Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Harrogate District Hospital, Ripon Community Hospital and community based services across North Yorkshire, has launched its own Twitter feed to help people access information on healthcare around the Tour de France.
@HarrogateNHSFT will be featuring advice for people to prepare for watching the Tour, information on the Trust’s preparations and updates on how the service is running over the weekend.
Chris Watt, Head of Communications at Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust, who is also on the Trust’s group planning for the Tour, said: Twitter is the way that lots of people now access their information, so we hope that they will follow @HarrogateNHSFT and retweet us for health advice, information on our plans and updates on services during the Tour de France weekend.
We will have extra staff at Harrogate District Hospital over the Tour weekend in case there is an increase in demand for our services and we are very grateful to all our staff for their help. However, we expect it to be difficult for people to get to the Hospital, given the number of people lining the route, so want to remind everyone to take sensible measures like wearing a hat and drinking plenty of water, so they do not need healthcare.
If you do need health advice over the weekend, the best way is to dial 111 for all non-emergency healthcare issues. In an emergency, you should dial 999 as usual and the emergency services have plans in place to respond.
We would prefer it if people enjoyed the Tour de France without needing the help of our doctors and nurses, but are prepared if they do need medical attention.
The Trust is working closely with its partners including the Yorkshire Ambulance Service and local authorities to prepare for the Tour.
Mr Watt added that the Twitter feed would remain in use after the Tour de France.
He said: We are all really looking forward to the Tour de France coming to our area, but once it is over, people can still keep up to date with what is happening at Harrogate District Hospital, Ripon Community Hospital and in our healthcare services close to people’s homes across North Yorkshire by following @HarrogateNHSFT
