Weekly community update from our CEO - 15 January

Posted Friday, January 15, 2021 5:29 PM

Hello,

The rising level of Coronavirus in our hospitals and in our communities continues to be very serious. As of this morning, we were caring for 194 Covid positive patients in our three hospitals. This is double the peak in April 2020 and has been a steady increase since the beginning of December. For reference, on Christmas Day we were treating 82 positive patients.

We have further increased the number of our Intensive Care beds from our usual 9 to 24 and we may have to increase further still. As you will imagine, this puts an incredible strain on our teams as we work hard to care for these patients. I would like to take this opportunity to again thank all colleagues at Sherwood for their flexibility and hard work in the most difficult of circumstances.

Due to the rise in Covid positive patients, we have taken some additional steps to help keep our patients and colleagues safe. Since the end of December, we have suspended all adult visiting, with a review due on 27 January. We will continue to have visiting for patients who are end of life or require a carer and pregnant women will be able to identify a birth partner to attend some appointments, labour and to visit after the birth.

We understand how hard it is for our patients not to be able to have visitors and how hard it is for families who are unable to see their loved one. We will continue to do everything we can to support virtual visits and we can assure you of our care whilst your family and friends are with us.

We asking all of our inpatients to wear the provided surgical grade masks or if they cannot wear a surgical mask, a face visor. This was not a decision that we took lightly, but we know the new variant of Covid spreads much more easily and it is important to reduce the risk of infection.

Whilst we know the current situation is hard on everyone, I am sad to report that an increasing minority of people are displaying aggression, violence and unacceptable behaviour. We will not accept colleagues being subject to abuse. NHS teams have been through the most difficult year of their working lives and anyone who treats them with anything other than kindness and respect will be asked to leave. I am appalled at these reports and as an organisation, we will always support colleagues and their right to be safe at work.

In better news, our vaccination programme continues at pace, working with partners across Nottinghamshire. We know people are anxiously waiting for their vaccination, but please do not contact us directly. We will contact you when it is your turn to be vaccinated and we cannot vaccinate you until it's your turn. Thank you for your continued patience.

Richard Mitchell Signature
Richard Mitchell, Chief Executive

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