Shropshire hospital boss praises team effort during pandemic a year on from first Covid death
A senior medic has spoken of his pride at how hospital staff have met the challenges of the pandemic, describing their response as "remarkable" at every level.
Dr Arne Rose, medical director at the Shrewsbury & Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH), was speaking a year to the day since the first Covid death at a hospital in the county.
SaTH, which manages Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and Princess Royal Hospital in Telford, has been the frontline of the county's battle against the virus.
The hospital has treated hundreds of patients with the disease, and while many have gotten better and gone home, there have been an unimaginable 541 deaths – each a tragedy for families across Shropshire and Mid Wales.
As the number of patients being treated at the hospitals has started to seriously decline for the first time since the third wave of the pandemic struck, Dr Rose has spoken of the efforts of the trust's staff, as well as the long term effect of the unprecedented Covid crisis.
He said: "The scale of change our hospitals have been through over the last 12 months would have been almost unimaginable before the pandemic began."
He added: "The response of our teams at every level of our organisation has been remarkable.
"At the start of the pandemic, a great deal appeared in the media about personal protective equipment (PPE). Fortunately, at our hospitals we have not had any major issues with supply.
New ways of working
"Our procurement team played a very significant role in that and, near the beginning of the pandemic our Maxillofacial team, with help from Audiology and Musculoskeletal colleagues, created more than 75,000 single-use visors in just six months using medical grade foam, acetate sheet and elastic.
"Other colleagues have had to find new ways of working.
"Many are working at home and having to deal with the added complications that brings, especially when also juggling home-schooling as well.
"Others have been redeployed and taken on unfamiliar roles in our hospitals, or even moved to other hospitals as when, for example, trauma services were temporarily moved to the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Hospital near Oswestry."
Dr Rose said that the trust would need to make sure it supported the staff who have seen no respite in the daily pressures of the pandemic for more than a year.
He said: "The thing we need to be mindful of as we, hopefully, come out of the other end of this is the long-term impact on our colleagues.
"People are very tired. They have been dealing with this for over a year and there is still more to come. We are dealing with some very stressful and distressing situations on a daily basis and that will take its toll.
"We have put a great deal of support in place, but we need to ensure we look after our colleagues as we get back to normal."
