Visitors to wards and clinical departments at Hull Royal Infirmary are being asked to wear face masks from today to protect patients from winter illnesses.

Staff in all clinical areas of the hospital will be wearing face masks after an increase in patients admitted to hospital with flu, diarrhoea and vomiting and Norovirus over the past week.

Dr Debbie Wearmouth, Infection Doctor at Hull University Teaching Hospitals, said: “We are asking visitors to wear masks in wards, clinics and clinical departments to help us protect our patients, already vulnerable through illness and injury, so they don’t catch these potentially serious illnesses.

“We’ve been seeing an increasing number of patients with bugs, currently circulating in our communities, and some of them are very seriously ill, requiring critical care.

“Wearing masks when you come to Hull Royal Infirmary, either as a visitor or to attend appointments, will help us stop these infections spreading further.”

Dr Wearmouth is also urging people who are already ill or showing signs of flu, diarrhoea and vomiting or other respiratory illnesses not to come to hospital to visit patients.

“Coming here as a visitor when you’re ill means there’s a real risk that you’ll spread the illness you have to your loved one or friend – as well as to other patients nearby. It can also mean that you’ll spread it to our staff in the ward, meaning they can’t come to work to look after your relative or friend and that puts our services under pressure.

“So, we’re asking for your help and understanding – wear a face mask if you’re coming here to visit or attend an appointment and please stay away and not visit if you’re already ill until you feel better.”

If you are unwell with sickness and diarrhoea, please stay at home and avoid close contact with others for 48 hours after your symptoms clear, wash your hands with soap and water and don’t prepare food for others.

When she was diagnosed with a rare form of gynaecological cancer in 2015, Zowie Fussey from Ulceby, North Lincolnshire, could barely have imagined where she’d be ten years later on.

Zowie Fussey during her cancer treatment

The former administrative worker and then mum-of-two to Keaton and Martin was diagnosed with a granulosa cell tumour, a rare form of ovarian cancer, at the age of just 33. Zowie needed a radical hysterectomy and nine weeks of intensive chemotherapy at the Queen’s Centre, Castle Hill Hospital, in order to treat the disease.

But the ‘all clear’ wasn’t the only thing that Zowie was left with when she was finally discharged from the hospital’s care. Zowie had been so moved by the kindness and compassion shown to her while she was a patient of the Cottingham-based oncology unit that she now had a desire to give something back.

Driven by the care she’d received and her consultants’ determination to give her the best chance at life, she now wanted to pay that forward and promptly made a pact with herself: manage two years in remission, and train to become a nurse.

“I’m a firm believer in everything happens for a reason,” says Zowie.

“The staff at the Queen’s Centre were just brilliant. I knew from the start that my consultants, Mr Theo Giannopoulous and Dr George Bozas, were really rooting for me, they were going to do everything they could to get me through, and the Clinical Nurse Specialists were so supportive and reassuring throughout.

Zowie shares a bottle of bubbly with her cousin Jenna

“I received my treatment on Ward 30 and through the chemotherapy day unit, and all of the staff there; nurses, doctors, care assistants, volunteers, domestics; were just so kind. I expected a cancer centre to be a bit of a sad place, if I’m honest, but the staff were just so jolly and really helped to keep myself and my family positive.

“They allowed my family to attend appointments with me; my husband, my mum and my cousin Jenna; and this was so important to me, that not only could my family know what was happening, but that they were involved in my care journey too.

“No way did I expect to be sitting there laughing and joking while I was having my chemotherapy treatment, but that was all thanks to the environment the staff created for their patients, one of hope and positivity.

“The staff really made my cancer journey an experience which would shape my outlook on life and my future career, it was a gift in some ways, and one which I’m now hoping to use to give back to other patients and families with cancer.”

In 2017, Zowie landed a job working as a healthcare assistant at St Hugh’s Hospital in Grimsby, a role which gave her an ‘in’ into the world of healthcare and which she credits as having taught her the basics of good patient care.

But by 2019, Zowie had done some soul-searching and, staying true to her word, more than two years cancer-free, she began to research courses at the University of Hull so she could train to become a nurse.

