The Royal Brompton & Harefield brand features across a wide range of media channels each month. This year, much of the media coverage focused on the care critically ill COVID-19 patients received at our hospitals. Here are some examples:
Channel 4 News and Channel 5 News both featured patients receiving ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) – a form of life support used for some of the sickest patients in the country (see ECMO saving lives) – at Royal Brompton’s adult intensive care unit. Victoria Macdonald, health editor at Channel 4 News, visited Royal Brompton to investigate. Dr Stephane Ledot, intensive care consultant and ECMO lead, and Jo Tillman, critical care matron, were interviewed. In one of the reports, patient Vanessa Vyapooree, who was the second COVID-19 patient to be supported with ECMO at the hospital, commented: “I don't even think there are words to explain how grateful and how blessed I feel to have been given this second chance of life. I owed them my life, literally my life. They were amazing.”
The Times Online featured a number of portraits of Royal Brompton staff in a poignant photo gallery, describing staff as ‘some of the people who are keeping services running during the coronavirus crisis’ in the first wave of the pandemic. The piece included portraits of staff from a variety of clinical and support services including catering, security, theatres, physiotherapy, research, the adult intensive care unit and family liaison.
ITV News London featured Harefield Hospital’s Cardiac Hub, which provided cardiac services to London and beyond throughout COVID-19 (also see Providing life-saving surgery during the pandemic: the Cardiac Hub). ITV News described the Cardiac Hub as ‘a new way of prioritising patients and operations’ where ‘senior doctors consult remotely to prioritise patients most at risk.’ Hub chairs, cardiac surgeon Mr Mario Petrou and consultant cardiologist Dr Shelley Rahman Haley, were both interviewed.
The Evening Standard, The Daily Telegraph and international outlets including Fox News featured coverage of Princess Eugenie’s father-in-law, George Brooksbank, thanking staff at Royal Brompton following his recovery from COVID-19. Mr Brooksbank commented: "The point I really want to get across is that I think the NHS is absolutely magnificent. The way I was treated was incredible. Nothing was too much trouble.”
The Sunday Times ran a double page feature: ‘Every day they transplant new life into the dying, and they don’t stop for Covid’. The piece continued: ‘Harefield Hospital, with its world-leading organ donation unit, is still saving patients in the middle of this winter’s coronavirus surge.’ The article was written by Sunday Times correspondent Christina Lamb who reported that COVID-19 had forced the hospital to innovate like never before: ‘Spending two humbling days there last week, I found that sense of adrenaline and esprit de corps more common to field hospitals in war – only this time the enemy is a microscopic virus with a crown of club-shaped spikes.’ Lamb reported…‘that even in the midst of a pandemic that has pushed the NHS to breaking point and hospitals to the fullest they have been, life-saving operations go on, thanks to the incredible dedication of staff.’
The Sunday Telegraph and Telegraph online featured a series of portrait pictures of Royal Brompton’s adult intensive care unit (AICU) and its staff as they cared for some of the sickest patients battling COVID-19. A series of captivating images were taken to give an insight into what an AICU in a busy London hospital looks like. Coverage explored the use of ECMO (see ECMO saving lives) to treat patients, stating: ‘It is as intensive and hi-tech as medical care gets anywhere in the world’.
LBC Radio’s political editor, Theo Underwood, visited Royal Brompton where he interviewed Dr Sarah Trenfield, Dr Suveer Singh and consultant nurse, Debbie Field, to gain insight into the challenges of dealing with the first phase and peak of COVID-19 with staff, while also recalling his own experience of the virus.
The Times online published several moving photographs of Trust staff caring for critical care patients on Christmas day, and The Sunday Times used two of the shots – one on the front page. A number of supportive comments were posted on The Times online site, praising NHS teams for their dedication during such challenging times: “True Grit of the NHS people. Meet everybody and everything on the battlefield of life with the courage of a hero and the smile of a conqueror. Thanks to all the NHS team. GIANTS.”
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