As we enter our third year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the virus continues to impact our day-to-day lives. Although a sense of normality is starting to return to many industries, here at Hospiscare, we remain incredibly cautious as we care for such vulnerable people.
We continue to have limited visiting on our ward and we work very closely with patients and their families to ensure that they get to spend quality time together, especially when patients are nearing the end of life.
Our nursing teams are working across all different areas of Hospiscare, including on our specialist ward at Searle House, in our Clinical Co-ordination Centre and in the community through our community nursing and Hospiscare at Home services. The medical team continues to support patients not only who come under Hospiscare’s services but also patients in the Royal Devon & Exeter hospital who require specialist medical advice. Our clinical staff are continuing to COVID test three times a week in order to keep patients and colleagues safe and we are thankful that Hospice UK continues to provide our staff with PPE.
Shortly before Christmas, we were fortunate to receive visits to the ward from the Salvation Army band and the Hospiscare Choir. We organised for both groups to perform outside in a socially distanced manner so that our patients and their families could enjoy the entertainment safely. All of the performers were rewarded with a hot cuppa and biscuits to warm their chilly fingers!
At a time that is extremely difficult for the NHS, we are working very closely with our NHS colleagues and admitting patients when we have capacity in order to ease the pressure on hospital services.
Our teams meet on a daily basis to monitor safety and infection prevention and control decisions surrounding COVID and we continue to keep quality and individualised care at the heart of what we do.
