Sue and Sara's Keeping in Touch blog: issue 4

Our Chair and Chief Exec’s fourth blog during Coronavirus Response. This week they reflect on compassion shown by staff at a time of bereavement, and the herculean efforts of our logistics and estates teams in responding to the challenges presented by the pandemic.

Thank you to all staff who worked during the Easter weekend. Despite another challenging week, the degree of commitment and sense of ‘Team LYPFT’ remains strong across our services.

This was a particularly challenging week as we lost one of our long term residents from our Specialist Supported Living Services to Covid-19 after he was transferred to Leeds Teaching Hospitals. Although they couldn’t be with him at the end, our staff did everything they could to make sure the hospital staff could provide personal care, advising them about his favourite music and sports team. These little touches make such a difference and demonstrate the extent of compassion and love of our staff for those they care for. We send them our thanks, and condolences at this sad time.

We also have some patients at The Mount who have Covid symptoms and these patients are being very well cared for and supported by our staff too.

Behind the frontline of care in our wards, community teams and supported living homes, other teams are also working hard to support care services. These include Keith Rowley’s team who have been doing an amazing job in support of PPE cells and the NHS Supply Chain. For those of you who don’t know, Keith is the Managing Director of the North of England NHS Commercial Procurement Collaborative, which is hosted by LYPFT. There are some big challenges to solve locally, nationally and globally and we will see problems and supply issues, but they are doing all they can to solve them, working full tilt and more.

The Trust procurement supplies and logistics team at Roseville Road are so impressive as they work to get our supplies where they are needed.

Also our own domestic staff who are stepping in and covering different areas in response to need right across the Trust. Your flexibility is really appreciated.

Finally (for this week), our Estates team have been quickly turning around requests to reconfigure buildings and premises to enable clinical re-configurations which are making such a difference already to staff and service users.

In such a relentlessly tough period we sometimes forget to recognise the effort and impact of this crisis on our clinical and non-clinical leaders and line managers. We can even take them for granted and see them as ‘emotionally resilient’ and unaffected by the decisions, challenges, frustrations and tears around them.

But we are all human, all learning, all capable of getting it wrong as well as getting it right. They are doing a great job in very difficult circumstances. That’s where are values come in and once again, it has been inspiring and humbling to see integrity, caring and simplicity demonstrated by so many so consistently.

We are proud of you.

Thank you.

Sue & Sara