Sara and Sue's keeping in touch blog - issue 12

Latest blog from our Chair Prof Sue Proctor and our Chief Exec Dr Sara Munro

The latest policy developments in response to Covid-19 this last week have been complex. Steps to ease the lockdown continue to be taken, with new freedoms planned over the coming weeks in terms of the re-opening of shops, places of worship, dentists and other businesses. People who have been shielding for the last few months because of particular health risks are now advised they can leave their house once a day and can meet one person from another household outside.

Somewhat ironically, the timing of the easing for people from different households to meet up to 6 people in their gardens, and have a socially distanced barbeque coincided with a sudden end to the sunny weather and some of the coldest June days for years!

Face coverings are to be worn on public transport and in internal environments where social distancing isn’t possible. It appears we are moving towards a world post Covid-19.

However, there remain mixed messages about the R or reproduction rate, which worryingly, is increasing in some parts of the country. The tragedy of the daily toll of deaths remains in three figures (with one exception over the weekend), and some days is higher than the daily number of deaths in the rest of Europe put together. We are clearly not out of the woods yet, and all of us still need to practice social distancing, handwashing and being sensible.

At the Trust, teams are working hard to ensure that for those staff who need to return to their workplace, that the environment is Covid-safe. We want to enable social distancing, and provide hand sanitiser and suitable hygiene facilities, and ensure that PPE is plentiful and of a high standard. For those able to work from home, we need to ensure that the technology remains effective and that the work can continue. In inpatient areas, we continue to make sure that cohorting is effective and that service users and staff are safe and that risk is minimised.

In all of this work over the last 3 months, we have had to adapt, become flexible in our approach to work and family life, develop new competencies in Zoom and Teams, and other means of communication. We have faced both personal and professional challenges and as leaders, may not have always got things right first time, but managing through a pandemic of this scale has been a new experience for us all.

Last Friday, the government announced that from June 15, all staff in hospitals will be expected to wear face masks, and this will also apply in outpatients clinic too. In addition, hospital visiting can resume, and visitors also must wear face coverings. We did not have advance warning of this announcement and the incident response team have now started the work to ensure we implement these changes in the safest and best possible way for all our staff, service users and visitors.  We will make sure everyone knows how this will work in our services as soon as we can.

This week is Carers Week and it is an opportunity to recognise and celebrate those thousands of unpaid carers who are the lifeblood of health and care services. Their selfless dedication to their loved ones is inspiring and we want to say a huge thank you to all carers across Leeds and York.

We will do our best to help navigate through these ‘transition’ weeks, towards a greater easing of the lockdown and a creation of a new normal for us all.

Once again, thanks for everything you do for the Trust. Stay safe

Sara and Sue