, people had the opportunity to take a tour around

  • Radiology
  • Endoscopy
  • Physio Gym

A final big thank you to everyone who gave up time to create a memorable event … we will do it all again next year!

Open Evening 15 October 2025