What the pandemic has taught us

The pandemic is far from over and while the long term impacts are still unclear, as life in the UK starts to return to a level of normality, we spoke to some of KCHFT’s leaders about the moments they will never forget, what the pandemic taught us and how we’ll learn from these difficult times to provide even better care for you – our patients and service users.

Paul Bentley, Chief Executive

Every day during the pandemic, I was humbled and inspired by the desire of staff to provide the best care they could, knowing they could be putting themselves at risk. I couldn’t be prouder.

For me, we worked together as a health and social care system in ways I have never experienced in my NHS career. We stood together, shoulder-to-shoulder, as barriers between organisations evaporated and we united in our fight against the pandemic.

But, like many of us, what the pandemic will also be remembered for is exposing the disparities that exist and the disproportionate impact it had on people from diverse communities.

As a father to three mixed race children – one of whom was working as a junior doctor on the frontline – I was aware of the levels of risk they were exposed to and it made me all the more inpatient to make lasting change.

Making sure everyone we serve gets a fair deal, is something we as an NHS, need to get better at and something we will
strive to tackle.

Dr Mercia Spare, Chief Nurse

The tenacity of the human spirit to just keep going is incredible and that was shown through the pandemic.

Even though they were under personal threat, our teams kept going for the wellbeing of others. I still well up now when I think about it. I have such enormous pride in our workforce.

When the pandemic began, our people were terrified and yet they carried on going and still do so now to provide the high-quality care our patients, clients and service users deserve. To be a leader and a colleague and feel such pride in their awesomeness will never leave me.

I think it is a privilege to listen to stories told by our staff of how they kept pushing on to get through and how they achieved it.

Pauline Butterworth, Chief Operating Officer

Those very early days in wave one were busier than any time I had ever experienced. It was challenging because things were changing by the hour and multiple, important decisions needed to be taken that would affect our patients. Setting up our incident control centre really helped with this – it very quickly developed into a well-oiled machine, supporting us in making sure our patients, but as importantly our staff, were safe.

It would have been easy for our teams to admit defeat in the face of what they were being asked to do, but they didn’t. Their relentless energy and compassion never stopped. They found ways to make sure our patients were well cared for that they may never have tried before. Their creativity and flexibility was truly exceptional.

No matter how tired people became, everyone had the same focus – our patients. Overnight they had to embrace virtual technology, many juggled work with home schooling and others found themselves being based at home.

Everything changed in an instant and yet our workforce delivered. I have been thankful to work with such outstanding colleagues and teams.

Gordon Flack, Director of Finance

In the initial wave of the pandemic, NHS contracts were suspended and finances dealt with in a completely different way, with the guarantee we would get the resources we needed. Attention turned to making sure we had sufficient personal protective equipment, staff were redeployed, we had IT to support home-working and we had the information to understand what was going on in real time. My teams were heavily engaged in successfully delivering these essential elements of our response and I am proud of them.

In the second wave, vaccination became a reality. I took on the executive lead role for the KCHFT response. This was daunting, but invigorating as the team assembled was highly motivated and skilled and rapidly set up seven vaccination sites, plus a pop up roving service.

The pandemic brought out the best and worst in people and had differential impacts. Covid risk was clearly predominantly age-related and any divergence from vaccinating in strict order would inevitably risk loss of life. The lesson for us is that delivering better population health is about targeting resources to those who need it and will do best from it even, if sometimes, it’s a difficult message to give because we want to quickly help everyone.

Louise Norris, Director of Workforce, Organisational Development and Communications

Like most people, there are so many moments I will never forget. However, some really stand out.

The most important and overwhelming one is the sad and tragic loss of life; fortunately, we did not lose any colleagues due to the virus.

There are also many positive memories, for example the day we asked all non-patient facing colleagues to work from home during the first lockdown in March last year. For my team, that meant us all working virtually. Everyone adapted literally overnight. They continued to deliver services to make sure the trust delivered high-quality care to our patients. And this way of working is now our new norm. This doesn’t mean we will only work at home. We still go in when our work requires us to do so. We reduced travel for everyone and are supporting delivery of KCHT’s sustainability strategy.

In August, we ran some listening events. Hearing, first-hand, the impact the pandemic was having on colleagues and their families was so very powerful.

At the end of October, we were asked to deliver the vaccination programme and be the lead employer across Kent and Medway. The hours the team put in to make sure the programme was up and running in a few weeks was outstanding. I will never forget the moment the first person walked through the door at Folca vaccination centre in Folkestone. It was incredibly emotional; a moment when everyone’s hard work had come to fruition. The first step towards the end of lockdown.

Ali Carruth, Director of Participation, Experience and Patient Engagement

When KCHFT decided to open and run the large-scale vaccination sites, I knew I wanted to help out. As a nurse of 30 years, I had stood on the streets each Thursday and clapped for my colleagues. The sense of pride, belonging and gratitude was overwhelming. It was my opportunity to help out in a tangible way. I completed all my training and updates to make sure I was fully informed on the vaccines.

When I stepped into the vaccine centre, I was truly moved to tears. There were an army of volunteers, nurses, pharmacists, support workers, paramedics - the whole of the NHS working together for the sake of patients and health of the nation.

The atmosphere was buoyant, not just among the staff, but from those receiving the vaccine. It felt like a lifeline. At that moment, I can honestly say I’ve never been prouder of our NHS. It was the NHS working at its best, together.

Natalie Davies, Corporate Services Director

The pandemic was an incredible time of staff courage, team working and delivery against the odds. I remember going to work with the Facilities Team in January at Faversham Cottage Hospital. I was mopping the nurses’ station and the buzz of the ward was going on around me.

I was so struck by the different staff and different professions all working together and supporting each other from the nurses to facilities staff to occupational therapists to physiotherapists and more. It was a really proud moment to be part of KCHFT.

I contrast that moment with all the support and infrastructure services, so many had completely changed the way they worked to be at home, often juggling that with children or partners working at home too, yet continuing to deliver as their critical support to the pandemic response.

It’s a funny feeling walking into one of our sites and not hearing the buzz of people you would normally hear; standing still you could almost hear a pin drop one day when I was at our head office. Before the pandemic, we had started to develop a sustainability strategy for the trust and part of this looks at how we use our buildings. Standing that day in such a quiet building made me realise we would most likely not use our estates’ space in the same way again; that Covid had accelerated work we had already begun; work to make us more sustainable as a healthcare provider.