Sue and Sara's Keeping in Touch blog: issue 5
Our Chair and Chief Exec’s fifth blog during Coronavirus Response. This week they celebrate the heroes both in and outside our Trust who are pulling out all the stops to provide the best care for our service users. They also pay tribute to Khuli Nkala, a Charge Nurse in our Forensic Services, who sadly lost their life to COVID19.
Since the start of the Coronavirus pandemic, much has been written and spoken about heroes. Heroes of all shapes and sizes. People who work in essential services, especially health and social care services, are warmly applauded by the public from their doorsteps and windows each Thursday. It’s a moving show of gratitude and affection for the many thousands of people across the country who are working to keep us all safe.
This week we also heard the story of Captain Tom Moore, the gentleman from Keighley walking round his garden 100 times before his 100th birthday to raise money for NHS charities. Originally he aimed to reach £1000. This morning, reports indicate he has so far raised £27million. He is clearly an inspiration and the public and media have really got behind him and supported his campaign. He was even invited to open (albeit virtually) the new Nightingale Yorkshire and Humber field hospital in Harrogate this week.
We have always known we work with very special people in this Trust, but the way that you have adapted to the demands of dealing with the crisis has been inspiring. Every day seems to bring more challenges, new problems to solve and barriers to overcome. Yet, again and again we see heroic efforts, a real desire to do the best we can for colleagues, service users, their families and partners. Its not easy and the relentless pressure you are working under is not sustainable without the support of colleagues and the need to take time off, to switch off from work and have some down time. Easier said than done, we appreciate that.
This week we lost more service users to COVID19. They were patients in our older peoples’ services at the Mount and we know that the staff provided the highest levels of care throughout. Our condolences go to their families. We continue to have a number of other patients and a resident from our supported living service currently poorly with the virus. We wish them all a speedy and full recovery.
It was with great sadness that we heard that we lost one of our staff members. Khulisani (Khuli) Nkala, a Charge Nurse in our Forensic Services, died from Coronavirus on Friday 17th April 2020. He was the first member of our particular NHS family to lose their life to COVID19, and we sincerely hope it will be the last.
Our thoughts and prayers are with his family at this difficult time. We have shared with them how much Khuli meant to so many colleagues and service users. Khuli, was a well-respected and selfless professional nurse, who “always put the patient first”, and will be greatly missed by his colleagues.
Khuli was someone who took his responsibilities as a trainer and professional mentor very seriously, taking many student nurses under his wing and taking the time to nurture the next generation of talent. He won an award from the University of Leeds for his mentoring work for which he should have been very proud.
The team in Forensics at the Newsam Centre have opened up a book of condolence in Khuli’s memory which is in the family room near Ward 3. If anyone would like to contribute to that, please get in touch with Claire Layton at claire.layton1@nhs.net or Kerry Hinsby at k.hinsby@nhs.net. We are also planning a memorial service for Khuli led by our own chaplain Father Michael. As he was the sole breadwinner for his family, Claire Layton has set up a gofundme campaign to raise money for Khuli’s family to support his wife and children through this difficult time.
Finding the right words at times like these is so difficult. The usual phrases we offer just seem inadequate for the scale of fear, suffering and grief that so many of us are experiencing.
Heroes. We are blessed to know and work with so many.
Please do look after yourselves. We know it is not easy but we must all do what we can to keep ourselves and one another safe. We thank each and every one of you for all that you are doing.
Sue and Sara