Celebrating BWC Spirit

"They absolutely smashed it. The team have been able to maintain near pre-pandemic levels of activity throughout all of this time."

"The team’s commitment to delivering the best possible care, whilst caring for each other was stronger than the pandemic."

"When the adult intensive care units became overcome with admissions and asked for support it was there with no hesitation."

"We have continued surgeries, outpatient appointments both face to face and over video and have been able to provide a complete service that we are all proud of under extremely difficult circumstances."

"There was so much uncertainty, particularly during the first days and weeks. Things changed at an instant; during all times of the day and night. Making sure we communicated clear and timely messages, especially to staff, meant exceptionally long hours. It was draining. Our role is so wide-ranging and that variety and size of workload may not always be understood."

"I think the pandemic forced us to make changes to our way of working that would have taken a lot longer to introduce at any other time. We were much bolder about introducing new processes and modernising some of our training delivery methods. Some of the different approaches worked well"

"I think the pandemic gave my teams the opportunity to step outside of UC and experience other areas. A lot of the staff volunteered for mutual aid which demonstrated all elements of the BWC trust values. These values were also displayed by people who stay behind to run the BWC services."

"The power of just everybody sharing and the BWC spirit just really coming out. It was almost like this flame that just lit up. It was almost like ‘oh wow, you know, all these people that are just desperate to get into work to help their colleagues and just to yeah get back to their roles and help children and families’. It was just inspiring."

"The last 12 months have been a year like no other. But when the world stopped, we’re proud to say our fabulous army of loyal supporters didn’t."

"Initially things were confusing and a bit frustrating as we had to adapt quickly to new ways of working and feeling that control of how we normally run things was understandably being taken away at times."

"It was challenging stepping outside office-based comfort zones, but a great way to connect with the organisation and to contribute to the pandemic response."

“It has been a roller coaster experience for the interpreting team. There were many ups and downs; we experienced many difficulties, both at work and in our personal lives. The team as a whole experienced many changes and had to quickly adapt in order to continue providing language support to patients/families."

"Dealing with the work load with reduced staffing levels and an increase in demand (needed to commission additional equipment) this coincided with new staff joining the department."

"Resilience was very important and we realised that we needed to communicate regularly amongst ourselves so that we all knew the reasons behind decisions, who was making the decisions and how they would be enacted. 

The PALS team have taken an increasingly complex number of enquiries and concerns during the Coronavirus period and this continues."

"I think stressful is the only word to use for these past 12 months! With the sudden imposition of “lockdown”, the Trust had little to no notice of the massive workload that would hit us trying to arrange remote working for so many people."

"That no matter where you are in the Trust, you are always part of a family. When things are at their hardest, the support is at its best and everyone pulls together whether its through re-deployment or part of the team you have always been."

"In the face of adversity, we learnt how courageous our staff were by tackling challenging conversations and caring for patients out of our specialty."

"How the teams then came together to prioritize the women and each other was just phenomenal, something I've never seen before and that was across Maternity, Gynaecology, Theatres, Neonates, Specialties and also our colleagues in the Children's Hospital. When we put the flag up and said we need help, the help came and it came in all sorts of shapes and sizes."

"The pandemic forged bonds of reliance that will remain as the team goes forward into the future. Team members took on responsibilities they may not otherwise have had to and thrived. We have learnt many new skills in a short amount of time."

"We learned how to communicate with lots of people virtually to ensure they were aware of changes. We learned about the amazing resilience and spirit of all of our colleagues (well reminded really). We learned about partnerships by helping our UHB colleagues and we learned that most things can be done virtually!"