Thank you for your kind comments about this blog. It has been another difficult week for everyone in East Lancashire Hospitals, the wider healthcare system and the NHS as a whole. If you are suffering with Covid or close to someone who is struggling with this terrible virus, the stress, fatigue, frustration, pure worry and perhaps even anger at times, will be familiar to you too. I’m so sorry to those that continue to lose loved ones to this terrible disease. We really are doing everything we possibly can to care for as many people as possible in the most compassionate way.
It’s a simple truth that we are only three weeks into 2021 and those, albeit restricted, New Year celebrations that were loaded with hope for progress and a return to our normal lives. In stark contrast, we have instead seen a significant and sustained rise in people infected, community transmission and, most disappointingly, the number of people dying each day across the UK.
It is an undoubtedly sobering moment, but I do want to try and restore some of the hope and determination we all felt on January 1 with an update on the magnificent progress we are making with administering the vaccine.
To date, the hospital hub at Royal Blackburn Teaching Hospital has vaccinated more than 8,000 people which is such a tremendous achievement. Over 6,000 of these were staff, which I can assure you will help us enormously with the number of colleagues who have had to isolate or be off sick with Covid in recent months.
In addition, this week we celebrated the opening of a new mass vaccination centre at Blackburn Cathedral, which will vaccinate almost 2,000 people every day. To ‘celebrate’ this might seem like an interesting concept – but I firmly believe it should be remembered as a landmark moment in our history.
There are, of course, still questions about why the second dose of the vaccine has been delayed from three weeks to 12 weeks after your first one. Put simply, this allows twice as many people to get their first dose and the second dose only provides a slightly increased protection from the virus. So, nationally, the vaccination programme is aiming to vaccinate more people with less vaccine, rather than fewer people with more. This approach should help everyone in the NHS by reducing both the significant increases in people becoming infected with Covid in our communities and the rising numbers of hospital admissions.
Please, when you are called, come forward and have your vaccination. Being vaccinated is the way we start to get out of this terrible situation. It is our road out of Covid, the crippling restrictions and the isolation from our loved ones and everything we hold dear in life. Help us to help you to stay as safe as it is possible to be in these uncertain times.
I am so, so proud of those in the Trust who have worked with and received huge support from partners across Pennine Lancashire. To get this system up and running so quickly and effectively is a huge achievement. I’d like to thank everyone involved and acknowledge that the team effort, the resilience, hard work and determination, cannot be underestimated. You’ve done an amazing job.
The Trust continues to manage a complex and challenging position with a high number of Covid patients on our wards, who are desperately ill and suffering. We have moved to ‘super, super, super surge’ plans which really is an escalation unknown and unseen in the NHS before.
This has led us to again stand down some elective procedures but we are tracking these on an individual basis and will make sure we contact and reschedule everyone who is waiting as soon as it is possible. If you have had your operation postponed I am sorry, I know how difficult and stressful this is. We are redeploying staff into critical and enhanced care wards though, so everything we are doing is releasing resource that is so desperately needed elsewhere.
Staff are working flat out across the hospitals, not just in Blackburn but at Burnley General, Clitheroe and Pendle hospital sites and across our community to support people suffering from this dreadful disease. I want to say thank you. You’re doing an incredible job in the most difficult conditions.
There are a lot of predictions being shared about what will happen now. I want to say our expectations are that we will continue to see high hospital admissions throughout the rest of this month and into February. Then, we hope, we will see the effects of lockdown really impact on people being infected. It is hard, but please do continue to follow the rules.
I would like to end my blog this week with three pieces of good news, which I’m sure we’re all ready to hear!
Firstly, last year we announced that we had received funding for two new MRI scanners to be placed on our Burnley General Teaching Hospital site. I am delighted to say that these are now in place and have already had a positive impact on patient experience and staff morale.
The new state of the art machines provide more advanced and high-quality images. Also, due to the enhanced technology, the time a patient spends in the scanner is significantly reduced. This means we are able to perform more scans, reducing our patient waiting times. The scanners are also housed in purpose-built accommodation which is extremely accessible for our outpatients.
Secondly, I would like to say a big “congratulations” to one of our respiratory nurses, Joanne Mohammed who has been awarded a silver Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) award for her work to make nursing a career of choice for people with disabilities, particularly those with hearing impairment or deafness.
Joanne, who herself has been profoundly deaf since the age of 6, was nominated for the prestigious accolade for her work to create a culture of inclusion to ensure every member of staff has a voice and visibility. She has also established a national network of hearing impaired and deaf nurses and contributed to the design of an NHS England and Improvement national diversity conference. Well done Joanne, this is thoroughly deserved recognition for all the amazing work you have done!
And finally, it gives me great pleasure to announce that our Chairman, Professor Eileen Fairhurst, has been reappointed for a term which will run up until 31 January 2022. I’m delighted the Trust has been able to secure an additional year with Eileen and the expertise that she brings. It will undoubtedly be another busy and challenging period.
Thanks again for everything you are doing, stay safe and do let me have any comments or questions you have. I’ll do my best to answer them.
Kevin