IN MARCH 2020 the Northern Care Alliance NHS Group (NCA) admitted its first COVID-19 patient; the organisation established its gold command structure, and so began its response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In those early day of the pandemic, the disease was just starting to get a foothold overseas, and few of us could have predicted just how much of an impact COVID-19 would have on our own shores, let alone within our own hospitals.
Fast-forward to summer 2021 and the NCA, across its hospitals in Salford, Oldham, Bury and Rochdale, has now safely treated and discharged over 6,000 COVID-19 patients back to their homes.
The organisation has delivered over 500,000 COVID-19 vaccinations at The Greater Manchester Mass Vaccination Centre at the Etihad Campus and our four hospital hubs at Salford Royal, The Royal Oldham, Fairfield General and Rochdale Infirmary.
Rochdale Care Organisation has carried out more than 8,000 operations at Rochdale Infirmary after being remodelled in April 2020 as a safe ‘green surgical site,’ so that patients across Greater Manchester could have urgent and cancer-related operations and receive life-saving treatment.
In the words of NCA Chief Executive, Raj Jain: “Every member of staff – whether nurse, doctor, therapist, healthcare assistant, midwife, pharmacist, porter, domestic cleaning staff, microbiologist, administration or reception staff, estates staff or one of our corporate back office teams, has played their vital role in keeping our services running 24/7 and helping to save lives and improve lives.”
To capture, document and celebrate the immense hard work of our staff so far, the NCA has produced a special COVD-19 supplement, entitled ‘COVID-19: Responding as the NCA Family.’ You can download this special supplement here.
Inside you can read about some of the highlights of the NCA’S COVID-19 response over the last 18 months, many of which is still ongoing.
Inside this issue
- Read a heartfelt message of thanks from our Chief Executive, Raj Jain
- View our organisation’s COVID-19 journey and explore a timeline of events
- How we continued to support women to bring babies into the world
- The hard work of our employees behind the scenes, supporting our frontline staff
- Our trailblazing research and innovation projects
- How our Bereavement Team supported over 4,500 families and continue to do so
- The work of our Chaplains, volunteers and our NorthCare Charity
You can download this special supplement here