Prince William visits the hospital where Kate Middleton was born to see the impact of funds raised by NHS Charities Together. The Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading is where the UK's first Covid-19 victim died in March 2020.
Report by Ajagbef. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
Report by Ajagbef. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00The staff that really came out of the Covid era and what we learned from that and how we look neat to people and work after our staff is the three million pounds that's what we built for it.
00:09Let me see what else you've got.
00:14Yeah, so this was an old building, about the same age as the one you visited last time, but it's got a checkered history on it.
00:20Yeah, so the building was built in 1878 because it was quite near to where the governors of the hospital was then, the running school.
00:34And he was kind of one, but the building then...
00:39It's been three years since it was built, isn't it?
00:41It's been three years, yeah.
00:43Have you noticed a difference in the workforce in terms of being able to access this?
00:47I felt like they're valued and that we'd have more of them.
00:50Yeah, actually some of the things that we've kind of learned through that Covid experience is just how important it is to look after the community since then.
00:58But those demands have continued, so having an environment where you can kind of support staff with...
01:05And thank you for your support by the way, yours and the Princess of Wales, for the NHS charities together.
01:13Yeah, the context is we're now five years on from the start of Covid, the first death.
01:21We've tried to ensure that the money goes into areas that is slightly to one side of what you would expect public funding to go into.
01:29As a matter of fact, all around the UK.
01:31In that region, what have you identified around the UK?
01:34Is it hotspots or certain areas which maybe haven't been supported as well in the past and actually your support has been a huge amount?
01:40Yeah, our supporters have tried to reach most of the staff.
01:44Have you noticed that big change in the land now or is it still certain areas we need to work better at?
01:49Let me take you in. I think we have a cup of tea available for you if you'd like one.
01:55Where should I sit here?
02:07So, would you like a cup of tea?
02:09Actually, I'm alright at the moment.
02:12Good. Who have we got here?
02:15My expertise is in heart yoga and it's the chief use of physical movements and I like the importance of lungs and humor of resilience.
02:27Are you based in this building? Do you see anything as just workforce?
02:31And how regularly are you seeing your patients, which are workforce?
02:38I can't really say the right words there, but are you getting more referrals and more people coming to you?
02:44People are seeing the benefits and people are protecting each other and we always keep on doing the marketing.
02:50So, yeah, our classes are three to four times a week, mainly in the evenings.
02:56In the classroom, that's where people relax and talk, you just talk. What is the mood like amongst them?
03:03I can see people are coming back to the...
03:09Exercise is probably quite a hard thing for everyone to get in their day, when the hours are on runs.
03:15Actually, being able to come here and do Pilates, yoga, is probably quite a big part of that plus for their day.
03:22And some of you do...
03:24Some are there on the day, but B&E is very good with checking in with students and what kind of yoga are they wanting.
03:31Just helping us to work through techniques like regulating the nervous system, etc, so that really helps.
03:38Parts of the NHS workforce that you don't normally see, you probably see legal every day.
03:43You might meet somebody from all parts of the NHS, it's really important that top down everyone gets to mingle, talk, chat and see how things are going.
03:51How important for you, though, is this B&E?
03:56Has this been a bit of a lifesaver for many of you for the last few years?
03:59Yeah, absolutely, it really has.
04:01I think, as I say, it's that detox that you need.
04:04I'm one of the health and well-being champions as well for my team.
04:09Let's switch off and then recharge our batteries, so to speak.
04:12And it's worked wonders.
04:14You've got to keep doing the training.
04:16Not really in terms of qualifications, but Matt will go into more detail.
04:21But Matt hosts the sessions, so it's very much about attending, being briefed in terms of what's happening around the Trust, around the Centre, etc.
04:29Taking home some really good health and well-being messages back to your teams, delivering them locally, sharing the incentives that we have around the Trust.
04:37And presumably also it helps your antennae, if you like, be a bit more alert to what's happening around you.
04:43You can spot people who are maybe having a bit of a difficult time, which is quite crucial because you become the front line of identifying where some of the issues might be.
