"Lessons to learn and things to work on"- says Chief Nurse of QEH
This comes after a report into how the hospital handled the pandemic
Last updated 4th Oct 2021
Alice Webster, the chief nurse of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital says there are "lessons to learn and things to work on".
This comes after the hospital conducted a report into how nearly 400 patients got infected with Covid, between March 2020 and February of this year, while they were being treated there.
Ms Webster told us that its vitally important that QEH can offer a more even balance of different wards, in the future:
"About 10% of our estate are side-rooms and naturally that creates a barrier between patients. If we had more of these, that would give us more areas to separately treat patients in".
But she says care at the hospital is bettering itself everyday:
"Testing is much better. We are testing people far more frequently and before they come in. There is no doubt that everyday we get something new we need to translate and that makes our hospital safer than it was yesterday".
She went on to say that hospital is now offering additional support to patients and staff, alike:
"We have provided for our own staff, clinical psychology and we have provided support through elements of health and well-being. It's important to note that we are also offering this support to patients as well. Everybody is important in this and we need to make sure that every person feels safe".
She concluded by saying that the creation of this report will help the hospital learn from it's past mistakes:
"We are truly sorry that many patients caught Covid under our care. This exercise has been about doing the right thing, being open and honest with patients and their loved ones. We will ensure that we continue to make progress and move forwards".