This week, Joe Fielder our Chair, and myself, sent a letter of thanks to the families of our staff. We know this is an anxious time for them and their support is invaluable in helping our staff to continue caring for our patients.

It makes it all worthwhile when I can share with you stories of our patients who have recovered from Covid-19, such as 60-year-old Konda Mbwaki, one of hundreds of patients we have discharged from our hospitals this past week – Konda was discharged after spending three weeks at Queen’s Hospital. A wonderful video of Konda being applauded as he left the ward where he was treated, has had a lovely response from all viewing these videos on our social media channels. 

Having recovered himself, Konda has this serious message for everyone: “Be careful – this virus exists and I know the pain it can cause. Don’t play the game, wash your hands and follow all the guidance and medical advice.”

You can also view our videos of 88-year-old Donald Kingerley and Malcolm Hall, 74, leaving our wards after recovering from Covid-19.

Sadly, however I have to share news with you about the death of one of our staff members Amrik Bamotra, who worked in the MRI department at King George Hospital. I would like to offer my sincere condolences to his family, friends and colleagues and we are ensuring they are supported at this difficult time.

Amrik’s family joined a moving tribute at last week’s Clap for Carers event outside King George Hospital, featuring drummers performing in his memory. It is captured in this video which has reached more than 140,000 people on Facebook and raised over £185 for our charity so far. Thank you also to all the emergency services, our staff and Dav Daheley of Powered by Percussion who joined  the event last Thursday.

We now sadly have a total of 200 patients to date who have died, who tested positive for Covid-19.  

Our hospital discharge service which I mentioned last week is now in place, providing an extra 117 beds for patients who are medically fit to be discharged from acute hospital care, but still require care in a community hospital.  My thanks to our healthcare system partners including NELFT, who finished getting the beds ready in just 15 days, with the first ward now taking patients from our hospitals.

I am very pleased to tell you that since we launched our ‘Thinking of you’, service last week, we have been able to share 335 letters and pictures from friends and families to their loved ones in our hospitals.

People can send the information on our website every day from Monday to Friday or call 01708 503 604 to share their messages between 10am and 2pm, Monday to Friday. Please do remind people in your networks about this service and ask them to share this information widely.

Our leadership team are sharing their thoughts and their thanks to our staff through video messages, which are a real boost to staff morale.You can view the videos on our website.

Finally as always, my heartfelt thanks to everyone for your ongoing generosity and support at this critical time. Please do pass this on and please share these updates.

I hope you and your families continue to stay home and stay safe.

Tony Chambers
Chief Executive