04:53Yeah, and it's so easy to get lost in your day-to-day work.
04:56You forget the health and well-being element.
04:58So this is an opportunity to just step back and say, actually, how are my team doing?
05:03How are people around me doing?
05:05So just having this has been amazing.
05:07Matt, do I take it then you also do mental health type things?
05:09Yeah, good morning, sir. It's a privilege to have you here.
05:11My name's Matt. I'm the Staff Health and Well-Being Lead.
05:14So I joined in the middle of COVID in response to coordinate, oversee, manage, try and develop our staff health and well-being offering, of which this building has very quickly become that flagship sort of project.
05:26And as an organisation, we've grown.
05:29Each year, there's an NHS staff survey, and we're really proud in the last few years and hoping to be so again with the upcoming results from the previous survey that we're one of the leading acute NHS trusts for supporting staff health.
05:41So Rishika, who's sat next to me, is dedicated to mental health, and I'm sure Rishika will tell you more in a moment.
05:46My role was across the breadth of staff health and well-being, so physical health, mental health, financial well-being as well, being the key topics.
05:56Some of my projects have been developing staff health checks.
05:59So we've seen now nearly 2,000 of our staff that have come through for a preventative cardiovascular metabolic disease.
06:06From a mental health perspective, I know you're very interested, led on and developed, and that's a peer-led support service that focuses on the impact of a traumatic cardiac rehabilitation.
06:17If we know we do early CPR, then that can help with physical outcomes.
06:21With the TRIM service, the trauma support service, it's about early support for that mental health and supporting staff on the impact an event has had on them.
06:30So the reason I asked that question was just how far back can we go in terms of where mental health was valued, if you like, by organisations that may not have seen it before?
06:38Because it's quite an interesting point as we go back. I mean, everyone knows COVID now is one of those moments we all look back on and go, God, how did we all get through that?
06:44Particularly the NHS. I mean, you guys, obviously, it doesn't mean to say how difficult it was for you, but it's quite interesting to work out how far back mental health suddenly became a key role that everyone valued being a part of it.
06:56In terms of the trauma side of things, have we learnt certain processes and new procedures after COVID as to how we identify, how we deal with certain issues, problems, time off for people?
07:11Yeah, definitely. For me, I think it's been rewriting that narrative around working in the NHS being tough and not many jobs you come to, hopefully, where you go to work and you have traumatic cases and people dying, that actually that can still have an impact.
07:26And that's okay, and it's okay to talk about that and reach out and support.
07:30The thing that you two all say more than anyone else is the fact that everyone in the NHS is there to care for others. So the last person who gets looked after is the individual.
07:37I've seen that when I work with doctors, nurses, everyone, paramedics, they always put me down the line. That's fine, because they don't want to put someone else, their workload on someone else either.
07:45So how do you go around identifying the right people? Because for me, looking into the nation's mental health, if you like, over the last few years, is that unless there's almost a problem over and again…
07:57Thank you. Yeah, thank you. Lovely to meet you.
07:59How do you do that? How do you do that?
08:03I'm Dr. Rish Forbes, I'm a clinical psychologist and I lead on the Staff Psychological Support Centre. So very much, yeah, thinking about that.
08:09Thinking very much about compassion and that not just being about from self to others, but also how we receive compassion, where we're not compassionate to others.
08:17It just means that we're important too, and that's a lot of the work that I do with staff, is really sort of talk about that yet, or have dealt with that in different ways.
08:23Because we all have different ways of coping and managing.
08:25That's so important.
08:26Yes, absolutely.
08:27Not just for patients, but also for you guys, to get out in the fresh air and see some greenery, it's really important.
08:32So how were you here in COVID?
08:33Yes, I was here in COVID. We treated the first patient that had COVID in the hospital.
08:40Yeah, I mean, it's really difficult to think about that.
08:47It's been five years already, a lot of things have happened.
08:50I remember doing some swabs to patients back in the end of February 2020.
08:55We're not knowing a lot around that.