Exeter Forum helps to keep patients warm this winter

The Exeter Forum have donated bags of knitted woollen hats to the Emergency Department (ED) at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital to help warm up hypothermic patients this winter.

The Forum is a social group for active retired people who meet regularly in Exeter. Members of the Forum were keen to continue their support for the Emergency Department after they donated a large number of knitted Twiddlemuffs to help patients with Dementia earlier in the year.

They asked staff what else they needed and the ED team gratefully took up their kind offer by requesting a batch of warm knitted hats.

The hats will be used to help patients brought in by ambulance who are in the early stages of hypothermia. Hypothermia occurs when a person's body temperature drops below 35C and can quickly become life threatening. For patients suffering from hypothermia a woollen hat can make a big difference to their chances of survival by helping to prevent further heat loss.

Keen knitters from the Forum produced over 30 hats which will be used by the department over the winter period as the temperature drops.

Forum representatives Peter Burden and Zena Worters recently visited the department to deliver the hats to the ED team.

Peter Burden from the Exeter Forum said: “Although the Exeter Forum exists primarily to help its members stay active and alert in retirement through programmes of lectures and social activities, members are pleased to be able to give something back to the community when the opportunity arises, as it did on this occasion”.

Dr Gavin Lloyd, Consultant in Emergency Medicine, added: “ED staff were delighted to receive a bundle of woollen hats from this local knitting group. Led by Zena and Peter, the group have previously provided the ED with Twiddlemuffs. Paramedic crews will use the hats when transporting the many hypothermic patients to ED in winter.”

To find out more about The Exeter Forum please visit www.exeterforum.org