Alex Henderson – Senior Charge Nurse at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary

“I have been running the vascular unit for 10 years. They have closed the vascular unit at the outset of the pandemic and they moved us onto a larger ward so we had to combine various surgical specialities and we’ve been running that ward now since it started. I’ve also had to manage staff into other areas like ICU as well, so there has been a lot of problems there in terms of trying to support staff who have been extremely frightened. On the surgical wards we’ve looked after covid patients as well. Generally we’ve found it’s plateaued a bit at the moment but obviously we’re anxious that with the lockdown easing it may continue. But it’s been a challenge for me running completely new teams together on a larger ward in a different area and getting everybody through it while maintaining high standards of nursing care. Hopefully I’ve managed to do that.”

18.5.20