Hat's enough!

It's over – after six months of dedicated knitting by people from all over the world, our Midwives are calling time for now on our incredibly successful baby bobble hat appeal.

The Bath Birthing Centre at the Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust (RUH) is bursting at the seams with bags of the colour coded hats, so for the time being we're saying thank you very much – but no more please.

Rachel Coleman, Practice Development Sister, said: "We're really grateful to all of the hard-working knitters and crocheters who have been so very generous with their time, skill and wool. Thank you to everyone who was part of this wonderful response – we're stunned at the number of hats that have arrived."

The Bath Birthing Centre originally asked for around 5,000 hats to help ensure that babies receive the individual care they need.

Our social media appeal went viral with knitters aged from 9 to 94 involved, sending hats from 160 different locations and from countries including USA, Portugal, Spain, UK and Ireland.

The white hats, with red, amber or green bobbles, give a traffic-light indication to midwifery staff about a baby's care. A green bobble means a baby is term, warm and feeding well. Amber indicates a baby needs a little more help with feeding and keeping warm. Red shows a baby will have regular observations by a nurse or midwife.

Rachel Coleman said: "Babies still receive traditional midwifery care, but this is an extra visual aid. The hats make a real difference in further improving the quality of care we provide and we are extremely grateful for every hat donated.

"Our appeal really caught the imagination of knitters across the world. We now have enough hats for our babies for a while to come, and we are running out of space to store them! The hats are in use at the RUH and some will be sent to Gambia later this year."

"Thank you to everyone who supported this appeal – if more hats are required we won't hesitate to ask".

ENDS

Notes to Editor:

• The Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust provides acute treatment and care for a catchment population of around 500,000 people in Bath, and the surrounding towns and villages in North East Somerset and Western Wiltshire. The hospital provides healthcare to the population served by four Clinical Commissioning Groups: Bath & North East Somerset CCG, Wiltshire CCG, Somerset CCG and South Gloucestershire CCG.
• The Trust has 759 beds and a comprehensive range of acute services including medicine and surgery, services for women and children, accident and emergency services, and diagnostic and clinical support services.
• In 2015 The Royal United Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust was acquired the Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases (RNHRD) NHS Foundation Trust. The RNHRD treats patients from across the country offering services in rheumatology, chronic pain, chronic fatigue syndrome/ME, cancer related fatigue and fatigue linked to other long term conditions such as multiple sclerosis.
• The RUH is changing - we have an exciting programme of redevelopment underway transforming our site and further improving the services we provide. The Trust is now working towards building a purpose built RNHRD and Therapies Centre and a new Dyson Cancer Centre. For more details visit: www.ruh.nhs.uk/fit4future

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