Last week (Tuesday 28 April) we were really proud to open our Tree of Life displays as a symbol of hope to mark all of our patients who have survived the virus. Patients and their families can place a bee on the trees – chosen because of their important link to supporting life.

One of our first patients to place a bee on the Tree of Life at Queen’s Hospital, was Rene King, 89 who left hospital last week after recovering from Covid-19. You can read the full story on our website. You can also read the Evening Standard’s feature about the murals on their website. 

I am delighted to say that the number of patients we have discharged with suspected or confirmed Covid-19, more than doubled from 368 three weeks ago (Tuesday 7 April) to 994 as of last week (Tuesday 28 April). I hope that you will be inspired to place your own bees on our Trees of Life. Please also share this message within your networks so more people can place their own messages. 

I was really proud to see the outstanding care our staff provides to our patients, recognised in the Barking and Dagenham Post. The paper featured the story of 93-year-old Beatrice Gapes who recovered from Covid-19 after spending 24 days at Queen’s Hospital.

As we continue to celebrate those who are recovering and remember those who have died, we are working at pace on how, in the coming months, we can care across our hospitals for our Covid and non-Covid patients. I am keen to bring you updates on our plans in the weeks ahead.

Four weeks ago I wrote to update you about ongoing measures to help keep our patients safe including re-arranging and postponing outpatient appointments until last week (Friday 1 May). To continue to help to keep our patients safe, most routine face-to-face outpatient appointments will be postponed until 22 May, when we will review this again. This does not include cancer and urgent appointments. During March we held more than 5,100 appointments over the phone; in April we held almost 5,700. So far we have scheduled in more than 1,000 appointments in May. We will contact patients by phone or by letter to update them on their appointment. For more information please read our story on our website.

We have also updated our visitor policy in line with the latest updated guidance from NHS England. Visitors are allowed if they are supporting a patient with a mental health issue such as dementia, a learning disability or autism. More information on our visitor policy is available on our website.

We understand this is a very difficult time for families and friends of our patients in critical care. Please watch and share this heart-warming video from our critical care staff to relatives who are unable to visit their loved ones at this time.

I am really proud of the remarkable work our critical care team has done in partnership with other teams across our Trust to get a renal dialysis unit up and running in just 10 days. This is essential to the care we provide, as we are finding that 25 per cent of our patients in critical care with Covid-19 need dialysis as their kidneys stop working effectively. Thank you also to our healthcare partner Barts Health NHS Trust for their support in making this happen. 

We have also recently set up a seven-day physiotherapy service which is key for our patients’ recovery from Covid-19. Read our story on our website here.

In recent weeks we have been very fortunate in the amount and types of donations we have received from our local communities. The family of one of our patients Pete Lawrence, kindly donated four iPads to help other relatives stay in touch with their loved ones in our hospitals. You can read more about their donation drive on our website. This inspired their close family and friends including Pippa’s Army, a local animal search and rescue group, to get involved; their kind donation was featured in the Romford Recorder.

We are very grateful to everyone who has kindly donated PPE such as gloves, face visors, goggles and hand gels – all of which have been gratefully received and distributed to staff across the Trust. We now have sufficient stocks of PPE and so are asking people to redirect further donations to our colleagues in the community with a greater need such as care homes, the police, and our local councils and fire service. Please also share this message within your networks.

Our charity, the King George and Queen’s Hospital Charity, has been inundated in the past few weeks with kind donations including 92,000 donated meals to help keep our staff going. You can read about how Stacey English, usually the events coordinator for our charity, has found herself in an entirely new role coordinating food and drinks donations across our teams on our website.

I am pleased to share the experience of first time parents Baksho Rani and Krishan Lal who saw their daughter arrive safely at Queen’s Hospital during the pandemic – on the same day as Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s son (Wednesday 29 April) was born. 

It is an anxious time for any parents any other time, but it is even more so during the pandemic. First-time mother Baksho was understandably scared but was full of praise for our staff who provided  reassurance to her from the minute she arrived. You can read their story on our website.

Thank you as always for your continuing support and I hope you and your families continue to stay home and stay safe.

Tony Chambers
Chief Executive