We look back on what we at Barts Health NHS Trust have achieved in the two years since the UK first entered lockdown.
March
2020
We treat our first Covid-19 patient at Barts Health on the 7 March. Four days later, on the 11 March 2020, the World Health Organisation declared the Covid-19 outbreak a global pandemic.
Barts Charity launch emergency Covid-19 appeal on 22 March. In total, it raises £5.6m to fund emergency essentials, patient care and staff support initiatives and more.
The UK enters lockdown for the first time on the 23 March 2020. As a result, we introduce a working from home policy for non-clinical staff.
April
2020
NHS Nightingale
At the request of NHS London, our trust agrees to host the new NHS Nightingale Hospital for Covid-19 patients, housed at the ExCeL London exhibition centre in Newham.
The hospital officially opens on 3 April, with the first patient being admitted on the 7.
To cope with increased pressures and more patients in our hospitals as a result of the pandemic, we begin redeploying staff across the trust, to work in areas related to Covid-19, both clinical and non-clinical.
On 10th April, we launch a new research project in collaboration with University College London and Queen Mary University of London.
It used samples from Barts Health staff to understand why some people exposed to coronavirus develop severe disease and others have only minor symptoms.
A week later, and again, together with Queen Mary University of London, we launch another project.
This project is recruiting Covid-19 patients into clinical trials to understand why some people become severely affected by the disease, and to investigate treatments to see if they can help more patients survive.
May
2020
With visiting restrictions in place to control the spread, we introduce new ways for families and friends to send messages to their loved ones in our hospitals.
Barts Health volunteers play a huge role in delivering these messages, as well as providing care, support and personal items to those in our hospitals, ensuring they are still connected to their family and friends.
July
2020
As we begin to emerge from the first wave of the pandemic, services start to restart across our hospitals, including cancer operations, as theatre capacity comes back online.
Barts Charity announce funding for NHS staff wellbeing projects
This included a psychological support service and a wellbeing hub for each hospital, as well as upgraded staff facilities like changing rooms and break areas.
November
2020
We open the Barts Health Vaccines Trial centre at the Bethnal Green Library.
The first study to run there is a phase-three trial of a Covid-19 vaccine developed by The Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson. Staff from all hospitals across Barts Health, together with Queen Mary researchers worked together, alongside medical school students and Trust volunteers, to run the trial at the centre.
December
2020
We begin delivering Covid-19 vaccines to at our hospitals, joining the national roll-out programme.
The vaccination hubs are open to our staff, other NHS staff and members of the public eligible for a Covid-19 vaccine at that time.
January
2021
On 11 January 2021, we open the NHS Covid-19 vaccination centre, Newham at ExCeL London.
The centre, one of the initial seven large-scale vaccination centres in the UK, was run by Barts Health staff, with vital support from Barts Health volunteers, St John Ambulance, the London Ambulance service and others.
On 18 January, we open The Queen Elizabeth Unit at The Royal London Hospital.
The bespoke a critical care facility spanned the 14 and 15 floors at the hospital and was dedicated to treatment of Covid-19 patients.
February
2021
Working with colleagues from local councils and clinical commissioning groups, our teams from the NHS Covid-19 vaccination centre, Newham, run by Barts Health, begin delivering Covid-19 vaccines at local community centres and places of worship.
These ‘pop-up’ clinics took place across London, in areas with low vaccine uptake, in a bid to encourage people to have a vaccine closer to home and in a more familiar environment.
March
2021
We reach a significant milestone in the fight against Covid-19 and recruit our 10,000th patient to a Covid-19 clinical trial, since the pandemic began.
The participants were recruited across 34 different Covid-19 studies, including 15 National Institute for Health Research ‘Urgent Public Health’ studies.
May
2021
We open a new Covid-19 vaccination centre in Westfield, Stratford. It comes as we close the doors on our vaccination centre at ExCeL London, which delivered over 130,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccines.
The centre is run by Barts Health staff, with vital support from Barts Health volunteers, St John Ambulance, the London Ambulance service and others.
August
2021
Overall, during the pandemic, 31 news stories, focusing on how our hospitals managed the pandemic, were shared across outlets like BBC, Channel 4 and The Times.
October
2021
We launch Project Tooth Fairy at The Royal London Dental Hospital.
The dedicated new surgical centre will treat children and young people from across the capital, who have been waiting too long for operations to remove problem teeth or perform multiple fillings because of the pandemic.
We hold Over The Rainbow, a very special virtual thank you event for all our staff and volunteers, funded by Barts Charity. The event is later shortlisted for a 2022 HSJ Partnerships award in the Workforce and Wellbeing Initative of the Year category.
November
2021
We begin gearing up and preparing for one of the most challenging winters we’ve ever faced.
December
2021
We open a Covid-19 Medicine Delivery Unit at Mile End Hospital, delivering neutralising monoclonal antibody (nMAb) treatment and offering at-home antiviral treatment for the disease as well.
This is the first time these treatments – which have to be given within 72 hours (nMAb treatment) or five days (antiviral treatment) of a positive Covid-19 PCR test – become widely available to the people of north east London.
With the Omicron variant spreading fast in London, we’re in a level 4 national incident. Covid-19 admissions to our hospitals increase and so we update our existing winter escalation plans to keep our teams safe so we can continue to treat our patients.
The BBC return to our hospitals to look at how we’re managing the Omicron wave, and balancing the risk across all our patients – those coming in through the front door, those staying as inpatients, and those leaving – so that those who need care the most receive it at the right time.
January
2022
One year on since we joined the national Covid-19 vaccination programme, our vaccination team, together with our local partners rallied have delivered an incredible 243,000 Covid-19 vaccines to the people of east London and beyond.
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By the end of January, pressures from Omicron start to ease and we begin to look to the future with focus and determination, taking the positives of the last two years with us, and leaving the negative behind.
We are deeply saddened that during the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, we lost nine members of the Barts Health family. We remember them and our thoughts are with their friends, families and colleagues:
Miharajiya Mohideen – known as Raji to colleagues – a healthcare assistant on Tayberry ward at Newham Hospital
Mr Van Lang Hoang, patient transport driver
Mark Woolcock, ambulance care assistant
Dr Habibhai Babu – known to all of us as Babu – an SHO older people’s services at Whipps Cross Hospital
Vincent Lawlor – sexual health advisor at The Royal London Hospital
Jeff Edwards – former porter at Whipps Cross Hospital
Greg (Grzegorz) Serwin – health records porter working at The Royal London Hospital and across Barts Health NHS Trust
Emmanuel ‘Manny’ Okoro – patient transport team
Elias Phiri – sexual health advisor at The Royal London Hospital
