The Serenity Suite is one successfully funded element of the ‘Serenity Appeal’ – a campaign to improve and bolster maternity bereavement services across Doncaster Royal Infirmary (DRI) and Bassetlaw Hospital.

Prior to the creation of the suite, there was no private, specialised area at DRI for families to grieve the loss of their baby. 

The Serenity Suite aims to provide a private and comforting environment where families can find solace, process their grief, and create cherished memories with their precious babies. This facility has been meticulously designed to meet the unique needs of families experiencing baby loss, offering privacy, empathy, and specialised care.

To read more about the Serenity Appeal, click here.

As part of the Education Department’s annual activities, the ‘We Care into the Future’ event is a large and important opportunity to interact with the young people of Doncaster.

The event consists of several schools visiting a venue at which there is a ‘care pathway’ simulation (from A&E to discharge). After the simulation, pupils can visit the various stands held by all the departments across the Trust: from wards and outpatient departments to legal and corporate areas.

This annual event draws crowds of up to hundreds of pupils and teachers and vastly improves the relationship between education and healthcare locally, prompting students to consider a career in the NHS that would suit them. This in turn benefits future recruitment figures for the Trust, as well as continuing to be one of the biggest employers in the city.

2023 was the first year the event was extended to the students of Bassetlaw!

A focus of our charity is supporting our amazing colleagues across Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals. An example of this is our famous tea trolley which is supported by our Health & Wellbeing Team at the trust. The team alongside some of our senior leadership team, visit as many departments and wards as they can to deliver a much deserved cup of tea.

Whilst this may seem small, this gesture goes a long way and is massively appreciated by staff.

 “It was amazing to have just a few minutes away from the department doing something really fun like this. It really improved my mood for the day and it was nice to laugh with my colleagues for a while. This small gesture goes a long way. Thank you.”

– A colleague from the Emergency Department

With your help, we can continue to fund projects like this to support and care for the people who work day in and day out to care for our loved ones. To find out how you can help us make a difference, visit our charity website www.dbthcharity.co.uk

In June 2020, we asked our colleagues how we could best use donations received due to Covid-19 and colleagues asked for an outdoor space where they could relax colleagues at Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals (DBTH) started to fundraise with an ambition to create two beautiful spaces in honour of those affected by COVID-19, in particular in memory of the colleagues we sadly lost.

Our ambition was to raise £35,000 to develop two gardens at Bassetlaw Hospital (bottom row) and Doncaster Royal Infirmary (top row) but with the support of local businesses and individuals who donated throughout the pandemic we raised over £50,000.

Both gardens officially opened in 2021 and now provide a tranquil space for colleagues and patients.

Following on from the Covid-19 pandemic and the tireless efforts from our incredible colleagues across the trust throughout the last couple of years, we identified that there was a need to provide colleagues the opportunity to undertake team building exercises, away from the workplace environment.

In August last year, we launched a team building fund which provides colleagues the opportunity to apply for funds towards an activity focusing on wellbeing, coming together as a team, and to discuss objectives and working together.

To date, we have funded 66 workshops for various teams across the trust. From pottery painting, to creating decorations for the home, to axe throwing, to escape rooms, here are just some of our wonderful teams who have utilised the funding.

A team of nurses from our Paediatric Diabetes Team used the funding to visit Twisted Knot and said “Our team building day provided an opportunity to strengthen our bond further. It was a fab day which was immensely fun, productive and essential to make us all realise how important we are for each other and how each member is a crucial and essential member – a piece of the jigsaw.

Team building is not just about doing an activity together or attending a course but most importantly talking to each other and realising how well we work together and how we care and trust each other”

As part of our Raise a Smile appeal which focuses on raising funds to care for our colleague’s mental health and wellbeing, Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals Charity launched a series of random acts of kindness days to help us recognise our hard-working colleagues and boost morale during difficult times.

Our random acts of kindness varied from handing out thousands of pieces of cake and free cups of tea during the NHS Big Tea, a bag of pick ‘n’ mix, our Christmas Advent Calendar Draw where we gifted a range of prizes from Echo Dots, to days out to coffee machines throughout December to our roaming tea trolley which visits wards when they are under pressure to ensure they are well looked after and hydrated.

If you are a local company and can support our random acts of kindness days by sponsoring a day or donating a gift, we would welcome your support. Please get in touch with our Charity Team on dbth.charity@nhs.net

The care that bereaved families receive in hospital following the death of a relative is crucial. These experiences may be remembered by parents for the rest of their lives, and bad experiences are likely to exacerbate feelings of pain and grief for bereaved families, potentially for many years to come. Small details can mean a great deal to recently bereaved families, and the environment in which care is delivered is of particular importance.

We were honoured to provide funding to create a dedicated bereavement suite on our emergency department at Doncaster Royal Infirmary to provide a holistic, caring space for families to spend their final hours with their loved ones but also to show recognition and thanks to one of our ED Staff Nurses who sadly passed away to Covid-19, by naming the room after her; the Butterfield Suite.

With the help of DFS who donated soft furnishings and decorations for the suite, we were able to transform an unused space.

The charity was delighted to support a new CT Scanner Suite at Bassetlaw to commission Keane Creative to undertake bespoke artwork to help aide patient distraction and enhance the environment using art and design in the inpatient waiting area and scan room.  Patients can at times be on a CT scanner for up to thirty minutes for some procedures and it’s important they are as relaxed as possible.

Sara Elliott, Head of Radiology at Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals (DBTH), said, “We have been delighted to take delivery of a new CT scanner and MRI unit at Bassetlaw Hospital in March, both of which will help us to provide the best possible care to our patients.  The new units will help us to enhance and improve local radiology for the over 18,000 patients who use this service each and every year.

“We want to thank Keane Creative who have been commissioned by Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals Charity to create bespoke artwork within the CT Suite. A CT scan can sometimes take up to 30 minutes, and this wonderful wall art helps to create an interesting, stimulating and comforting distraction for patients while they undergo their procedure.  This addition has only been made possible by the kind donations sent to the hospital by our local communities, businesses and organisations.”