Proposal
1. Having identified those that live within 3 miles of Edgware Community Hospital and Finchley Memorial Hospital through a staff survey which is incorporated in the Travel Plan, an event to raise awareness of the benefits of walking to work will be organised by co-operation with the communications and health improvement team.
2. The Walking to Work week was identified as an ideal time to hold such an event and is an opportunity to distribute relevant materials and promotional literature
3. Therefore materials and literature will be sourced, collated, produced and published. Included in this is the sourcing of pedometers which will give those interested in walking to work a tangible incentive to start doing so.
4. A challenge during walking to work week will be set and the individual who walks the most will receive a prize (to be decided).
The Event
We completed our event a few weeks ago. Using walk to work week and the promotional material available we created a walking at work week, as the majority of our staff are unable to walk directly to work. However, we still found this to be very successful in promoting waking as the most sustainable mode of transportation. Prior to the week promotional material was sent out to all departments and posters promoting walking and our walking event were sent out to all departments. These were also displayed in key areas of the hospital. This created a fantastic response and the staff were really keen to take part. Throughout the week staff were signed up to the event and pedometers were handed out. Roughly 120 staff members signed up to the event, and over half turned up for the staff walk on Friday 13th May. After the event the foot care kits we received were handed out, and those who attended then enjoyed some light refreshments and discussed the walk and possible future walks!
Edgware Community Hospital and Finchley Memorial Hospital
The event was a huge success for us. Really helped to get the message across to our staff, and helped to establish a core group of staff members who would be available to help spread our message through the various departments in the future. Our main aim was obviously to encourage staff members to start walking to work, or at least part of the way. And so far it seems we have been reasonably successful in helping to convert a number of people. However, we feel this is just the start, as this event in isolation is not enough to have the type of impact we are really after, and it needs to be part of broader spectrum, including cycling and public transport and tighter controls on car parking permits. For us at NHS Barnet the impact of this particular event is judged more on what it has helped to establish within our organisation. This walking event is only the beginning of our travel plan actions, and has kick started us in the right direction.
Due to the success of the event I am still receving emails from interested staff members, and its great to see so many people are interested. Our challenge now is to use this momentum and to convert it into actual results. We are hoping that these walks will become a regular feature as the staff clearly enjoyed it. Health Improvement have also shown an interest in working together on future walks. We also are currently working on setting up a similar event at Finchley Memorial Hospital. Staff have been providing me with feedback on the event, and ways in which we could improve the walks, and Ive also been talking to them about ways in which we could encourage staff to walk more and so far its all proving very useful. Hopefully we will be able to put some of it into practice.