The fundamentals of hospital radio is about playing music and lifting
the spirits of the patient,this is achieved by first visiting them on
their ward and then by conversation and by playing their music choice.
Early history of patient radio, shows patients being in hospital for
long stays and the radio was introduced to relieve the boredom.
Hospital stays by patients has been declining dramatically over the
last ten years as advances in medical treatment means less time
recovering in hospital.
In the early days there was no mobile devices to keep in contact with
your loved ones,if you were lucky you had a choice of 4 bed head radio
services and a set of plastic headphones.
Decision Time
We had always believed in the option that a mobile device held by a
patient was the best option to keep in contact with and services
should be directed towards that mobile. Our own loan radio service
which ran for some years was testimony to the benefit of close contact
with the listener.
As far back as 2007,We were informed by the trust, as we were in a
wooden building, at some point we would have to move as their policy
then, was to remove all wooden buildings.
In 2009 the trust informed us that we were in the way of any potential
new build, in addition services were being changed at Heatherwood
which left much fewer over night stays for patients. We were put in a
state of limbo as recruitment was suspended and all projects were put
on hold as we awaited the outcome of the trust plans.
Update Feb 2023
The studio is finally bulldozed along with all the surrounding
buildings.
At the end of 2012 we provided the wi-fi service for ward four after a
request from the trust, along with day room listening facilities and 6
ward radio's. It was the response to this and the expansion of smart
devices guided us to move towards a radio stream delivered by the
internet and not local cabling.
In 2015 we began work on seriously providing an internet service so as
to cater for any changes to the hospital site.
In 2016 the station was ready to start delivering an internet stream
from 10th June.
We had discussed the impending re-build of the hospital on many
occasions and decided that we would see how the internet service was
received. Working on the basis, that it might have been two years
before the new hospital was with us, We would have then make the
decision as to whether or not to move to the new build.
That was our overall plan,what we were not expecting was the events of
2016 and the options afforded us.
Options
On the 5th October the station manager Dave Smith, met with the trust
project team to discuss the future for the radio.
The trust said we could still broadcast to the hospital but there would be no provision for non-clinical services in
the new build.This was the killer blow as without premises at
Heatherwood,the radio would close.
The trust has two other radio stations and would liaise on our
behalf to share facilities at Frimley or Wexham. This was a complete non starter as being remote from site and
also sharing facilities with existing hospital radio's ?.
Unfortunately, We had people making decisions about our future, who
didn't understand how and what makes hospital radio work.
In either option being remote from site isn't going to work, even if
we could have found something locally,volunteers having to drive to
the hospital pay parking fees then drive to another location to
broadcast a show ?
So there you have it, the reason Radio Heatherwood ceased
broadcasting, with little or no option for the future and with further
changes in medical care or some future lease problem, We decided now
was the time to walk away.
