Weekly community update from our CEO - 27 November 2020

Posted Friday, November 27, 2020 4:02 PM

27 November 2020 – Update 5

An update to patients, communities and partners of Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS FT 

Hello, 

We are moving towards the end of the national restrictions, however we will all have seen the announcement yesterday that Nottinghamshire and most of the Midlands will be in Tier Three from 2 December. The news was confirmation, if we needed it, that we still have high rates of COVID-19 in our communities and that our hospitals and other public services are under pressure. We all must continue to recognise we have personal responsibility at work and at home to behave in a way that will support a reduction in the rate of infection. 

At Sherwood the volume of patients with COVID-19 has been high over the last couple of weeks and remains at a level similar to the numbers we saw at the peak of wave one. I am extremely proud of the efforts of colleagues at Sherwood and partner organisations. As we discussed in our virtual community brief on Wednesday, which can be accessed here, I remain worried about the pressure that people have been working under for an extended length of time. Our three hospitals remain open 24 hours a day seven days a week and I would ask people to continue to respect our guidelines for social distancing, cleaning your hands and wearing a surgical face mask in our hospitals. This will make it easier for Sherwood colleagues to do their job to provide safe care to you. 

We have not made any changes to our access policy to our three hospitals this week and we do not propose to make any further changes as we move from national restrictions into Tier Three. Like everyone else, I hope we see the rate of COVID-19 fall over the coming weeks and then we may see a change in which Tier Nottinghamshire is in. 

At Sherwood we have one of the best rates of flu vaccine uptake amongst healthcare workers in the NHS and I would urge everyone in the community, who can have the flu vaccine, to have it. You may have read that the NHS is making plans to roll out COVID-19 vaccines shortly and I wanted to update you with the information I have. It is looking likely that hospitals will be the first organisations to receive stocks of the vaccine and we are making plans to run voluntary vaccination sessions in line with instructions from NHS England. All of the potential vaccines require two doses spaced apart and each has a required time lag between receiving the flu vaccine and receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. We anticipate that health and care colleagues will be amongst the first groups eligible to be vaccinated and I will keep you updated as we receive further information. 

Please stay safe, look after each other and follow the guidelines. Thank you for your support.

Richard Mitchell
Chief Executive
Richard.Mitchell2@nhs.net