I hope you have managed to have some rest during the Christmas period. You’ll be well aware of how challenging it has been at our Trust and in our neighbouring ones in north east London. I wanted to take the opportunity to share with you the text of a message I sent this afternoon to all our staff.

Best wishes.

Tony Chambers
Chief Executive

Covid-19 has tested us all in ways we would once have thought were unimaginable. It is still testing us. Colleagues, relatives and friends have died. Those we love have been ill. Many of you have had the virus. Our experience is a shared one, but not everyone shares our additional responsibility as healthcare workers. Day in day out, for nine months, you’ve balanced the ongoing personal cost of the pandemic with your professional responsibility to care for those in need. You have been there, for patients and their relatives, during their darkest moments. I know that such experiences take their toll.

You don’t need me to tell you how tough it is at the moment. If you’re on our frontline, you’ve lived it throughout the Christmas period. You’ve also seen a glimpse of your lived experience reported on the television news. The aerial footage of Queen’s Hospital captured just one of the many ways we’re caring for our patients, by offering them tea while they are being looked after safely on an ambulance.

The demands are not going away any time soon. I will resist resorting to clichés; you’re probably tired of reading them. Instead, I will say simply that the people who live in Barking and Dagenham, Havering and Redbridge need your ongoing help.

The second wave of the virus doesn’t appear to have reached its peak in hospital admissions and we will continue to see very sick patients entering Queen’s and King George Hospitals. To ensure we have the necessary staff to care for them, we’ve taken the difficult decision (as other trusts have done) to postpone all annual leave that has been booked in January. You can either sell it back or take it at a later date. More details will be available from your line manager and on the intranet.

The fact we’re calling all staff back shows that everyone, whatever their role, has a contribution to make as we strive to respond to this unprecedented level of demand on our services.

I am really touched that some of our primary care colleagues have offered to work shifts this weekend on our wards. This is ‘system’ working in action. We will also, hopefully, have medical students and trainee nurses working alongside us.

Despite the current bleakness, the two vaccines offer us hope and we are delighted to be playing our part in the vaccination programme. When the current pain and exhaustion subsides, I hope, in the months ahead, you will be left with a sense of pride about the role you have played.

Our most precious resource is you, our staff. We will support you in every way we can. Thank you for all you have done; are doing; and will continue to do.