Improving our resilience

I am pleased to say that we are seeing a slow, yet steady decrease in the number of Covid patients we are treating. However we must continue to be as vigilant as ever if we are to regain control of the spread of the virus.

The recent peak put our flow of oxygen under a lot of pressure and it is testament to staff from a range of teams, all working seamlessly together, that we delivered an effective solution. It is important we are well prepared should this happen again.

Following our upgrade last year to improve resilience, which has paid dividends, we have undertaken a further upgrade that will allow us to increase the potential flow of oxygen when demand is very high. My thanks to all involved.    

Improving our patients’ experiences

I am also delighted to share how we are continuing to improve the quality of care and the experience of our urgent and emergency patients.

Our newly expanded Rapid Access and First Treatment (RAFT) area has opened in the Emergency Department (ED) at Queen’s Hospital, providing space for eight additional bedded bays, and a ‘fit to sit’ area for up to six patients.

An important factor in the new design, which has seen us better utilise the space available, is relocating the staff base to the middle of the room, giving medical teams greater oversight of all patients.

It was the first project funded through the £4.1million we received from a £300m government pot to upgrade emergency departments. You can find out more in our latest news story.

Often when people think of improving the care and experiences of patients, it tends to centre on how we can make them better; how we can improve the environment; how we can improve their quality of life. However I wonder how often you may have considered this in the context of a patient’s last days…..

I was incredibly proud recently to hear of teams across our Trust pulling out all the stops this week to ensure a Covid-19 patient was able to go home and be with her family as her condition deteriorated. On our website you can hear from Sinead Skelton, one of our senior sisters, who shares the emotional moment when the patient, a mother in her 60s, left King George Hospital.

She said: “It was a bittersweet moment, she knew she was going home and as she left she waved and blew a kiss to say goodbye. It had our nurses crying. Her daughter was with her and was so grateful. We don’t often get to see this as Covid-19 patients can deteriorate very fast and in many cases, the family is unable to make it quickly enough at the end.”

This demonstrates unequivocally how important it is to have conversations with loved ones about their final wishes in advance of them needing end of life care. They may be difficult, yet they can make all the difference in those precious last days and hours.  

Our own sad goodbyes

Sadly over the last week we have said goodbye to two very dear colleagues.

Kandiah Ratnakumar was a well-liked and respected former knee surgeon who started working for our Trust back in 1991, as a Registrar in King George Hospital. He went on to become a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon in 2001 and was well known for his tireless commitment to serve our community.

Stan Yellin, one of our most well-known volunteers was part of the team for 18 years, helping patients, visitors and staff alike, navigate their way through Queen’s.

They will be greatly missed and our thoughts are with their families, friends and colleagues.

Launch of the King George Hospital Vaccination Hub

We’ve now given the first dose of the vaccine to more than 12,000 people, a quite incredible number, made possible in part by the opening our second hub at King George.

As always there were a raft of fascinating, heart warming and inspiring stories on the day of the launch, including Lola Smith, a practice development nurse in our Children’s ED. She said: “As a BAME member of staff, it’s important that we nurses start getting our vaccines to protect our families and to encourage others in our community to get the jab. It’s a privilege to get it, a real blessing, and I thank God for the opportunity.”  

Watch Lola talk about why having the vaccine is important to her.

Joe Flynn works in our Outpatients Clinic Prep department and was first in line when the hub opened.   He said: “I feel proud to be the first person to receive the vaccine at the King George Hospital Vaccination Hub. I’ve worked for the Trust for six years and having my jab today feels like the first step back to normality.”

“I wasn’t sure about it at first but after looking into it and speaking to people, I feel very safe receiving the vaccine.”

With any new vaccine or medication, a certain element of hesitancy is not unexpected. We held a very successful webinar recently to provide staff with the opportunity to pose their queries to a panel of experts so they felt comfortable to have the vaccine where they were unsure whether they could have it. This included hearing from Dr Aruna Ramineni, fertility lead; you may have seen her recent video to address fertility and the vaccine, a very common question both within and outside of our Trust.

Often it’s people’s personal stories that are so powerful in helping us to take that step - and none more so than that of Dr Anushka  Aubeelack, Obstetric Anaesthetist, who talks about her parents and the vaccination in this short video.   

As Joe mentioned above, the vaccine really is our first step back to normality, so please do encourage those you know who are eligible to have theirs and visit our website for more inspiring, and importantly reassuring, stories from our staff and colleagues.   

Pre-operative assessment moves to Goodmayes

Last but not least, you will know I regularly talk about how working together as a system is the way to delivering the very best care for our patients and to support the response to the pandemic in particular at this time. Working with our colleagues at the North East London Foundation Trust, we have managed to move our pre-operative assessment service to a ward at Goodmayes Hospital; as always, my thanks to everyone involved.

Best wishes.

Tony Chambers
Chief Executive