Top award celebrates our hospital heroes
HUDDERSFIELD and Calderdale are incredibly lucky to have such brilliant NHS staff who are going above and beyond the call of duty every day to provide the very best care during the coronavirus crisis.
That’s why this year’s Achievement Award is going to the Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust (CHFT) for the outstanding care given at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary (HRI) and Calderdale Royal Hospital (CRH) and by their staff who work in the community in Calderdale.
The magnificent team effort has involved hundreds of doctors, nurses, therapists, community and support staff.
Many have been redeployed from their own areas and learned new skills at very short notice to join colleagues in areas such as the two intensive care units, respiratory and elderly wards and accident and emergency – the places where the most acutely ill have been nursed. They have shown immense dedication and bravery in what continues to be a very distressing and challenging time.
In short, Covid-19 has changed the face of NHS care forever from early March when the first cases were admitted to our area’s two hospitals.
The Trust employs more than 6,000 staff and every one changed the way they worked in some way to support the Trust to care for their patients and their families, as well as caring for each other.
So far, 151 patients have sadly died at the two hospitals, leaving many local families devastated. But more than 350 patients who were admitted for care were treated - often over many weeks - recovered and were allowed home.
Images of doctors and nurses in full personal protection equipment (PPE) were everywhere. Nurse Joanne Morrell from Huddersfield, who works at the intensive care units at both HRI and CRH, was featured in the Examiner talking about how difficult it was to nurse patients with all the facial barriers between them and also how hard it was not to be able to hug and console upset relatives.
She said: “For us, as staff, it’s really hard because we’re taking calls from family who are heartbroken, upset and wanting to know what’s happening. Nobody has been impatient or not understood but, as nurses, we feel that pain.
“I’ve definitely been more emotional than usual, a lot more sensitive to things – more tearful than I’ve ever been.”
Full PPE is also worn in other key areas such as the respiratory wards and the wards for the elderly patients. The masks have to be close fitting to do their job effectively and provide the perfect seal around the nose and mouth yet they can leave red marks on the face so the Trust has bought extra moisturisers and face creams from the many charitable donations it has received.
Supplies of PPE masks, hoods, gowns and gloves has sometimes proved extremely challenging and the health trust’s Materials Management Team have worked tirelessly to ensure clinical staff always had what they needed. Driver Richard Hinchliffe even volunteered to do an overnight 500-mile round trip to Brighton and back to pick up vital PPE to keep his colleagues safe.
The Trust set up two extra A&E departments so patients with suspected Covid-19 can be cared for separately from those who are nonCovid, streaming them safely as soon as they arrive. Opening extra departments has involved huge rota changes with staff moving from other areas and many staff postponing their annual leave when patient numbers were soaring towards the peak of the outbreak locally in early April.
One of the most heart-breaking aspects of the pandemic has been that families have been unable to visit loved ones so virtual visiting was organised to bring families together, sometimes at the most traumatic times in their lives. A special team now takes requests and delivers iPads and mobile phones to wards so staff can set up chats between families.
As well as helping to keep families together, the Trust has also brought patients and clinicians together. The Paediatric Diabetes Team even set up a virtual clinic for a 13-year-old patient who became stuck in Russia after lockdown was imposed and no-one knows when flights back to the UK might resume.
The Trust has been offering outpatient appointments via video or a telephone consultation so patients don’t have to travel to the hospitals yet can still get their ongoing care from doctors and nurses.
Community staff have been inspirational, supporting their colleagues and patients in care homes and patients in their own homes in Calderdale. They have provided additional services and extended hours as well as implementing virtual support through laptops to care home staff.
Trust chair Philip Lewer said: “Covid-19 has seen the local NHS change like it could never have imagined. Staff in all roles have risen to the challenge to change the way they work, where they work and who they work with.
“Faced with so many challenges, what has meant a lot has been the outpouring of support from local communities – from Thongsbridge to Todmorden and from Holmfirth to Hebden Bridge. There are so many examples and we are grateful for every single kind thought and deed in support.”
A local specialist shirt maker, McNair of Slaithwaite, came to the rescue in terms of PPE. When stories of it being in short supply hit the headlines this Colne Valley company swapped production to manufacturing protective wear for the Trust.
Food4Heroes provided more than 30,000 takeaway lunches, the corner chippy on Reed Street in Marsh offered free lunches for staff while The Eden Foundation Welfare project – set up to help the vulnerable and NHS staff - shared out lunches.
Mums and grans baked and children of health staff sent in rainbow paintings in their hundreds which