Publish date: 13 January 2022

A message from Trish Bennett, Director of Nursing and Operations and Noir Thomas, Medical Director:

"Dear Colleague,

We are writing to all of our staff to say a huge thank you for all that you do, every day, but never more heartfelt than in these extraordinary circumstances.

We continue to see an ongoing increase in COVID Omicron transmission across our hospitals and services, mirrored across our neighbouring acute services. This variant is considerably more transmissible than previous and presents a serious concern for nosocomial infection and for the protection of both patients and staff. To the small number of staff who, for whatever reason, are yet to be vaccinated, we urge you to do so immediately.

Across all our clinical settings we are seeing a surge in demand, which will likely increase in the coming days and weeks. Your leadership teams are working tirelessly to ensure we are as prepared as possible to deal with this unprecedented challenge. Our huge appreciation and thanks to them all.

We will now be asking you to be flexible in your professional contributions as we respond to the evolving needs of our patients and services. This could include being asked to work in new and different areas and roles. We will support you to do so. We are reviewing our up-skilling programme to enable you to work in different ways and circumstances. Please take every opportunity to participate.

At this time, we want to emphasise the value of teamwork within and between professionals to ensure that both your psychological safety and the safety of our patients remain a priority.

We may have to take more difficult decisions about staffing levels and around early discharge plans. The scale of the challenge across the north west means that we are now being asked to move to discharge patients from our acute, mental health, learning disability and community hospitals earlier than we may have done otherwise. This is in order to create capacity for patients who risk receiving delayed or sub-optimal urgent and emergency care whilst awaiting admission.

Please be assured you will continue to receive our unequivocal support and that of your local leaders, where you are required to exercise your professional judgement in the best interests of our patients, yet within the significant constraints of this pandemic.

We absolutely appreciate how difficult and exhausting your working days can be. Take a moment in the day to focus your compassion inwards, to acknowledge what impact these incredibly challenging times are having on you and accept that it’s okay not to feel okay. Know we are here to support you.

We will keep in touch via regular updates and webinars. Please continue to support and look after each other and above all else, stay safe. 

With grateful thanks and best wishes."