Sue and Sara's Keeping in Touch blog: issue 6

Our Chair Professor Sue Proctor, and Chief Executive Dr Sara Munro, post a weekly keeping in touch blog for staff, partners and anyone with an interest in Team LYPFT. This week; paying our respects to the workers who’ve lost their lives to Coronavirus, and acknowledging our people dealing with the crisis in practical, kind and inspiring ways.

Tuesday 28 April was International Workers’ Memorial Day. This year, staff side organisations including Unison and the Royal College of Nursing campaigned for the country to hold a minute’s silence to remember all those health care and key workers who had died as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic. It was very moving to see people from all over the UK take part in this solemn and respectful event.

In our Trust, Chaplain Father Michael Mkpadi led a short service to mark this event. In particular, we remembered our late colleague Khuli Nkala and also those service users who have recently passed from Covid 19. Over 450 of us joined this ‘Zoom’ ceremony. It was also very moving, hearing the words from so many of you from the book of condolence opened in Khuli’s honour read by our Director of Nursing Cathy Woffendin and Head of Communications Oliver Tipper.

We also heard from Intensive Interaction lead Graham Firth (pictured left), paying a moving tribute to the late Anthony Benson (right), who was a resident in our supported living accommodation for nearly forty years. Two patients from the wards at the Mount have also sadly died from Covid 19. One of their relatives wrote a lovely letter of thanks for the care provided, and spoke eloquently about the difference the care made to their loved one.

We ended the Zoom call on an upbeat note, with the LYPFT staff choir. Their voices and the message of their song You’re the Voice was beautiful and was the right way to end this very unique gathering of so many of us. The staff choir’s video has been shared far and wide, and has generated local media attention, which is great but see and hear it for yourself here:

This event reminded us of the strength and commitment of ‘Team LYPFT’ and the rich diversity of all those who joined the call, united in one aim, to remember much missed colleagues and service users. Special thanks are also sent to Oliver Tipper and the Communications Team who provided technical support which enabled the service to take place.

This week, the Board meeting takes place, again using Zoom. We will hear from the executive directors about the continuing pressures on our services as we move into week six of lockdown. We will discuss a range of issues concerning current management of the Covid crisis, the impact on staff and service users, especially those from Black, Asian and Ethnic Minority (BAME) groups, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), testing and various other key issues. We will also start to consider the next steps and what needs to be in place over the coming weeks and months, whether lockdown is relaxed or sustained.

These are challenging times for us all, and for those in leadership positions – even more so as people look to us for guidance, for answers and for hope. We are grateful to all those in leadership positions in the Trust and thankful for their professionalism and clear thinking during these difficult weeks.

Actually staff right across the Trust continue to adapt to the demands of dealing with the crisis in practical, kind and inspiring ways. There are some fantastic examples of creative, imaginative activities including the ‘Ward Olympics’ pictured here, Letters to loved ones, wobble rooms, rainbow badges, and many more. Thank you for your energy and positivity.

Every day seems to bring more challenges, new problems to solve and barriers to overcome. Yet, again and again we see amazing efforts, a real desire to do the best we can for colleagues, services users, their families and partners. Thank you so much!

PPE – the facts and the fiction

We would like to make special mention of the Infection Prevention and Control team who continue to do a terrific job. Access to and the use of PPE has rarely been out of the news in the last two months.

So our Deputy Director of Nursing, Nichola Sanderson, hosted a live video webinar on Tuesday 28 April with colleagues about the use of PPE to address some of the concerns that have been shared.

Nichola and Gugu, one of our Infection Control Nurses, talked through the latest, and most accurate information, on what is needed to ensure everyone’s safety when using this equipment. This is well worth a watch:

Also, as we increase opportunities for Covid testing, special thanks also to the Physical Health Team for their important work during the pilot phase of the Leeds programme.

We are not able to hold the Board in public just now, but we are committed to making the notes of the Board meetings available as soon as possible. These will be out on the Trust website next week. Later in May, we will hold a virtual meeting for the Council of Governors, and invite them to submit questions so we can update them on what matters to them during these months when we are not able to meet together as normal.

Through the daily briefings and weekly Zoom meetings we hope you feel well informed about what is going on in the Trust just now. As more information becomes available, we will make sure we share it as quickly and effectively as possible. Please continue to ask any questions, and we will do our best to answer you quickly.

Please do look after yourselves. We thank each and every one of you for all that you are doing.

Sue and Sara