In March 2020 we, alongside our NHS colleagues across the country, were faced with an unprecedented challenge. We had to make huge changes to our services, our care and our workforce in a matter of hours, days and weeks. Our staff and volunteers worked tirelessly in challenging and worrying circumstances to ensure we could still safely care for our patients and support each other in the response to COVID-19.

The challenge isn’t over yet. This video tells our story so far, and we dedicate it to our staff and volunteers who have worked so hard to make this happen. Thank you.

This video captures the NELFT journey in response to COVID-19 so far, and staff across our organisation talk about the challenges we’ve faced as well as what we have achieved.

Professor Oliver Shanley OBE, Chief Executive, said: “When the pandemic began we immediately commenced our incident management response, which is hugely unfamiliar to how we would normally run our organisation. We were walking into something we had never ever faced before.”

In the video you’ll hear from our teams who have played pivotal parts in our response to the pandemic as they tell their story about what it’s been like to work for NELFT and work in the NHS during COVID-19 and how they have overcome challenges.

Moriam Adekunle, Co-Chair of our Ethnic Minority Staff Network, begins by talking about how we supported our staff from black and minority ethnic communities during the pandemic, who we now know are sadly more vulnerable to COVID-19. She said: “We really invested in training, especially around PPE and infection control. We will continue to have those courageous conversations and the necessary debates until we are assured as an organisation we have done the best we can.”

Telling their stories in our new video is Melody who created our PPE hub in response to the national shortage, Mog who set up our Wobble Rooms to support staff, and Christine and Jennifer, who have been redeployed into new roles. Caroline talks about how being redeployed was a uncertain and worrying time for a lot of staff, and how important it was to provide them with support, training and open and honest communication.

Matron Pathi talks about the care we have provided patients, Dr Ganeshan explains how he and his teams have supported their patients when they can’t be visited by their families, and Jenny says how proud she is of her team.

Stephanie Dawe, Chief Nurse and Executive Director of Integrated Care, talks about how we created 139 new beds for patients at our Brentwood Community Hospital with the help of the community. She said: “We created this new site in just a matter of weeks with the help of volunteers including the fire brigade, the ambulance service and army. The community really came together.”

Ubaidul Hoque, Chair of Staffside, admits he will never forget the pandemic and the work of his colleagues. He said: “I’m so proud to be part of NELFT. This event will live with me and will be told to my children and grandchildren about what we did and how the NHS rose up to the challenge.”

One of our patients, Wendy, also talks in the video about the care she has received from our teams: “They are wonderful and they all work their socks off, and are lovely to me and all the patients. I’d like to say well done to them, they are all stars.”

Oliver Shanley concludes the video by thanking everyone who has made our response to COVID-19 possible. He said: “What I’d really like to say to my colleagues in NELFT is a huge thank you. You are simply amazing and what you’ve done over the past few weeks is incredible and I am so enormously proud to walk alongside you.