Award Praise For Leaflet

An information leaflet to improve the hospital experience for Muslim patients has won a prestigious West Yorkshire Modernisation Award.

Physiotherapy and chaplaincy staff at Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust teamed up to meet the health needs of the South Asian community and deliver services sensitive to cultural and religious needs.

They found that some of the treatments the physiotherapy suggested were not compatible with some of the Muslim religious and cultural beliefs.

They also found that some Muslim expectations of treatment differed to what the unit actually offers and that some patients think rehabilitation is unnecessary as they believe Allah will heal them.

Gill Fletcher, senior physiotherapist from the team, said: "Muslim chaplian Mohammed Arshad advised us that these beliefs were mainly driven by culture rather than religion - for example the religious teachings say that you should take measures to protect your health."

The two departments worked togehter to create the simple leaflet, which explains that Muslim patients are not compromising their religious beliefs by accepting treatment.

Mohammed Arshad said: "The leaflet raises staff awareness, but also really helps Mulsim patients because they often need to learn more about looking after their health from a religious point of view.

"It is wonderful that Islam is being recongnised in terms of healthcare, and we are hoping that the leaflet will be tailored to meet the needs of the rest of the Trust.

"It was great for the chaplaincy and physiotherapy teams to work together and work smarter. We didn't use any extra resources, just worked with each other to create a very effective solution to a problem we were facing."

The team were awarded £1,000 prize money at the ceremony at Leeds United Football Club, which will be ploughed back into the service.

Gill said: "It was so nice to see all of the hard work over the last 18 months being recognised and being publicised so we can share it with others across the Trust and outside of Bradford.

"With the prize money we hope to have the information put on CD or tape so patients can listen to it in their chosen language, because non-English speaking patients often prefer to hear speech rather than read a leaflet.

"We also hope to create training materials for staff and patients in the department, such as pictures of the prayer (Salah) positions which can be used to provide gentle exercises," she added.

The project was up against another Trust entry, also from the physiotherapy team.

The project, which aims to beat the anguish of long-term oain by getting patients to take part in a health needs assessment, was highly commended at the ceremony.

The aim of the assessment is to provide a better understanding between patients and clinicians, faster access to existing support, better information about reaching sources of support, and more control and confidence to manage pain and its consequences.