Acclaim for the medics fighting the health crisis has been loud and plentiful, but the chief executive of NHS Tayside has also hailed the efforts of staff working behind the scenes to keep the health board running.
Grant Archibald thanked the “unseen heroes” working in areas such as laundry, switchboard services, transport, catering and more.
He said their efforts have allowed the organisation to keep services running while medical staff on the frontline tackle Covid-19.
Mr Archibald said: “All of our plans in response to Covid-19 have been developed in partnership with our frontline teams. They are the experts in designing, planning and delivering the changes that we are now making in our hospitals and in communities across Tayside.
“However, to make the changes we have over the past month or so, there is a whole other army of support staff – our unseen heroes – and I want to pay tribute to those members of our workforce who perhaps are not as visible as our ward staff and clinical teams.”
Some of the departments highlighted by Mr Archibald have seen a significant increase in their workload during the pandemic.
The estates team — which includes plumbers, electricians, joiners and engineers — has helped redevelop clinical wards in Ninewells to become specific Covid-19 facilities.
The laundry service has had to deal with an “unprecedented” demand for clean scrub suits after an extra 5,000 were brought into the system.
The virology lab at Ninewells is now processing nearly 300 Covid-19 tests a day, and helped NHS Tayside become the first health board in Scotland to test health and social care staff and their household contacts.
And the switchboard service has seen a steep rise in the number of inquiries that need to be handled and directed to the correct person.
Mr Archibald added: “These staff are making and building, cleaning and cooking, washing and driving, moving patients, moving supplies, converting and repairing critical equipment, testing and reporting samples, answering calls and generally making sure the whole NHS Tayside operation runs like clockwork.”
A Covid-19 training and education group has also been established to plan, coordinate and deliver tuition for clinical and non-clinical staff.
More than 3,000 employees have already taken part in sessions on a range of topics. The online resource has already been visited more than 32,000 times.
Claire Pearce, director of Nursing and Midwifery, said: “We have been delighted with the response from our staff in relation to further training.
“The coronavirus outbreak is an unprecedented event, with many healthcare workers having to be redeployed elsewhere. This means it is vital that the relevant training is completed to ensure that our patients are receiving the very best level of care.”
