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Please be aware, the information on this page relates to Bedford Hospital
Please be aware, the information on this page relates to GPs referring to Bedford Hospital only.

Inpatient Occupational Therapy

Our Aim

The Occupational Therapy Team on the wards work closely with each other, and the wider multi-disciplinary team, in a variety of specialties ensuring a high standard of care is provided to all patients. The team aim to assess and treat patients to include taking a holistic approach to help our patients achieve success in meaningful occupations, carrying out acute rehab, support discharge planning, identify and minimise risk in relation to the patient’s function and environment. We work with patients to identify goals that support and facilitate safe discharge home and maximising independence through a variety of means. This may include:

  • Assessments of cognition, function, home environment by carrying out access/home visits to assess for equipment as well as discharge visits, where appropriate
  • Provision of equipment to enable independence with everyday tasks
  • Teaching and advising on alternative ways to complete activities of daily living tasks (e.g., self-care, productivity, leisure) through individual or group interventions
  • Rehabilitation and practicing tasks in manageable stages
  • Onward referrals to community services, as needed, to carry on rehab or provide equipment at home

Rehab cafe A woman hanging washing A woman stirring soup

The Occupational Therapy department at Bedford Hospital South Wing covers all the adult inpatient beds and is split into 6 teams:

Urgent Medicine

The Urgent Medicine team works across Accident and Emergency, Assessment wards (Whitbread, Acute Assessment Unit), and Same Day Emergency Care.

Respiratory

The Respiratory team cover Critical Care Complex, Coronary Care Unit and two medical wards Pilgrim and Godber.

Orthopaedics and Surgery

The Orthopaedics and Surgery team cover four wards (Richard Wells, Howard, Reginald Hart and Tavistock) across the hospital.

Acute Frailty

The Acute Frailty team cover four wards (Harpur, Elizabeth, Russell and Arnold Whitchurch) across the hospital.

Neuro – Medical

The Neuro-Medical team cover two wards and manage patients with acute neurological / Stroke presentations on Shand ward, as well as medical patients on in the remaining ward beds and Shuttleworth ward.

Inpatient Rehabilitation – Archer Unit

The Archer Unit is a 20 bed rehabilitation unit, providing 24-hour care for adult patients. Patients may have been admitted following a stay in hospital or occasionally referrals may be received from the community teams for support to prevent an acute admission.

Each team is led by experienced and knowledgeable Team Leader Occupational Therapist and they are supported by a variety of both senior and rotational Occupational Therapists as well as Apprentices and Therapy Support staff. We support Occupational Therapy students on placements from the University of Bedfordshire and the University of Northampton. In addition, we also support work experience students interested in shadowing and learning about the role of Occupational Therapy within acute inpatient hospital setting.

Bedford Occupational Therapy team

Telephone: 01234 355122

Service contact: Emily Cox, Therapies Service Manager

For Community Occupational Therapy – contact the Single Point of Access (SPOA) to make a referral – 0345 602 4064

For Social Services Occupational Therapy – contact Bedford Borough Council for major housing adaptations and equipment – 01234 718006

Occupational Therapy as a career

For information about routes into Occupational Therapy, please visit the Royal College of Occupational Therapists website.

Work Experience opportunities

For further details about work experience placements please click on the link our Trust website.

Provision of Equipment

If equipment provision has been identified through an assessment, this may be issued on loan to facilitate a safe discharge home. Please note that not all equipment can be provided whilst in hospital and your Occupational Therapist will offer advice, useful numbers and direct patients to self-purchase items for themselves.

Returning Equipment

If you have hospital equipment on loan to you that you no longer need, you can request a free collection from BLMK Medequip Community Equipment Service. Telephone: 0333 091 7763 or email blmk@medequip-uk.com.

Occupational Therapy Promotional videos with thanks to BLMK AHP Faculty

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