Patients
These pages contain information about what you can expect as an inpatient or outpatient at our hospitals
Active Hospitals
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Active Hospitals
The Active Hospitals project aims to get us talking about why moving more is important for our health.
Too little physical activity causes 1 in 6 UK deaths- the same as smoking! Moving more helps our physical and mental health, and reduces the risk of common conditions such as heart disease, cancer and dementia. Physical Activity includes anything that makes your heart beat a little faster, makes you feel a little warmer, and breathe a little faster. This could include dancing around the kitchen, walking the dog, pushing a hoover, or going to an organised exercise class. Even a little bit more activity is beneficial- increasing from 10 to 20 minutes of moderate exercise a week, can significantly affect your life expectancy. (Moderate exercise means that you can talk but not sing). Every little helps- start small and build up!
Physical activity:
- Improves your mental well being and mood: can help manage day to day worries.
- Helps you sleep better, giving you more energy in the day.
- Helps control excess weight gain.
- Improves the fitness of your heart and lungs to help you to do your daily activities
- Helps prevent blood pressure problems.
Long periods of time-spent sitting down can affect your health in a number of ways, and raise the risk of many common health conditions. Make sure that you get up regularly, and move about for a few minutes.
Try to use your muscles to do heavy work at least twice a week. This could include activities such as carrying heavy shopping, gardening, or pushing a buggy or a wheelchair.
Balance activities are important as we get older. Try getting up from a chair without holding the arms, or visit Balance exercises - NHS (www.nhs.uk) for ideas.
Keep Moving Sheet
The Keep Moving Sheet has been designed by the Patient Partnership Group, the Active Hospitals project, and physiotherapists. It has information on why staying active in hospital is important, and chair and bed exercises to try. Before doing these exercises: seek advice if you have been told not to move a limb, if you have an exercise sheet from a physiotherapist, or if you have been told to be careful or to avoid exercising. During the exercises- stop and seek advice if the movement causes a lot of pain, pins or needles or loss of feeling, chest pain, severe breathlessness, sudden rapid palpitations, irregular heartbeat, dizziness or sudden change in vision.
NUH Arts Trails project 2023
Need to take a break? Want to get moving? Want to learn about our arts collection? Take a trip around our arts trails, available at the QMC and City Hospital.
This project is a collaboration between Arts at NUH and Active Hospitals, kindly funded by Arts Council England and Nottingham Hospitals Charity.
If you have any queries or would like more information please email artstrails@nuh.nhs.uk.
To download the maps, view art works on the trail and download activities visit this page: Arts Trails | NUH.
You can also read the End Project Report Arts Trails.docx [docx] 2M.
Physical Activities in communities local to our hospital
Nottingham and Nottinghamshire
Get Out Get Active (GOGA) | Ask Lion - Nottingham City Directory
Getting active in Nottinghamshire | Nottinghamshire County Council
Best Foot Forward | Walking for Health
Want to try nature-based activities? | nottinghamcvs.co.uk
Leaflets:
Nottingham City activity offers.pptx [pptx] 129KB
Derby and Derbyshire
https://www.activederbyshire.org.uk/activities
https://www.communitydirectoryderbyshire.org.uk/
https://caya-apps.derbyshire.gov.uk/Synergy/SynergyWeb/Community_Directory_For_Families/
Leicester and Leicestershire
Active Leicester | Active Together (active-together.org)
https://www.active-together.org/getactive
our local Physical Activity, Sport & Health Team | Active Together (active-together.org)
Staying Active Clinical Pathways
Staying Active Clinical pathways
(Physical activity guidelines - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Children with diabetes
Children with diabetes can learn to manage their diabetes while exercising, with the support of their medical team. Physical activity can help manage excess weight gain, and prevent blood pressure problems. It is important for blood glucose to be monitored carefully, so speak to your medical team about this. There are lots of resources to support physical activity online, including those below.
Activities for kids - Healthier Families - NHS (www.nhs.uk)
Young People staying active | Active Notts
Activities | This Girl Can with Nottingham City Council (nottsgirlscan.co.uk)
www.nhs.uk/live-well/healthy-weight/overweight-children-advice-for-parents
Moving About | Staying Healthy | Health for Kids
Adults with fatty liver disease: outpatients
Physical activity, along with eating a well-balanced diet, and managing your weight, is one of the main treatments for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Talk to your medical team about how to exercise safely. There are lots of resources to support physical activity online, including those below.
Physical activity and exercise - British Liver Trust
Sitting exercises - NHS (www.nhs.uk)
Chair-based pilates video workout - NHS (www.nhs.uk)
10-minute workouts - NHS (www.nhs.uk)
Fitness Studio exercise videos - NHS (www.nhs.uk)
https://weareundefeatable.co.uk/
Get active - Better Health - NHS (www.nhs.uk)
Get Active | Activity Alliance | Disability Sports
Love activity, Hate exercise? (csp.org.uk)
Adults with liver disease: inpatients
Being in hospital can mean that people spend a lot of time in bed, but this can make recovery difficult. Being active on the ward is important, and may help you to get home sooner. Speak to your medical team about things to try while you are in hospital and when you return home.
Physical activity and exercise - British Liver Trust
Sitting exercises - NHS (www.nhs.uk)
Chair-based pilates video workout - NHS (www.nhs.uk)
10-minute workouts - NHS (www.nhs.uk)
Fitness Studio exercise videos - NHS (www.nhs.uk)
https://weareundefeatable.co.uk/
Get active - Better Health - NHS (www.nhs.uk)
Get Active | Activity Alliance | Disability Sports
Love activity, Hate exercise? (csp.org.uk)
Women with diabetes
Physical activity for women with gestational diabetes can help manage blood glucose (sugar) level, and could prevent, reduce, or delay the need for ongoing medication post-natally. Speak to your medical team about how to exercise safely. If you haven’t been active before, start small and build up. Online resources can help; try visiting some of the websites below.
Fit for the Future | WE HAVE MOVED! www.thepogp.co.uk (csp.org.uk)
Physical activity guidelines: pregnancy and after childbirth - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Prenatal and postnatal yoga video - NHS (www.nhs.uk)
Couch to 5K advice: https://youtu.be/J2gpeY-5zIU
Campus Walks
Sunshine Walks
These maps show the routes of City Hospitals Sunshine Walking routes. These walks were originally developed by physiotherapists for one of their patients with Cystic Fibrosis.
The patient, nicknamed ‘Little Miss Sunshine’, recognised the importance of exercise and was keen to remain active even when unwell. Whilst she was an inpatient numerous walking routes for her around the City Hospital Campus were developed to increase her physical activity.
Physiotherapists (Fiona Haynes and Eleanor Douglas) have mapped three of these routes, and worked with Estates and the Patient Partnership Group to ensure the walks are clearly marked and accessible by wheelchair users, so that other people can enjoy them. Way marking the routes is a collaboration between NUH physiotherapists, Nottingham Hospitals Charity and the Active Hospitals project. Nottingham Hospitals Charity have funded the way markers and map boards at three hospital entrances to promote the walks.
By sharing these maps we want to encourage patients, staff and visitors to increase their physical activity while visiting our hospital, or at the end of a working day. We aim to promote the value of walking, and to ensure that “Little Miss Sunshines” s legacy lives on through the walks name.
You can view the Sunshine Maps here: Sunshine Maps - all routes[pdf] 693KB