Hospital launches kitchen to assess elderly patients

A hospital has launched a specialised kitchen to see whether elderly patients can carry out every day tasks such as making a cup of tea.

Royal Stoke University Hospital’s staff will use the “therapy assessment kitchen” to help them decide if patients on the wards are ready to return home.

Occupational therapists will also use the kitchen to assess what type of support patients might need once they leave hospital.

Jen Murdoch, an advanced occupational therapist at Royal Stoke, said the kitchen would make a big difference to patients and would ensure they were safer once back home.

The kitchen will be used to see how patients fare with tasks that include making a drink or a snack.

The University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust’s charity has helped to provide equipment for the kitchen, as have local organisations.

Hospital teams have also tried to use the type of pottery that patients may have had in their kitchens in the past, said advanced occupational therapist Hannah Lewis.

Ms Lewis said that for many dementia patients “their strongest memories are their earlier memories”, and so using appropriate pottery could help them engage with a task.

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