Community update: Tuesday 18 May 2021

Posted Tuesday, May 18, 2021 9:30 AM

18 May 2021 – Update 20

An update to patients, communities and partners of Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS FT

Hello,

Yesterday was a big day for us all. We were able to cautiously hug friends and family and businesses opened their doors and welcomed people indoors. It felt like an important step forwards, but we must continue to take care and be responsible about how we socialise.

Yesterday we also changed our visiting policy. We can now allow each patient a designated visitor for an hour a day. We have kept the existing arrangements for pregnant women, those who lack capacity and children. We know visiting is important for the wellbeing of patients and their families and although we still have restrictions in place around masks and social distancing to keep people safe, we hope this will help.

Whilst yesterday brought back a new level of normality to society, in hospitals, we are still coping with the after effects of Covid and we are trying to ensure we treat patients who have waited for non-urgent treatment as quickly as possible. It will take some time to work through the backlog, but I am pleased Nottinghamshire is one of 12 health and care systems in the NHS given extra money to support us to treat patients on our waiting lists more quickly.

Our aim is to treat an additional 30,000 patients by the end of July, through a variety of means, including running our theatres for longer hours, investing in new equipment and using mobile services to help us to conduct tests and assessments more quickly.

I know and understand many of you have been waiting longer for treatment than anyone would like. For some of you, this will have meant having to make adjustments in your day-to-day life to accommodate your condition. I am sorry for this and I can promise we are working as hard as we can to treat people as quickly and as safely as possible. We will be treating people according to clinical urgency and every patient on our waiting list will receive a letter in the next three weeks to tell them what is happening next and to tell them how to contact us if their condition has changed. Thank you for your understanding and patience and we do take seriously our responsibility to treat you as quickly as possible.

Best wishes for the week ahead.

Chief Executive Richard.Mitchell2@nhs.net