Sarah's story

But food wasn’t the only need. Staff were working 12 hour days under a barrage of demands with no downtime. They said they needed space to get away. As one nurse put it, a spa in the hospital. We set up wellbeing zones where we gave things away and we took over outpatients to establish Rest and Recharge zones. We trained 300 wellbeing advisers, who wore yellow t-shirts, to talk to staff about sleep, managing anxiety, eating on shift.

We provided advice, aromatherapy, massage chairs – the chairs were hugely popular – and sessions with our psychologists. We are fortunate to have a staff psychology service and over 140 patient-facing psychologists who redeployed to provide staff-focused support as well. By talking to staff we knew what was important to them and could adapt what we offered as circumstances changed.

It has worked so well the Charity wants to continue funding the Rest and Recharge zones. Outpatients has reopened so we have moved to a marquee. It has striking designs and is quite a cool space. Staff said they wanted somewhere they could go with a different mind-set.

There has been a fantastic sense of camaraderie. People loaded up their cars to help. My big frustration is people noticed what they didn’t get, not what they did. We heard complaints 'we haven’t seen that', 'we weren’t offered that'. We created a bit of a monster. Sharing out donations in a fair way, making sure everyone got something, that was the hardest thing.

It is true working in a hospital is always pressured. But this has been exceptional. It has not been normal life. It’s the relentlessness of it. Many of our staff have been redeployed and are not used to seeing patients dying. They may not have worked on the wards for 20 years. They have seen colleagues in Hazmat suits, the guidance on PPE has been constantly changing, they have been worried about taking the virus home on their clothes. There has been a lot of uncertainty.

We have had the adrenaline and the excitement and I think now we are coming to the stage of exhaustion, the fatigue the cause of which you can’t put your finger on. We are offering 3-hour reflection sessions taking staff through their experiences, allowing them time to reflect and talk over what has happened.

They have been heroes, put on pedestals, clapped by the nation. But this is the danger period. We need to catch them before they fall.

How long will the 'NHS clap' effect last? Will the public turn on us as waiting lists rise? What’s coming down the track? Everyone is talking about a potential second wave. We need to have staff prepared.

One thing that has really helped is the executives have been really visible. In some organisations they worked from home because they thought it better to stay out of the way. We took a different approach of structured visible leadership and organised Executive Walks visiting teams across the Trust, giving staff a chance to say what they felt and ask advice. Our Chief Executive is a doctor and so was able to answer staff queries and allay anxieties about PPE and exactly what was involved in protection. It really worked.

What annoyed me was when donors tried to capitalise on their generosity and generate publicity, or gave things away not always for the right reasons.

My husband has been locked down at home by his company but I have been travelling in from Chingford. I have quite enjoyed having London to myself. Some of us single females have been walked to the station in the evenings by security because it has been so quiet. But I find I have more energy now. I love my job. I remembered why I went into healthcare. We are hearing that a lot.”

The photographs in this story were taken at different stages of the COVID-19 response when guidance for personal protective equipment (PPE) and social distancing varied.