Completed Projects

A Thank You from the Dental Radiological Imaging Department

Thanks to the generosity of the Friends of Guy’s Hospital, the Dental Radiological Imaging Department on Floor 23 of Tower Wing, was able to purchase a microscope for use by the cytologists on fine needle aspiration biopsies undertaken during our ‘lumps and bumps’ clinic. The microscope has proved extremely helpful in allowing an almost immediate confirmation of the biopsy. We started the clinic in December 2007 with 17 patients a month. Due to its success this has increased to 58 patients a month. The patients that are seen include routine lumps from reactive lymph nodes, cysts and those suffering from head and neck cancer. The microscope has helped many patients in finding out their diagnosis quickly and as a result speeding up their treatment. The clinics are always full and currently we are looking at ways to expand.

The success and usefulness of the microscope was further evidenced by the Department recently winning the top prize for the Dental Hospital in the Guy’s and St Thomas’ clinical audit competition with the poster entitled “An audit of fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) success rates for head and neck lumps and impact on clinical service”. In the poster, the Friends are acknowledged for their support with the microscope.

Finally, the microscope was recently used on a hands-on Continuing Education Course to teach dento-maxillofacial radiologists from Europe how to carry out ultrasound and FNAs .The was the first ever educational programme organised by the European Academy of Dental and Maxillofacial Radiology (EADMFR) and attracted colleagues from 10 European countries.

The departmental staff would like to thank The Friends of Guy’s Hospital for donating the microscope to our department and adding a new dimension to the treatment that we offer to patients.

Eric Whaites
Senior Lecturer/Hon Consultant and Head of the Dept of Dental Radiological Imaging

The Genetics Department was awarded a grant to purchase a set of "sit on scales" for use with our patients. Our departmental budget at that time was unable to allow such a purchase. A few of the specialist clinics that we run involve patients with neurological conditions. Mobility is therefore a major issue, yet accurate recording of weight is important.
Our previous "stand on" scales were both inappropriate and put patients at risk, so the new scales have transformed this aspect of our clinical care into a safer procedure which is also easier for our patients to use.

We would like to thank the Friends of Guys for their kind donation.

The patients that benefit from the grant are receiving treatment for thyroid cancer. This treatment requires the patients to undergo hospitalisation, normally 2 - 3 nights in an isolation unit. Due to their radiation levels they have very little contact with the outside world. They are unable to have loved ones sit with them. It can be a time of immense feelings of isolation and loneliness. The grant was used to purchase 2 new LCD television and DVD/ VCR machines, leads and a television entertainment unit. This provides which much needed entertainment and distraction from their treatment. It has also helped to feel more like a homely environment rather than a stay in hospital.

I thank you on behalf of my patients as I see firsthand how they benefit from the purchases.

Seating in the Orthopaedic Department

Thanks to the Friends of Guy's generosity, we have been able to provide some of our Orthopaedic Patients with much more safe and comfortable seating than was previously in place. I received feedback on our old style chairs' regarding lack of arm rests to aid standing and the low height of the chairs, and I applied to the Friends for funding. Since, we have received some new and suitable chairs for Orthopaedic chairs we have had extremely positive feedback from patients.

What is more satisfying is watching patients able to stand independently without the difficulties experienced in the past.

The Orthopaedic Department is extremely grateful for the contributions made to date from the Friends as are all of our long standing patients with compromised mobility.

"Friend's of Guy's gift helps advance nerve research."

Last year the Friend's of Guy's donated £2,100 to purchase a liquid nitrogen storage cylinder for the Department of Clinical Neuroscience at Guy?s Hospital. This cylinder allows us to carefully freeze and store the white blood cells from patients taking part in our research projects. By gently lowering the temperature of the cells in a special preservative we can keep them alive indefinitely and then study them in the laboratory. When the cells are thawed they still behave almost normally and respond to chemicals to which the patient is sensitive.

We were interested to discover the cause of two peripheral nerve diseases, one called Guillain-Barré syndrome, is the commonest cause of acute neuromuscular paralysis throughout the western world. We found that the white blood cells from patients in the acute stage of this disease were sensitive to chemicals, called antigens, in the peripheral nerve sheaths. Interestingly the type of response was not the one which we expected. There are two types of response, one inflammatory and the other regulatory. We found that the response was regulatory and probably marks the attempt by the body?s immune system to put right the inflammation in the nerves. Most recently Dr Lara Sanvito, a visiting research fellow from Italy, has repeated these experiments on a related disorder, chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy. She also found the regulatory type of response in the white blood cells from these patients, but they responded to a different antigen in the peripheral nerve sheath than those from Guillain-Barré syndrome.

