It hasn’t been an easy year for us in the NHS (Photo: Steve Parsons – WPA Pool /.)
As I was released from the hospital, a sea of new teams awaited us and I immediately felt overwhelmed.
That’s when it hit me – we had just made history.
Moments earlier, I had administered the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine to the world’s very first untested patient, after it had been approved for use in the UK a few days before.
Throughout the day of January 4, 2021, I felt an incredible sense of pride that my colleagues helped develop the life-saving vaccine and that I was involved in one way or another.
One year exactly, I am still proud, but also full of hope. However, it has not been an easy year for us in the NHS.
On New Years Eve 2020, I was asked if Oxford University Hospitals would be ready to publicly administer their first AstraZeneca vaccines, as Margaret Keenan and her colleagues in Coventry had done for the first Pfizer vaccines the previous month.
We had vaccinated people with Pfizer for almost a month before, so we were excited to be a part of it.
Being invited to deliver the first vaccine produced in the UK was like a real privilege – especially after almost a year treating some of the sickest patients in our ICU and Covid departments, as the pandemic continued to change the very fabric of our health service.
In accordance with national guidelines, we have identified two of our clinically vulnerable patients, Trevor Cowlett, 88 (pictured above) and Brian Pinker, retired maintenance manager, 82 (pictured below), among the first to receive their vaccine – it would become the very first.
As head nurse, who worked regularly in our vaccination hospital, I was delighted and honored to be invited to administer them.
We have vaccinated several hundred members of the public and colleagues in health and social services (Photo: STEVE PARSONS / POOL /. Via.)
The day itself was a generally busy day, with many patients booked for their vaccines. I arrived early to help set everything up in the chaos of the Covid-19 winter wave that was happening at the time.
Then I walked into the vaccination center, where a small media team was waiting to capture the moment with Brian.
The 82-year-old was keen on getting the shot and was very proud to be a gentleman born and raised in Oxfordshire. As one of our kidney dialysis patients he told me it was his little hope to get back to normal after being away from friends and family for a while.
The rest of the day was very emotional. We have vaccinated several hundred members of the public and colleagues from all sectors of health and social services. Each had their own story to tell – from being able to reunite with their families to returning to work in health care after being armored.
People were also taking selfies with their vaccination records – it all seemed so hopeful after what had been one of the most difficult years of our lives. When I got home that night, I felt extremely proud and on the right foot watching the media coverage of the day’s events.
Over the next few months – as a member of the board of directors and a member of a management team – we led the Trust’s response to Covid. I also worked in intensive care regularly, which was really difficult. There would be days when we would have a certain number of Covid deaths in a single shift in our departments.
The hardest times were healing and, unfortunately, losing colleagues to illness. I will never forget the heartache that filled the room as I sat in an amphitheater watching a colleague’s virtual funeral. We knew it was a possibility after the vaccine rolled out, but that doesn’t make it any less easy.
In those times, we came together and tried to do whatever we could to support each other through it all. It was simple things like sharing motivational messages on WhatsApp or just checking in with a chat.
When hospital admissions finally started to decline from around March – largely because of a successful vaccine rollout and a massive undertaking by everyone in the NHS – that’s when where the recovery program started.
We had worked hard to treat both Covid patients and those in need of urgent treatment – for example, those with cancer – but operations for some patients were delayed due to the pandemic, so we started to schedule them for processing.
As health and social care teams we can overcome this (Photo: Oxford University Hospitals)
We have tried to do our best when it comes to making decisions about clinical prioritization and seeing as many people as possible, but there is always a backlog, which can often seem very difficult for everyone.
Throughout all of this I have noticed a shift in the public’s response to the NHS. We’ve gone from weekly applause and sending morale-boosting gifts – like food or hand cream – to anger and frustration from the audience. It has become a growing concern and has forced us to introduce body cameras for emergency service personnel to help keep them safe.
What I also find very difficult is reading about people who disagree with interfering vaccines with colleagues and members of the public who want to administer and receive their vaccine safely.
While a number of staff have been absent because they have tested positive or need to self-isolate due to the latest variant of Omicron, it is still too early to properly assess the impact of this variant.
However, we prepare for the worst and hope for the best. We’re just trying to stay positive about life and do everything we can to stay negative from a Covid perspective.
We have learned valuable lessons throughout the pandemic. Clinically, the progression of Covid treatments has enabled healthcare workers to assure many patients and their families that we can treat them, so that patients are significantly less afraid when they are admitted to hospital. The vaccines have given everyone a sense of relief that we are going through this current wave.
As recently as last week, I worked in our vaccination center and spoke to countless people who were thrilled to receive their booster shots.
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One woman said the booster gave her the peace of mind of seeing her grandchildren again, while another received hers after having her baby. Another said: “I feel like a miracle happened for us to have them. “
These are the stories of ordinary people that keep us going. That’s the power of these vaccines – they’ve given most of us the strength to keep going.
A year after that very first Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, I still hold on to the same hope I felt that day.
As health and social care teams, we can overcome this and we can all continue to mobilize to meet the needs of the public.
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