The Great Deeside Bake Off: Hospital opens new rehabilitation kitchen to prepare patients going home

27/10/2023

Patients on two wards at Deeside Community Hospital have a newly refurbished kitchen to help them become independent in order for them to be able to go home. 

The kitchen will be used as part of therapy sessions encouraging patients to make hot drinks, snacks and hot meals, as well as by the new Baking Club. This will help Occupational Therapists to assess patients and see how they will cope once they are home, and decide what further support they may need.   

Fiona Moss, Occupational Therapist Team Lead, said: “The kitchen helps our patients' do their day-to-day activities that they will need to be able to do at home. It will help with their independence, cognitive skills, confidence as well as boost their mental well-being whilst in hospital. 

“We use it to establish if they are able to sequence tasks and also to ascertain if there are any safety concerns. This gives us the opportunity to assess our patients in an environment similar to their own home, to see what level of support they may need following discharge.” 

The kitchen is called ‘Dorothy’s Kitchen’ as it was largely funded from the estate of the late Dorothy Hall. The fundraising campaign was started by Fiona and Jan Williams, Matron of Deeside Community Hospital.  

They managed to raise over £10,000 to develop the kitchen with other donations and support gratefully received from Flint Lions, Deeside Round Table, Shotton Community Council and Deeside League of Friends.  

Dorothy’s Kitchen includes equipment which suits all patients with both an electric and gas cooker/hob, as well as a rise and fall sink unit so that patients in a wheelchair can be assessed. 

Thanks to the new kitchen the Stroke Rehabilitation Unit has started a Baking Club for its patients as part of a new therapy session, with Asda in Queensferry donating items for patients to use. 

Jennifer Hanna, Stroke Specialist Occupational Therapist, said: “The feedback from our patients has been extremely positive. The rehabilitation kitchen will be a big resource for occupational therapy staff to assess and work with our patients, identifying what we can do to further help them in their stroke rehabilitation and recovery.  

“We’ve been able to set up a baking group for our patients to be able to incorporate something they can enjoy into their therapy sessions. We would like to thank our local Asda in Queensferry for the trolley full of baking goods for our patients to use.”