Greater knowledge about the details of the inflammatory responses helps us to design better treatments for patients with nerve diseases. Guy's has led clinical trials in Guillain-Barré syndrome over the past 25 years. We are now leading the major international clinical trial of an immunosuppressive agent called methotrexate for chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy. The Friends of Guy?s Hospital have kindly supported our research on several occasions and we take this opportunity of thanking you for your support.

With regard to the very generous grant awarded to us last April 2005, I am pleased to say that we are now the proud owners of a wonderful new, deep red sofa and beech effect coffee table, which look superb in our counselling room here at Guys.

In my application for a grant I mentioned that we intended to buy several items from Ikea. However it transpired that Trust Policy only allowed me to use certain manufacturers hence we had to limit the amount of goods purchased due to increased prices. On reflection I feel this was probably wise as the sofa we have now will certainly last for years, has washable fabric and is of course under guarantee.

We still have approximately £200.00 left with which we plan to buy some soft furnishings to complement the new colour scheme.

Thank you again for the grant which certainly has benefited many patients/clients and staff who use this room and are thus reminded frequently of the wonderful support given to us by the Friends of Guys.

Enuresis alarms are used for girls and boys who take a little longer than normal for whatever reason to get themselves completely free from wetting. They are a very small portable device that alarms the minute any damp or wetness comes into contact with the sensory pad. These alarms are provided by specialist services usually free of charge.

In our area of practice which is paediatric metabolic medicine, we look after children that use these alarms for a very different purpose. Inborn errors of metabolism are very rare conditions and difficult to explain, however briefly, it is about the air that we breathe the food that we eat and how energy is made.

A specific group of children that we have can never be without fuel for a sustained length of time. Often the longest period they can go between feeds is 4 to 6 hours and in some cases can only get up to 2 hours. If the child is not topped up with feed before their maximum fasting time, they will have a fit due to the rapid drop in blood sugar levels.

Feeding children during the day with this condition is difficult and on the whole, they are fed through either a naso-gastric tube (through the nose) or via gastrostomy (a tube direct into the stomach). It would be impossible to feed a child every 2 to 3 hours day and night for sustained periods without running into sheer exhaustion for both child and parent, therefore overnight feeding is absolutely essential.

Many children for whatever reason are fed overnight using feeding machines. As long as parents are trained in the management of feeding pumps and tube feeding it is a safe and effective means of providing nourishment. Should the pump become blocked, the feeding pump will alarm but should the feeding tube disconnect from the feeding pump, feed will continue to be delivered, the child gets covered in milk and the bed gets very wet. Ordinarily for most children this happens to, getting wet and covered in feed is unpleasant and a bit of a nuisance. For our patients, any feed that disconnects in this manner is very dangerous. The child is at a huge risk of having a hypoglycaemic fit because they cannot sustain there blood sugar for any period of time, any lost feed will inevitably create this serious situation.

I approached the Friends of Guy's and St. Thomas' to ask for money to buy enuresis alarms for my patients who will wear the alarm in bed. At any time the feed disconnects a loud alarm rings waking both child and parent so that feed can be re-established very quickly once reconnected these alarms are extremely sensitive and reduces risk of a hypoglycaemic fit.

Unconventional use of these enuresis alarms for our patient group means we are unable to obtain the alarms at a reasonable cost or even free of charge as is often the case for bed wetting children. Our patient group is small as these conditions are incredibly rare. We have limited independent funds to purchase various goods for our patients, therefore to be able to approach the Friends of Guy's and St. Thomas' to obtain these alarms, have been a very special benefit to our patient groups.

From myself, our team and our patients

Thank you very much.

Thanks to the Friends of Guy's the members of the Thomas Guy Club have benefited greatly in the last 2 years from grants which have provided 3 'High Tec' exercise bikes for the Guy's Gym and a brand new sauna in the Swimming Pool situated on the Poolside.

The cycle's have a range of exercise programmes to suit all fitness levels and abilities along with heart rate monitoring.

The sauna especially popular with users as it is has a fully glazed Front, with subtle lighting and an automatic essence feed.

The Friends of Guy's Hospital have generously given money to the Chaplaincy for the beautiful flowers in the Chapel - providing a place of tranquillity and peace during a time when relatives and friends are deeply distressed and in need of an oasis of calm. The simple act of providing fresh flowers shows that someone has cared.

The Friends also graciously provide flowers for the paediatric bereavement room, when parents who have lost their child can come and say a last farewell. We used to provide artificial flowers, lovely in their own way - but over time, they fade and gather dust - no matter how diligent you are. Parents complained that these flowers were really not appropriate, and they had to be removed. The fresh flowers here, and in the Bereavement Office, mean that at these devastating times of sadness, parents and families feel that someone cares even after the death of someone special.