“I wanted to be a nurse to help other people in the way that I’d been supported as a patient. While I worked placements in different hospital departments, I really knew that I wanted to become a research nurse and to give people the time, and the hope, that I ‘d been given.

Zowie says her family were a huge support

“Many years ago, I worked in an admin role in a research team, and during my cancer treatment, I would often be wheeled past the clinical trials office in the Queen’s Centre and be curious about what they did in there. The more I thought about it, the more I knew that this was the area I wanted to work in.”

Zowie started her nurse training in September 2019, studying all through the Covid pandemic, and qualified in the summer of 2022 thanks to a combination of campus-based study, remote learning, hospital placements and a dissertation on oncology research.

Having studied beauty therapy while in between jobs, she went back to volunteer at a number of Look Good, Feel Better sessions, held at the Queen’s Centre, which offer help to manage the physical effects of cancer treatment; a service she had benefited from herself as a hospital patient.

Zowie is loving her new role as a cancer research nurse

Zowie continued to top up her clinical experience at local NHS hospitals and St Hugh’s while studying for her nursing degree, then joined St Hugh’s as a staff nurse once she qualified. Then when the opportunity came up to join the academic oncology and haematology research team at Castle Hill, Zowie jumped at the chance.

“I didn’t get the job first time,” she says. “I was really disappointed, but at the same time, it made me more determined than ever to secure a place in the team. I asked Tania, the senior research nurse manager of the academic oncology and haematology trials unit, what else I could do or what extra training I needed to stand a better chance next time, then I went off and did it. So when another job came up towards the end of last year, I really hoped it was my time to shine.”

Now aged 43, and 10-years cancer-free, Zowie is eight weeks into her new role as a clinical research nurse working within the Queen’s Centre’s academic oncology and haematology research team. Her role will involve supporting eligible patients into research trials for new cancer treatments, including medications or vaccines, with a view to prolonging and/or improving patients’ quality of life.

“My new team has been so friendly and welcoming, it feels like I’ve been here forever,” Zowie says.

“I’ve bumped into a few people already who I recognise from my days as a patient, who looked after me on the ward, and often they remember me too; one nurse, Emma, even remembered the ‘thank you’ bracelet I gave her. It’s amazing to think that, of all the patients these people must see, week in week out, that you can still have an impact on them in the same way they impact on you.

“It’s a real privilege to be in this role now. I know I’m a small cog in a big wheel but we’re all working to improve outcomes for our patients. Some areas of nursing can be incredibly pressurised, but the research role will allow me the time to get to know my patients, to provide that extra care and compassion, and that means everything to me.”

It was originally set up to deliver faster access to diagnostic tests usually carried out in hospitals.

Now Hull’s £18m Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC), based on Albion Street, is working with a growing number of GP practices to offer routine blood tests more quickly too.

Hull’s Community Diagnostic Centre on Albion Street

A two-week pilot project with four local surgeries launched in October, through which phlebotomy staff in the CDC took participating patients’ bloods in place of the practices’ own phlebotomy teams. This working arrangement proved a success, with some patients who may otherwise have been waiting two weeks or more for blood tests in the surgery having accessed the same tests the same day, or within 24 hours, at the CDC.

As a result, the offer to take patients’ bloods on behalf of GP practice teams has been extended out to more surgeries across Hull and the East Riding.

Currently, 18 surgeries are now offering their patients the choice to have routine blood tests performed at the CDC if they choose to do so, including Burnbrae Surgery on Holderness Road, which is run by the Haxby Group, and their three other practices in Newington, Kingswood and Orchard Park.

Haxby Group General Manager, Karen Phillips, says the move makes perfect sense for patients:

“Demands on general practice are always high, including requests for blood tests as these are usually the first and most common step in helping to either identify health problems or rule them out.

“Having to wait for tests, or to wait to find out everything is okay, can be incredibly stressful for some patients. When we heard that the CDC was able to offer blood tests for our patients in this way, we jumped at the chance to use the additional capacity within the CDC and enable our patients to receive their blood tests more quickly.

