Number of Covid patients in Shropshire's hospitals 'remains low but is rising'

Cases of coronavirus are rising in Shropshire. Unfortunately, that is now being reflected in the number of people being admitted to our hospitals with the virus.

A few weeks ago we were pleased to report that we had no Covid-19 patients in our hospitals for the first time in many months. Sadly, that is no longer the case and, while numbers remain relatively low, they are rising.

However, there is strong evidence that the Covid-19 vaccine is protecting people and either keeping them from getting the virus or protecting them from becoming seriously ill and needing hospital admission. It is therefore vital that everyone eligible gets their jab as soon as possible – not only to protect themselves, but to protect others as well.

Here in Shropshire, we are making it much easier to get a jab.

Yesterday, we announced walk-in clinics for 18-39-year-olds to get their first dose of the vaccine.

These clinics, for which you don’t need an appointment, are being held in Oswestry, Shrewsbury and Telford and you can find details on our website at sath.nhs.uk.

There are also walk-in clinics being held for people aged 40 or over to get their first or second jab.

These are being held in Shrewsbury and Telford and, again, details can be found on our website.

Our vaccination teams will continue to work to find ways to make getting the jab as easy as possible because this offers the best solution for returning us to some sort of normality.

At SaTH, we are continuing to deal with the challenges that coronavirus presents.

Understandably, we are receiving an increasing number of enquiries about visiting.

As I have said before, we are working to find the best solution to be able to allow people to visit their loved ones, but, as the rising number of cases shows, coronavirus has not gone away and we need to make sure we are doing this in a way that keeps everybody safe and prevents the spread of the virus in our hospitals, where we are caring for very sick and vulnerable people.

We do hear what people are telling us and we are committed to using this feedback to make our hospitals better.

In maternity, we have just launched a ‘user experience’ card system to ensure women and their families are listened to and that their voices are heard.

We are working with the Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin Maternity Voices Partnership (MVP), to ask recent maternity services users, support partners and maternity staff to complete the cards, which will give us feedback, capture what people need from the service and gather ideas on how these needs can be met.

Finally, nominations have now closed for the public recognition award in our trust annual awards. Thank you to everyone who nominated.

You will be able to read about, and vote for, the finalists in the Shropshire Star this weekend.

This is not the only way we are celebrating our staff. Last week we held a Covid-19 Hero Recognition Week to say thank you to colleagues who have done so much over the course of the pandemic.

Over 700 awards were given out to teams and individuals nominated by colleagues and I would just like to say well done and thank you to everyone at the trust who has worked so tirelessly for so long.