Western Trust issues urgent New Year appeal for help

The Trust has reported that Emergency Departments and Altnagelvin and South West Acute hospitals in general are currently ‘extremely busy’, and said they “anticipate more difficulty over the coming days”.

COVID-19 cases are continuing to soar locally with the number of cases confirmed for Derry and Strabane doubling over the past week, when over 700 cases were confirmed.

A spokesperson for the Trust said: “We believe it will be crucial to create additional capacity and open beds across all our hospital settings and the ability to do so is dependent on creating a pool of staff from across the health and care professions.

“We are looking in particular for Nurses (all bands), Nursing and Care Assistants, Social Workers and Social Work Assistants, Home Care Workers, Allied Health Professionals and Domestic / Catering services staff.

“However, all offers of help from any member of staff would be gratefully appreciated and considered accordingly and in keeping with professional guidance,” a spokesperson said.

In a video message accompanying the appeal, Dr Bob Brown, Director of Primary Care and Older People’s Services said: “The month of January may well be the most difficult month of all and we are in this period where COVID rates continue to be very high, transmission is high across our community areas and admissions to hospital continue to increase.

“We work through this period with the hope that we will vaccinate as many people as possible in the weeks and months ahead. But that will take time. We’ve made a really good start across all of our care homes and with prioritised groups of staff. But it will take until the Spring to vaccinate enough people to increase the herd immunity to fight this pandemic.

“And that’s why during these most difficult days and weeks ahead I am making a special appeal to our workforce to come and help us to open additional beds across all our hospitals within this new year weekend period. So I am seeking additional junior doctors, allied health professionals, social workers, all members of the health and social care team to come and be part of this support plan to enable us to keep people safe from the front door right through our hospital services.”

Mr Brown also paid tribute to staff working in the Western Trust area. He said: “I wanted to take this opportunity to thank all our staff for your huge efforts throughout 2020 in all of our services and to wish you all the best for 2021.

“It has been an incredible year and you have shown tremendous care and compassion for each other, resilience, compassion, and have really given every effort across community and hospital services to help us to manage the challenges around the pandemic.”

If you feel you can offer some time to help between now and Thursday January 7 2021, please contact Kareen McCauley via e-mail: [email protected]