'Coronavirus is the biggest challenge the NHS have ever faced' – that’s the from the Isle of Wight NHS Trust Chief Executive, Maggie Oldham. Ms Oldham spoke exclusively to Isle of Wight Radio on Wednesday (25), where she revealed that the number of COVID-19 cases now stands at eight on the Island. Here at some of the key steps and measures the Isle of Wight NHS trust is taking to cope with the coronavirus pandemic: We are doing everything possible to prepare and we ask the public to help us by following the Government’s instruction to stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives. We have used the current time to make sure we are as ready as possible. We know that many people affected by Coronavirus require critical care support, and here at St Mary’s we are increasing the number of critical care beds we have available. That means more intensive care beds, more ventilators and lots of training for staff. We've reconfigured some of our wards to create a new isolation ward, which opened last week, and we have plans for more isolation wards to open as they are needed. We have taken delivery of Personal Protective Equipment from the national NHS supplies and more will be delivered as necessary. Huge amounts of training has been going on all over the Trust to prepare our teams for what is coming in the days and weeks ahead. We are recruiting more NHS 111 call handlers to support people in isolation at home. Our mental health service has put more support in place for in patients and community services. Our community teams, supporting people in their homes and in nursing homes, have been a real inspiration. Reacting quickly, working hard, supporting and training others. We have rolled out new technology and training to support staff and the people they care for in 80 care homes across the Island and we have introduced video conferencing to allow patient appointments in many of our other services to take place remotely. To help protect patients, staff and the community we have announced strict restrictions on visitors to St Mary’s and Sevenacres. We have closed the restaurant in St Mary’s to non-NHS Staff, and we have closed the Friends of St Mary’s shop and café. We have also postponed all non-urgent operations, to free up beds, staff and equipment to deal with the very real emergency that’s coming. The effort has come from all over the NHS including our support services, our cleaners, porters, estates, catering, human resources and finance teams... There are too many to mention them all, but I am grateful to each and every one. More of our staff will be asked to support our community by working differently in the coming days. Making staff meals and parking free to make days just a little bit easier, recognising that many families are going to suffer financial hardship over the coming period. By working together, looking out for one another, with kindness and compassion, we will get through this and with the support of our wonderful Island community we will get through. The number one thing that I ask everyone to do to help us is to stay home. Do what the government is telling us. Stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives. We are hugely grateful for the flood of donations and gifts, they mean a huge amount to us. But please let us know in advance so we can manage the deliveries. Details are on our website. Please do not come to St Mary’s Hospital or Sevenacres. If you want to volunteer there is a new national campaign launched that you can sign up to. https://www.facebook.com/290713220369/videos/217009862707367/ Ms Oldham added: "To the NHS staff hard at work, to our colleagues in social care, at the hospice, in schools and in all of the essential roles that support our effort to fight this virus. Thank you. "And thank you to the Isle of Wight community for supporting us and for following the government's instruction to stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives."
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