“This is a choice, of course, so if patients prefer to wait to be seen at their usual practice then that’s fine too, but if our patients would prefer to travel and have their tests carried out more quickly, it’s great for us to be able to offer that option.”

Based on the first floor, the CDC’s phlebotomy clinic runs five days per week, accepting referrals from consultants and hospital specialists as well as family doctors.

Senior sister Catherine Hellewell (second left), matron Julie Felllowes (right) and members of the phlebotomy team

In the past 12 weeks, more than 600 patients have taken up their GP’s offer of blood tests at the CDC, meaning any potential diagnosis and treatment will move along more quickly or they can otherwise have their minds put at rest.

And while demand varies from practice to practice, some in-house phlebotomy teams working in general practice can report waits of several weeks for a blood test, while the CDC currently has capacity to conduct the same test within a day or two.

Senior sister in phlebotomy, Catherine Hellewell, is responsible for blood testing within Hull’s Community Diagnostic Centre. She says:

“One of the main benefits of the CDC is being able to offer much more convenient access to routine tests such as blood tests, X-rays, MRI and ultrasound scans for our patients, away from the hospital sites.”

“Patients have been telling us from day one that they like the city centre location as most find it easy to get to, and by carrying out routine tests here, it frees up capacity within our hospital diagnostic services for the more seriously ill and emergency patients.

“At the moment, we don’t offer a walk-in service, so patients do need to be referred here, but we’ve been working hard to try and extend the range of specialists who can refer patients to us, and the growing number of GP practices who are now working with us is a great reflection of this.

“We know patients can get anxious waiting for tests so we’re pleased to be able to offer a helping hand to local practices who are all under a lot of pressure, and to help improve the overall experience for patients. It’s all about giving choice to local people and making the best of the health services we have system-wide.”

Between 6 October and 29 December 2025, a total of 628 patients have attended the CDC for blood tests from GP practices across Hull and the East Riding.

The full list of practices now actively referring patients to the CDC for blood test comprises:

• Wolseley Medical Centre, Hull
• Modality Partnership, Hull
• East Hull Family Practice
• Weir & Partners, Hull
• The Avenues Medical Centre, Hull
• King Street Medical Centre, Cottingham
• The Quays, Hull
• St Andrews Surgery, Hull
• Hastings Medical Centre, Hull
• The Bridge Group Practice, Hull
• Kingston Health, Hull
• Willerby and Swanland Surgery
• Haxby Group, Hull
• Sutton Manor Surgery, Hull
• Greengates Medical Group, Beverley
• Eastgate Medical Group, Hornsea
• Park View Surgery, Hessle
• Market Weighton Group Practice

A patient had his own Christmas song played to him during his operation in a bid to keep him relaxed.

John Dawson, 79, from Cowden near Hornsea, almost severed his fingers in a freak accident involving an angle grinder.

The guitarist, who’s played in the cover band Chapter Four for almost 60 years, was rushed to Hull Royal Infirmary where he underwent emergency surgery to save his hand.

John wrote a Christmas song during the pandemic called ‘Santa’s Still in Lockdown’, which the nurses played to him while he was having his operation. He sang along during the operation to try and calm him down.

John said: “I was using the angle grinder and the blade needed changing. I turned it off but it slipped and went across the back of my right hand. My wife called an ambulance and they blue-lighted me to hospital.

“They asked me if I would like some music on and to request a festive song. I said can you play ‘Santa’s Still in Lockdown’. They were surprised when I sang some of the lyrics and realised I had actually written it. It took my mind off the operation and the team was rocking a little when they could at the end.

“The paramedics and the Plastics Surgery Team were fantastic, I cannot thank them enough.”

The surgery means John should be able to play his guitar again in the future. He’s currently recovering well at home.

‘Santa’s Still in Lockdown’ has more than 26,000 streams and is available on a number of online platforms. John has previously appeared in local media.

Majid Al-Khalil was the surgeon who operated on John.

He said: “I remember it was a nasty injury. John was a really nice chap but he was nervous. We often do put music on to relax patients – it’s for everyone’s benefit really.

We’ve never put on a song that a patient wrote – that is very unusual! I’m pleased to hear that John is healing well.”

