New stoma care department officially opens at Yeovil Hospital

Patients under the care of Yeovil Hospital’s stoma care department are set to benefit from a greatly improved environment, where they can get the care they need in one place.

Although the stoma care team has provided excellent care for years, they previously shared clinic rooms with other specialties, making access difficult.

But this week the team celebrated the official opening of its new department – located in a unit on the former hospital car park next to the day theatre centre – and it’s much more suited to patients’ needs.

Hannah Ayling, one of our stoma care clinical nurse specialists, says she’s thrilled with the move:

“Moving into this new unit means we have a self-sufficient space for our patients, so we can provide care all in one place” she says.

“The unit has a reception area, our nursing office, and stock room, as well as three dedicated clinic rooms that we can use at one time – a huge improvement.

“We tend to run almost 650 outpatient clinics a year, with around 1,200 patients on our caseload, but we should now be able to see even more patients in our new environment with the additional clinic rooms available.

“Now that our clinic rooms are ventilated, we can offer irrigation services, and we will develop even more ways we can use the extra space.

“It will greatly benefit colleagues in the team too, as we can be more proactive and do more for our patients.

“Overall, it’s fantastic that patients now have their own space, which is more discreet if they experience any difficult issues.”

Hannah adds that the new premises will help the team to overcome some of the challenges they’ve faced in recent years.

“With our nurses’ office based across the road from the main hospital in Convamore House, and our outpatient clinics and stock room back in the main hospital, it has been a bit of a challenge logistically when running clinics,” she says.

“Our previous clinic room was shared with our colorectal care colleagues, so if a stoma care patient rang us and they needed help quickly, we weren’t always able to see them, because we didn’t have a dedicated clinic room.

“While we’ve done our best to provide the best possible care for our patients, a few aspects have been difficult, such as our medical stock room held within our clinic room, which meant we’d have to constantly interrupt patient appointments if we needed stock.

“We also had no ventilation, so it very much felt like a cupboard with no windows – not ideal for stoma care!”

Our stoma care team is made up of specialist nurses who provide expert care, education, and support for people with a stoma (like a colostomy, ileostomy, or urostomy) before and after surgery, helping them manage pouch changes, skin care, diet, and emotional challenges to live confidently and independently.

They teach self-care, offer counselling, provide supplies, and link patients with ongoing community support for a smooth transition to life with a stoma.

We also have a stoma care service based at Musgrove Park Hospital, with both teams also running clinics at some of our community hospitals.

“Patients could have a stoma formed for various reasons, such as bowel cancer, IBD, diverticulitis, and forms of trauma and obstruction, and our team would care for them,” continues Hannah.

“At first, we see all our patients in the hospital, before and after their operation, and then we follow them up at home, and then at their outpatient clinics afterwards – in fact for the rest of the time they have a stoma.”

Hannah also encourages people to talk more about stomas to dispel some of the myths and stigma. “In society I don’t think we raise enough awareness about stomas and stoma care, because it’s basically poo and no one likes talking about things like that,” she adds.

“But it can be such an important part of a person’s recovery from colorectal surgery and we’re very proud of the support we offer to our patients, which their time with a stoma as comfortable as possible.”