Health care staff: ‘Thank you feels inadequate, frankly’ - Trust CEO

The Trust confirmed to the Journal at a recent media briefing that it planned to make use of donations received from local groups and individuals to develop some sort of recognition, with Trust Chief Executive Anne Kilgallen stating that, “frankly, thank you feels inadequate”.

Mrs Kilgallen said that staff had faced, and will continue to face, many challenges as a result of the virus, but thanked all Trust workers for their “commitment and resilience”.

“It has just been incredible to experience and observe,” she said, adding:

“That sense of people having a sense of mission, a sense of purpose and the rapidity with which people made change happen and coped with change is remarkable.

“In terms of recognising staff, we’re actively talking and thinking about how to do that. It’s really important.

“They have been exemplary in what they have done in terms of going the extra mile and their commitment, and we need to give some thought to how we recognise that. Thank you feels inadequate frankly, given what we have seen across our services.”

Ms Kilgallen also paid tribute to the local medical students who joined the frontline in hospitals and in the community and echoed the sentiments of another health professional she had met with who said that the “Class of 2020 will be a legend”.

Mrs. Kilgallen said the way those students had “stepped up to the mark” had been astounding. “We’re all immensely proud of them and at some point in the future we will look back on all of them as legends,” she said.

Geraldine McKay, Director of Care, Acute Hospital Services said the Trust was keen to retain as many of those trainee health professionals as possible.

She said: “Student nurses came out early and have been very, very supportive of care to patients in our wards and departments and so at this moment in time we are trying to ascertain from them would they like to stay, and we would really like to keep them where they want to stay. We’re very, very keen and want to keep all those that want to stay.”

Speaking about how quickly the frontline responded to patients, she added: “It was just eye opening, they just stepped up and really went with it... we all worked together as one team.

“The public support for our staff has been immense. We have had a number of donations from groups and individual people.

“Our staff really, really have gone the extra mile. They have been so committed.

“They left their homes to make sure their families were safe, they stayed in accommodation and they really, really put their patients first.

“We are starting to have conversations about doing something for them all to acknowledge what they have done for us and the population of the Trust.

“We want to make good use of all the public support, and in particular the donations we have had.”

Bob Brown, Director of Primary Care and Older People’s Services and Director of Nursing, also paid tribute to the extraordinary commitment shown by Trust staff.

Mr Brown added: “The support from public, media and local representatives has been part of that team ethos, and during this most difficult of periods that is something we can all lean on going forward.”