Handmade bobble hats donated to Royal Oldham Hospital postnatal ward

Sam Wheelan, Patient Experience Midwife at Royal Oldham Hospital and Emma Radcliffe, Healthwatch Rochdale Community Project worker

Handmade bobble hats have been donated to Royal Oldham’s Postnatal ward as a result of Healthwatch Rochdale’s facilitation of Rochdale User Carer Forum.

Samantha Whelan, the patient experience midwife at The Royal Oldham Hospital was invited by Healthwatch Rochdale to give a talk at The User Carer Forum following the publication of Healthwatch Rochdale’s maternity report.

The talk involved details of a new initiative known as the traffic light system to ensure new-born babies receive the right level of care. Hats with a green bobble mean no concerns, an amber bobble means some concerns because baby is premature or needs help with feeding and a red bobble means the baby is under close observation.

Dorothy Forshaw, a member of the User Carer Forum, heard the talk and decided to use her knitting hobby for a good cause and her hard work resulted in twelve handmade bobble hats for the hospital.

Samantha Wheelan, patient experience midwife at Royal Oldham Hospital, said “I would just like to say that we were very grateful for the kind donation of hats that we received from Dorothy.

I am sure they will be put to good use for our safety initiative but also provide our parents with a treasured keepsake of their first day of life.”

Kate Jones, Healthwatch Rochdale chief executive officer, said “The User Carer Forum is a great way for professionals and local service users to come together to discuss what is happening in local services. The donation of handmade bobble hats by a member of the user carer forum demonstrates the positive outcomes these groups can produce and is a great example of the public and professionals working together to help public services like the NHS”