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HUTT HOSPITAL

Published Friday 27 Jun 2014

The new TV will entertain patients waiting for their appointments.

The Upper Hutt Cosmopolitan Club donated the new flat-screen TV, worth about $1,000, which was switched on for the first time in the Plastics Outpatients Waiting Room this week.

Cossie Club Vice President Charlie Clayton says the donation was inspired by his own visit to the waiting room.

“I happened to be in the Burns and Plastics with my wife who was being treated by Swee Tan, and I noticed there was no TV there. I was there for a few hours, and I thought it was a bit silly they had one in [general] outpatients
but not where a lot of people seemed to be gathering and twiddling their thumbs.”

He remembered that the Cossie Club had donated the TV located in the General Outpatients waiting room downstairs, so he suggested that the Plastics Outpatients staff put in an application to the Club.

The application was quickly granted, but the new TV’s installation was met with a few hitches along the way.

The TV was installed in May, but the outside aerial was missing a connection, meaning no Freeview signal could be received. Electricians were called in to solve the problem.

Finally the electrics were sorted out and the new television was officially switched on.

Charlie was back at the waiting room with his wife this afternoon, where he saw the new TV in action for the first time. He said it was great to see the TV entertaining a young patient in the waiting room who said she’d been watching it since it was first switched on in the morning.

“That made me chuffed, to think that somebody was getting some appreciation out of straight away.”

The Clinical Nurse Manager for Plastics Outpatients, Susan Reay, says the new telly will help combat boredom, particularly for people waiting by themselves.

“If you’re with someone else you’ve got someone to talk to. If they’re on their own, it’s nice that they’ve got something to watch rather than looking at the walls.”

Previously they had played background music in the waiting room and patients relied on magazines for entertainment.

Susan said the department was thankful to the Cossie Club for making the new television possible.

For more information, contact Chloe Barnes, Communications Advisor, on 027 7047 811.