Charitable Funds Committee approves projects at April 2021 meeting

The Charitable Funds Committee agreed to fund two projects at its most recent meeting, one for Care of the Elderly and the other for the Cancer Advice Service.

The charitable funds Committee meets regularly to review projects submitted for funding from the Trusts Charitable Funds, projects of a value over £5,000 automatically go to the committee for review along with any deemed unusual by the Exec Team. The committee reviews multiple proposals at its meetings, not all are approved, some a rejected as inappropriate, others may be differed pending additional information. 

Below is an outline of each project approved by the committee at this meeting;

Project name                 Specialist Chairs for Patients

Department/ward        Care of the Elderly

Charitable Fund            Elderly Medicine Wards

Project description       

The aim of this project is to acquire 33 hight adjustable and 10 rise and recline chairs for Care of the Elderly wards across the Trust.

There is evidence that immobility in hospital leads to deconditioning, loss of functional ability and cognitive impairment, all of which have the potential to increase a patient’s length of stay.  The evidence suggests that up to 65 per cent of older patients experience decline in function during hospitalisation. Loss of muscle strength can begin quickly (within hours in some cases). For a person who, before admission, was managing to stand from a chair or get on and off the toilet, even a small amount of muscle strength loss can be life-changing.

When a person with limited mobility wishes to get up and mobilise, often it requires two members of staff to assist them to get out of an ordinary chair or bed. Not only does this limit the patient’s mobility to when staff are able to assist them, it also limits their independence on a ward.  Chairs that are properly adjusted to the height of the patient or are of a riser recliner type reduce the need for staff intervention and ensure that they are able to mobilise, with care, and walk around.

Project name                 Continuation of Benefits Support Service within Cancer patient Services Centre       

Department/ward        Cancer Advice and Support Service (Rise Above cancer)

Charitable Fund            Rise Above Cancer

Project description       

This was a retrospective approval of a project that had already commenced by the time of the committee meeting.

The Cancer Advice Centre provides benefits advice to cancer patients and their families through the work of 2 dedicated Benefits Advisors, the advice is tailored to meet the needs of cancer patients.

This retrospective approval was to continue funding of the roles until march 2022. Discussions are being held with Sunderland City Council over the funding of this service beyond March 2022.

Retrospective approval is sought where a project has already commenced or taken place. This process is only used where projects need approval outside of normal committee meetings and can not wait, it is used vary rarely. At the time the project must gain the agreement of a quorum of the committee via email, which is then ratified as a retrospective approval at the next full committee meeting.