Royal Papworth Hospital

02/11/2025

Our thoughts are with everyone affected by the incident last night on the train at Huntingdon.

Thanks to donors from across the country, we were able to supply 40 units of blood, including 20 units of O negative – the blood type used in emergencies to the hospital treating those injured. We are grateful to all colleagues working this weekend who were able to respond so quickly.

Stocks of O negative, B negative and RO blood are currently running low. We urgently need more donors with these blood types to book appointments in for the coming days and weeks. If you don’t already know your blood type – give blood and find out.

Currently we have over 62,000 appointments available to fill over the next six weeks in our 28 donor centres across major towns and cities as we approach the busy winter period.

Please book now at www.blood.co.uk or by downloading the NHS Give Blood app.

31/10/2025

A decade of performing a pioneering lung procedure 🫁

We are celebrating 10 years since performing our first balloon pulmonary angioplasty (BPA), a pioneering procedure for patients with a rare form of pulmonary hypertension.

It was October 2015 when our teams performed the first BPA procedure. Then in 2018 we were commissioned by the NHS to become the national centre for this treatment – a role we continue to hold today.

BPA is a minimally invasive alternative for patients with chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH), who are unsuitable for surgery.

During this procedure, a cardiologist inserts a very fine wire into blood vessels in the lungs and guides a tiny balloon into position. The balloon is inflated, to around the size of a pea, for a few seconds to push the blockage aside and restore blood flow to the lung tissue.

The balloon is then deflated and removed. This can be repeated several times in different parts of the lung during a single treatment session.

The procedure usually involves multiple treatment sessions, each lasting up to two hours, spaced four to six weeks apart.

Over the last decade we've treated more than 220 patients and carried out more than 600 BPA procedures.

Congratulations and thank you to all our teams involved in providing our BPA service over this time, benefitting patients across the UK. 💙

NHS England

30/10/2025

Celebrating the everyday extraordinary ✨

We believe our people's kindness, teamwork and dedication deserves recognition and Laudit helps make that possible.

Our award-winning positive incident reporting platform makes it easy for our staff to recognise one another’s achievements with just a few simple clicks.

Every Laudit shared helps to spread positivity, boost morale, and strengthen the supportive culture that makes our hospital such a special place to work. 🏥 🫶🏼

In August alone, 347 Laudits were sent across the Trust - an incredible show of appreciation.

Each recipient was automatically entered into our monthly prize draw, and five lucky winners were selected at random. 🍀

Congratulations to all our winners, including:

💙 Halle, Phlebotomist

💙 Kiaran, Learning and Development Coordinator

💙 Michelle, Ward Sister, Enhanced Recovery Unit

Find out what inspires our winners, the best advice they’ve received, and what they love most about being part of Royal Papworth here:
🔗 https://royalpapworth.nhs.uk/our-hospital/latest-news/congratulations-our-august-2025-laudit-winners

27/10/2025

Celebrating Beryl's 100th birthday and our wonderful charity 🎂

Happy birthday to Beryl who marked her 100th birthday in style recently, raising money for Royal Papworth Hospital Charity.

Fourteen years on from heart surgery at Royal Papworth, she's never forgotten the care she received.

Happy birthday to Beryl and thank you to everyone involved in providing such excellent care for our patients. 💙

23/10/2025

Experiencing our heart and lung hospital overnight 🌙

Our chief executive Eilish Midlane recently spent a night shift on critical care as part of her latest set of invites from departments and teams around the trust.

Reflecting on her visit, Eilish said: “It was a great opportunity to experience the hospital overnight and also gave me a chance to chat to staff and patients about a whole range of issues.

“As you’d expect, the patient feedback was exceptionally positive, and it made me really proud of everyone working here and what we achieve together.

“From a staff perspective, they were keen to express their pride in what they delivered but also how they enjoy working with really supportive colleagues.

“They described the impact of the cost of living on their choices and the importance of being listened to as well as being heard. They also expressed a desire to see more development opportunities.

“All in all, it gave me a great deal of insight and lots of things to think about.”

As we continue through the autumn, Eilish will be taking up invites to spend time with other teams around the trust, both at our hospital and our admin hub at Kingfisher House in Huntingdon too. 💙

21/10/2025

From major heart and lung surgery to the open road 🚴🏻‍♂️

Just months after undergoing his third surgery in three years, 25-year-old Adam from Chelmsford completed the 55-mile London to Brighton cycle ride – alongside the surgeon who helped save his life.

Back in 2022, Adam was diagnosed with a lung tumour and a rare heart condition known as a unicuspid aortic valve.

