Pennine Acute Hospitals Charity: thanks for nearly £1m in donations!

The Pennine Acute Hospitals Charity

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The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust received £931,000 through donations to its registered charity during the last financial year, 2011/12.

The Trust which runs Rochdale Infirmary, Fairfield General Hospital in Bury, North Manchester General Hospital, The Royal Oldham Hospital and services at Birch Hill, operates a registered charity and fundraising arm called The Pennine Acute Hospitals Charity (registration no. 1050197).

Patients and their families, local organisations and the public in general make donations to the Trust’s charity for many different reasons. Sometimes it is to thank staff for the treatment to them or their family or relatives, sometimes to support a service or department generally, and sometimes to help remember a relative who worked for, or was associated to the Trust.

Of the £931,000 in total income the charity received last year, £419,000 was through donations, £363,000 through legacies, and £149,000 through investment income.

Last year the charity spent £716,000 on patients’ amenities, £98,000 on staff education and welfare, and £112,000 on research. The majority of expenditure has been spent on medical equipment for a range of wards and departments across all the Trust’s hospitals.

The Charitable Funds Annual Accounts and Annual Report 2011/12 were approved by the Trust’s Endowment Committee on 11th September 2012.

Tim Pickstone, Chair of the Endowment Committee and Non Executive Director of the Trust, said: “The Pennine Acute Hospitals Charity values the support that local people, and Trust staff, give throughout the year. The valuable additional patient amenities that fundraising supports make considerable differences to the quality of service our patients receive.

“We would like to express our sincere thanks for all the generous donations received over the last year and the charitable work undertaken by individuals and organisations. We have close links with individual hospital Leagues of Friends, the WRVS, hospital radios and other voluntary organisations, of which there are many.

“Charitable donations contribute greatly, enhancing the services that we are able to provide across the Trust, and the Trust and charity benefits significantly from the work and contribution of volunteers across all hospitals who give up their time freely to assist in the services provided.”

Each hospital within the Trust is well sustained by the local communities it serves and they work hard to raise money for wards and departments.

Rochdale Infirmary and Birch Hill Hospital

The Think Floyd Appeal which was set up in memory of Jill Desser, a former patient on the Floyd rehabilitation unit, helped to refurbish a courtyard area for the use by patients, relatives and carers. Items of medical equipment have also been bought.

Fairfield General Hospital

The hospital benefited from a donation to the programmed investigation unit (PIU) following a sponsored run in the Manchester 10k.

The Royal Oldham Hospital

The In Your Hands Appeal which aims to raise £200,000 for the new women and children’s supercentre, due to open at the hospital in December 2012, has had over £100,000 pledged. Vinci Construction, the main contractor for the development, has been working with MedEquip4Kids to raise £50,000 for the appeal.

Other significant donations for In Your Hands Appeal include:

£8,000 from the Woman of Oldham Committee,
£20,000 pledged from Housing Units of Hollinwood
£3,000 from Trust staff undertaking a sponsored sky dive
£717 from the Trust’s IM&T department who dressed up for a Christmas calendar
£5,000 from Liquid and Envy nightclub in Oldham
£1,500 from Andy Urbaniak who cycled from Land’s End to John O’Groats on a bicycle he bought from a jumble sale

The Victoria Breast Unit at the hospital celebrated the opening of its extension, following fundraising by the Link4Pink appeal. The initial target to raise £60,000 for a conservatory extension was superseded as they raised £190,000, to allow a bright and airy waiting area extension to be built. Events held during the year to raise money for Link4Pink included a family fun day at Royton Cricket Club, an Ascot ladies day at Crompton and Royton Golf Club and a sponsored walk around Hollingworth Lake in Littleborough.

The family of Billy Cooney, who was killed in a car accident, raised £18,400 as a thank you to The Royal Oldham Hospital’s A&E department, for the care that Billy received there.

The Royal Oldham Hospital League of Friends donated £2,200 to buy three wheelchairs to help patients move around the hospital site. The Friends also launched an appeal to raise £30,000 to buy a new Royal Rover minibus to transport patients, visitors and staff around the hospital grounds.

North Manchester General Hospital

Sick children at North Manchester General Hospital had a reason to smile after a local church group donated more than £400 of brand new toys and games. Members of the Stream Evangelical and Charismatic Church in Manchester bought the new toys with money from their weekly collections and visited the children’s ward to hand out the gifts. The toys will remain on the unit so all the children can benefit.

ISS Facilities Healthcare, the cleaning contractors at the Trust have held family fun days on all the hospital sites to raise money for the Trust charity.

For more information or to donate to The Pennine Acute Hospitals Charity, visit online at www.pat.nhs.uk or email charity@pat.nhs.uk or contact the Trust’s charitable fundraising manager, Jan Bolton, on 0161 918 4497.