Hundreds of students from Hull and the East Riding were given an insight into the dangers of vaping at a special educational event at Hull Royal Infirmary today.

Professor Crooks begins his Christmas Lecture

Some teachers volunteered to carry out spirometry tests, used to measure lung function, to highlight the importance of good lung health.

Just three weeks after being constructed in the grounds of Hull Royal, our new temporary discharge lounge is now open to patients.

Here we are able to provide comfortable space for 30 patients who are ready to be discharged, freeing up space on our wards to admit new patients and helping to improve flow though the hospital.

Operations Director, Matt Overton, said: “The new Patient Discharge Lounge will enable patients to be transferred from the ward to a comfortable fit-for-purpose lounge while they await transport, releasing the bed on the ward promptly to enable the next patient to move up to the ward supporting better patient flow through the HRI site.

“This has been a large-scale project, with a fast turnaround, so thank you to the Site Management team, Discharge Care Group, the Estates, Capital and Facilities team, Security and the Digital team for all your hard work in bringing it together.”

With space for six trolleys, eight recliners and 16 chairs, another benefit of the new facility is that it is on the ground floor, rather than the Discharge Lounge’s previous home on H1 in the tower block.

Head of Patient Placement, Anne Broadhurst, explained: “As the lounge will be back on the ground floor, we hope that this will also speed up the process for our partners in the ambulance service who are tasked with collecting patients for their journey home.”

This temporary space will be in use until we are able to complete the construction of the planned new Lansdowne Building, which will house our permanent Discharge Lounge along with space for a Group-wide Care Coordination Centre – helping us to manage the demands at all five of our sites – alongside space for the Discharge team.

The third floor will provide space for our ED and Major Trauma consultants in much closer proximity to the department.

A hospital specialist in ageing and frailty has issued advice to help older people keep well and out of hospital this winter.

Dr Kirsten Richards, Consultant in the Department of Frailty and Ageing at Hull Royal Infirmary

Now, Dr Kirsten Richards, Consultant in the Department of Frailty and Ageing at NHS Humber Health Partnership, is encouraging older people and anyone caring for older relatives and neighbours to take steps to decrease the risk of them being admitted to hospital over the coming weeks.

A spokeswoman for NHS Humber Health Partnership said: “Our current NHS Oversight Framework (NOF) ratings rightly reflects the scale of the challenges we face. However, we also welcome the additional support it unlocks so we can accelerate clinically-led improvements already under way.

“Patient safety is at the centre of our improvement plan, the driving force behind all clinically-led changes, and its importance is underlined daily to staff at all five hospitals. Our Chiefs of Service, some of our most highly skilled and experienced doctors, are now integrated into our Senior Leadership Team, empowered to make decisions and allocate resources to deliver safe, effective care. The establishment of a Clinical Policy Group is also giving senior nurses, medical directors and clinical specialists a powerful, collective voice, ensuring clinical perspectives inform and direct every decision as we strive for excellence in patient care and patient safety.

“Operating theatre capacity is being maximised at all five hospitals as we tackle waiting lists and support for tertiary services – covering everything from neurosciences to major trauma to address the specific and often complex needs of our population – is being strengthened to allow these highly specialised services to thrive.”

Achieving a seamless health and social care system with Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board is central to the partnership’s improvement plan.

The spokeswoman said: “We’re working closely with community health providers so people receive the right care closer to home, avoiding unnecessary trips to our emergency departments, wherever possible.

“We’re also driving deeper coordination with local authorities so patients well enough to leave hospital can be discharged safely, with appropriate levels of support, so those who need hospital care can be admitted without delay.

“We are realistic about the scale of the challenges we face. Some changes are happening quickly – others will take more time.

“Our doctors, nurses, and healthcare professionals are highly skilled and deeply committed to providing the best possible care with the highest standards of patient safety. But to make lasting improvements, we must ensure their expertise is at the heart of how we lead and make decisions. That’s why we are working to strengthen and improve the services we deliver by empowering our experienced clinicians to deliver and shape the services our communities receive today and tomorrow.”