DELIVERING EXCEPTIONAL CARE DURING COVID-19

Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, we have seen the world evolve at an unprecedented rate, with restrictions imposed on how we live our lives – from work to socialising to travelling.

Meanwhile, healthcare providers across the world have faced the greatest challenge of their lifetime, forced to adapt their processes and policies in order to keep their patients and people safe, whilst still delivering much needed healthcare services.

At Cromwell Hospital, we assessed the situation and adapted our ways of working rapidly, not only to continue to provide excellent care to our private patients, but also to support our National Health Service (NHS) during the crisis.

“In every corner of the hospital, I’ve been incredibly impressed and humbled by the care and dedication I’ve seen throughout the pandemic," says Phillip Luce, CEO at Cromwell Hospital.

"As a hospital, we have tackled the challenges we have faced, implemented new processes, and done our utmost to deliver the best care to our patients. Through times of immense worry, anxiety and pressure, we’ve supported our patients, consultants and each other, and delivered outstanding care and service to our patients when they needed it most.”

In response to the new environment, we have made important changes to how our hospital operates so that we can deliver our services safely and e ciently.

Enhanced safety measures

As soon as the pandemic started to gain momentum in the UK, we put in place strict Covid safety measures and guidelines to keep our teams, patients, and their families safe, including:

− Screening our patients for

Covid-19 infection; − Regular testing of our consultants and staff; − Enhanced cleaning policies; − Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for all our staff; − Enforced social distancing throughout the hospital.

Although restrictions have eased across England, we are maintaining these measures across the hospital to ensure it remains a Covid-safe environment.

Virtual care

During the pandemic, we saw a trend of reluctance from patients to access healthcare services, due to local lockdowns and because of the risks associated with travelling and attending a hospital appointment. We recognised there was a need to implement new systems to enable us to continue to deliver the services our patients needed, remotely.

We introduced a new virtual consultation platform, whereby patients can speak to their consultant, a private GP or another member of their healthcare team from home, over a secure video call. Since its launch, we have conducted over 1,000 virtual consultations, providing expert advice and support to patients who otherwise may not have been able to access care.

We continue to see our patients on-site in our hospital, but if patients would prefer virtual consultations for their peace of mind, the service is still running.

Supporting the NHS

At the start of the pandemic, NHS hospitals were under unprecedented pressure to treat Covid-19 patients. Cancer patients, who are highly vulnerable to the virus, also faced having time-critical treatment postponed. We’re very proud to have supported and partnered with the NHS to deliver treatment and care to these patients during the pandemic. We were further delighted to be selected by NHS England as one of four centres to provide specialist cancer treatment as part of the Royal Marden Cancer Hub, delivering complex treatment across breast, colorectal, endocrine, thoracic, headand-neck and urological cancers.

“Travel disruptions and restrictions across the globe have had an unprecedented impact on our international patients,” explains Fadil Fouad, Cromwell Hospital's Director of International Relations. "We are delighted that travel restrictions are gradually easing in the UK, and that the vaccine roll-out has been a success. We are very much looking forward to welcoming our international patients back soon.”

To find out more about how we continue to deliver care during coronavirus, please visit: www.cromwellhospital.com/careduringcovid

Our International Patient Centre is open – the team continues to support our international patients throughout their healthcare journey, ensuring each patient’s experience is as smooth and stress-free as possible during these uncertain times