Matt is one of our consultants, and kindly took the time to share with our supporters how our hospital team have adapted to caring for people during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The last six months have changed the world as we know it and for many individuals and their families it has brought huge pain and suffering. Here at Sobell House the Covid-19 pandemic has provided a huge challenge but we have worked tirelessly to try to respect the rules needed to control the pandemic whilst offering compassionate care to those struggling and in pain.
In the hospitals across Oxfordshire our teams have chosen to be part of the frontline by working hand in hand with the doctors and nurses looking after patients caring for Covid-19 patients. This has enabled the team to develop new approaches and treatments for these patients to ensure they receive the very best care at the end of their lives. The team have now published their experiences to try to support colleagues both in the UK and abroad to enable them to offer the same level of high-quality care to all.
For those remaining in hospital while visiting was stopped this has been a frightening and isolating time, and so our teams have adapted to ensure that we keep loved ones updated using telephone and video calling. In one brilliant example a lady cared for by the team had a virtual trip to Jerusalem organised by the chaplaincy team which enabled her to use a tablet device to ‘walk about’ the holy sites that offered her huge spiritual peace at the end of her life. As a team we have worked hard to try to keep our staff, including those who have joined our team, to help with the workload and remain safe and well so they could continue to provide a world class service to everyone who needs it.
For many patients we managed to arrange for them to go home for their final days in the most difficult of circumstances and worked to train and support their family members in how to care for them, when professional carers weren’t available. It has been inspiring to see how communities have pulled together and worked to help us help patients”.