This led to three surgeries at Royal Papworth Hospital, including open-heart surgery in March 2025.

But Adam didn’t just recover - he thrived.

Within weeks, he was back in the gym and in May he got married and danced for five hours without any symptoms. 🕺🏼

His latest accomplishment was cycling 55 miles with his surgeon, Mr Aman Coonar, as part of the London to Brighton cycle ride. 🚲

“To ride side by side with the person who gave me my life back - it was surreal,” said Adam.

Looking back on his journey, he credits not just the surgeries, but also the incredible team behind them.

“Successful surgery isn’t luck; it’s a direct result of the competency and teamwork of everyone involved,” he says. “Royal Papworth is world class.” 🏥

🔗 Read Adam’s story in full here: https://royalpapworth.nhs.uk/our-hospital/latest-news/adams-road-recovery-surgeries-setbacks-and-55-mile-triumph

20/10/2025

Happy Diwali to all celebrating 🪔💙

Known as the festival of lights, the word Diwali comes from the word Deepavali, which means "rows of lighted lamps".

Homes and streets tend to be decorated with small oil lamps called diyas, with the light supposed to help Lakshmi - goddess of wealth and good fortune - find her way into people's homes.

We hope you enjoy these delightful photos of our own Diwali celebrations, which saw music, dance, food and good wishes being shared in our atrium among many staff.

19/10/2025

Update at 16:02 - NOW FIXED 📞

The earlier technical fault with our phone lines has now been fixed.

You are able to phone us again as normal.

Thank you very much for your patience.

==

We are currently experiencing a technical fault with all of our phone lines in the hospital, including our main switchboard.

We’re working to get this issue resolved as quickly as we can.

We are currently experiencing a technical fault with all of our phonelines in the hospital, including our main switchboard. We’re working to get this issue resolved as quickly as we can.

17/10/2025

Recognising our staff for their long service 🏥

Earlier today we held our annual Long Service Awards, recognising some of our longest-serving staff for their loyalty not just to Royal Papworth Hospital and the NHS, but to one another and our patients.

In total 84 people from across the trust were recognised for reaching their 15, 20, 25, 30, 35 or, in two cases, an incredible 40 years of service.

Each has played their own part in so many achievements during their time – helping us to make a positive difference in the world and provide the highest-quality care.

In addition, a further 78 people will soon be receiving recognition for reaching a decade of service at Royal Papworth.

Collectively, this means these dedicated individuals have amassed more than 2,055 years of service – incredible! 🤯

Congratulations to everyone on your achievements. We are so lucky to have you all and hope you’ll be part of Royal Papworth for many years to come. 💙

16/10/2025

Two weeks' worth of heart procedures performed in seven days 🗓️ 🫀

Our cardiology team recently set a new departmental record by performing 18 TAVIs (transcatheter aortic valve implantations) and 2 MTEERs (mitral transcatheter edge-to-edge repairs) in just seven days.

This is more than double our usual weekly activity for structural cardiology.

Dr Michael O’Sullivan, Consultant Cardiologist and Divisional Director for Cardiology, said: "This ramp-up of activity is fabulous and will have a real impact on reducing our number of long-waiting patients. Huge thank you to all our staff involved for going the extra mile for our patients.”

One of those patients was 81-year-old Roderick, who’d waited more than a year for his TAVI. He was joined in hospital by his lifelong companion, Growly the teddy bear, who’s been by his side for 77 years through life’s many adventures 🧸

Roderick shared: "Before my TAVI, I was constantly breathless and struggled to walk. Now I feel absolutely fantastic - I can walk freely again and breathe easily. I’m excited to get back on my boat and return as Santa on the narrow-gauge railway this Christmas!"

Throughout this summer, we have had a targeted focus on treating patients who’d been waiting the longest. Now, the number of patients waiting more than 52 weeks for treatment with us has dropped significantly.

Thank you to everyone involved in helping to transform lives like Roderick’s 🫶🏼💙

NHS England | Department of Health and Social Care - DHSC

15/10/2025

Learn how to 🫀

Tomorrow (Thurs 16 October) we are joining forces with local organisations to provide free life-saving training for the public at The Grand Arcade in Cambridge as part of Restart a Heart Day.

Visit throughout the day to learn how to recognise the signs of a cardiac arrest, carry out CPR and learn how to use an automated external defibrillator (AED).

Last year 600 people learned these vital skills for free. We look forward to see even more people throughout the day on Thursday. 💙

Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | East Anglian Air Ambulance Charity | East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust | Magpas Air Ambulance 🤝💙