The Chaplains are extremely grateful for the kindness of the Friends both for the money for the flowers, and for the shop who weekly make up such beautiful displays. It means so much to people in ways you will never know.

Revd Mia Hilborn
Head of Spiritual Healthcare and Chaplaincy Team Leader

A little while ago, the Friends of Guy's Hospital gave Professor Nairn Wilson, Dean and Head of School, GKT Dental Institute a generous grant on behalf of the Department of Dental Radiology. The grant was to equip and furnish a new dedicated clinical teaching facility which would improve patient services by taking clinical training out of the Dental X-Ray Department.

A room was allocated to the Department of Dental Radiology in the new Clinical Skills Facility which opened in the Dental Hospital in September 2004. The room has two cubicles with dental x-ray units and tutorial space for up to 8 students with interactive whiteboard and data projector.

Senior Radiographer, Joanne d'Emmerez de Charmoy demonstrating the digital imaging system to 4th year dental students Samira Saleh and Sundip Parekh

The Friends grant funded the dental x-ray units, x-ray film viewers, all the film holders and accessories required for intra-oral radiography and two laptop computers. It also enabled us to purchase a digital imaging system, the latest in dental x-ray technology where images are transmitted from sensors placed in the mouth directly to a laptop computer. Digital imaging is the future in radiology and thanks to the generosity of the Friends we are now able to teach our students to use this exciting new technology.

The Department of Dental Radiology provides diagnostic imaging services for the GKT Dental Institute and GSTT and education and practical training in dental radiology and radiographic techniques for undergraduate and post graduate students of dentistry and radiography. Just about every patient who attends the Dental Hospital will be x-rayed at some time during their treatment, most of them by students under supervision. Before students are allowed to work with patients they are taught intra-oral radiographic techniques, where films are placed inside the patient's mouth, on "Dental Phantom Heads". The department did not originally have any dedicated teaching facilities so two of the four x-ray units used for patients had to be used for phantom head training and student films were processed alongside patient films. During these training sessions the quality of the clinical service was diminished as patients often had to wait longer for x-ray examinations and for films to be processed. The new teaching facility ensures patient service is no longer compromised.

The Radiology Skills Room provides an excellent learning and teaching environment and it constitutes the biggest improvement in Dental Radiology facilities and working conditions in 25 years. We are all immensely grateful to the Friends of Guy's for helping us to improve patient services, student education and our working environment.

Nadine White DCR(R) DipHSM
Superintendent Radiographer,
Department of Dental Radiology

The Friends of Guy's and Lord Harris have jointly provided £150,000 towards the purchase of an intrabeam miniature electron beam driven x-ray source for the Breast unit. This device will be used during surgery in older women with early breast cancer. After the cancer has been removed the device is placed within the cavity and delivers localised radiation to the area around the tumour.

It is hoped that use of the Intrabeam will be able to replace the time-consuming six weeks of radiotherapy that is at present an essential part of breast conservation treatment. The possibility would therefore exist for an older woman with breast cancer to have the entire treatment given under one general anaesthetic and be able to go home the following day.

Approximately 40% of patients with breast cancer are aged 70 years at the time of diagnosis and as older women attend the national breast cancer-screening programme, this percentage is likely to increase. There is evidence that nationwide some of these individuals are currently under-treated and as a result suffer a recurrence of breast cancer, which could otherwise have been avoided. A major advance in delivery of radiotherapy could help improve the outcome for older women.

Ian S Fentiman MD DSc FRCS
Professor of Surgical Oncology

I wish to thank the Friends of Guy's Hospital for the kind donation of £6112.26 to purchase 2 Signature Edition Infusion pumps for Dorcas Ward. Prior to receiving these infusion pumps the ward had no accurate way of delivering intravenous fluids and certain types of drugs to our patients. If we needed to administer drugs we would have to borrow pumps all of which was time consuming, and problematic, if pumps were not available from other wards. By owning our own infusion pumps it means we can monitor administration of fluids and drugs in an accurate way and ensure no delay in giving treatment to our patients.

Thank you.
Julie Downer
Ward Sister
Dorcas Ward

As Nurse-Counsellor for Paediatrics, an aspect of my role is to work with the team of staff in the hospital mortuary, our aim being to provide the best possible environment in which bereaved parents, relatives and friends may visit their loved ones. In July 2003 The Friends of Guys kindly granted the sum of £250 for the provision of new bed linen for the visiting room in the mortuary, and I have received very positive feedback from the staff since the new linen has been in place. They, and I, would like to say "thank you2 to the Friends of Guys for their continuing support.

Mollie Cook