Northern Ireland’s nursing homes have called in London’s Nightingale nurses to help deal with the onslaught of Covid-19 amongst their patients.
Specially trained staff have now left the Excel centre in London after they stopped taking patients last week.
Nurses from all over the UK joined the Nightingale team in London and some have flown into Northern Ireland to take taking up posts with the Nursing Home Nurse Response Team.
Each will work for two weeks in one home before moving to an other after a period of isolation.
And they will be working primarily in the homes worst hit by Coronavirus.
One nurse told the Belfast Live: “We’ve been stood down in London thanks to the success story at NHS Nightingale London as a result of people adhering to social distancing, so we fortunately did not need the 4,000 beds we had.
“We were busy though and worked in small teams, dedicating ourselves to each patient as of they were our own family or friend. Sadly we lost many to this terrible virus, but we also saw many leave for other hospitals on the first part of their journey home and full recovery.
“The depth of our sadness for the people we lost was mixed with elation when we knew other patients would make it and go home to the people they loved.
“Now many is us are travelling to other parts of the country to help in local hospitals in need - and in particular nursing homes.
“The facilities with the highest number of Covid-19 cases will be prioritised and many homes are now struggling with lower staffing levels because staff are off sick or self-isolating.
“At the NHS Nightingale Hospital, not one of the 250 nurses working there tested positive for Covid-19 and I believe that’s because we had good PPE and enough PPE - that’s the key for everyone working in this area. Without enough and without good PPE this virus will find you.
“We have our induction to the nursing homes this week and we start working on the ground soon. We have heard about PPE shortages and we must wait and see what the situation is now. But we will insist on effective PPE, we have to. Our work cannot be done properly without it.”
By April 24, 339 people of the 393 people who died in Northern Ireland were aged 65 and over including 181 people in a care, nursing or residential homes, according to the latest NISRA figures.
