The Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn NHS Foundation Trust (QEH) has today published its ‘Learning from the COVID-19 pandemic’ report into suspected transmission of COVID-19 to patients while being treated at the Trust.
The report concludes a four-month reflective period in which the Trust has spoken to each patient who definitely or likely contracted COVID-19, or next-of-kin for patients who sadly died after contracting COVID-19 in the Trust’s care.
QEH is committed to getting it right for patients and their families and implementing the important learning from this report.
Having received widespread praise for their commitment to their Duty of Candour the Trust has contacted or personally met with all patients or next-of-kin to apologise to those affected and answer any questions they had.
The report has been shared with all affected patients and next-of-kin and is available on the Trust’s public website – here.
Caroline Shaw CBE, Chief Executive at QEH, commented: “QEH takes pride in consistently being an open and honest organisation, as demonstrated by our four-month Duty of Candour exercise. COVID-19 brought unprecedented challenges to QEH and the wider NHS, however, there is clear learning from our response to the pandemic and from this Duty of Candour exercise that we are taking forward so that we can further improve the care and experience for our future patients and their families. This includes strengthening communication between patients, their loved ones and those delivering care, ensuring the management of infection control is everybody’s business and continuing to follow the necessary precautions to ensure everyone’s safety and prevent the spread of the virus and preventing multiple and unnecessary ward moves which during the pandemic often resulted in a poor patient experience and a breakdown in communication between the hospital, patients and their families. We must also continue to maximise the use of digital devices and technology to further improve communication between patients and their families during hospital stays.”
–ENDS–
To download the media statement and picture, click here.
For further information or for an interview with Alice Webster, Chief Nurse at QEH, please contact communicationsqeh@qehkl.nhs.uk
About The Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn NHS Foundation Trust
With over 4,000 staff, The Queen Elizabeth Hospital is one of the biggest employers in West Norfolk, supporting the health and wellbeing of our local community.
QEH has circa 500 beds and 28 wards serving a population of around 331,000 people who live in the three counties of Norfolk, Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire.
The Hospital’s plays a leading role in research and innovation, being one of the most-research active NHS Trusts in the country compared to similar-sized hospitals.
QEH Media Hub 