Northern Trust holds recognition event for COVID-19 testing service

A recognition event has been held for staff and volunteers who were part of the Northern Health and Social Care Trust’s COVID-19 testing service.

Those involved were presented with a special certificate as an expression of gratitude for the significant role they played throughout the pandemic.

Mobilised over the course of a weekend in March 2020, the service would go on to carry out more than 116,000 tests over three years during the greatest health challenge of our lifetime.

Logistically, it was a mammoth effort, with staff from across the Trust, along with students and volunteers, working together at a time when daily life as we knew changed irrevocably.

Trust Chief Executive, Jennifer Welsh, said: It’s difficult to articulate just how challenging COVID times were and as health professionals we had the added and unenviable burden of seeing it all first-hand. But the resilience and commitment of our Team North family shone through at every twist and turn of that journey.

“The Testing Team embraced every challenge presented, delivering a service, mostly at short notice to meet the demands of maintaining services during times of significant community transmission, changing guidance and resetting of services, always finding a way to get a solution

“I want to pay tribute to, and put on record, how proud I am of the Testing Team and acknowledge the crucial contribution made by staff in helping to manage the pandemic and support our local communities.”

While the main focus of the testing programme was to provide a practical service to those in need, it also played a vital role for people at a time when many were left feeling anxious and isolated.

Explaining this aspect, Jennifer added: “It was in these often brief interactions that our staff were able to identify those who needed extra support and signposted them to services that could help.

“The importance of those interventions cannot be underestimated – I have no doubt that without them, many people may have struggled to get the help and support they needed when they were at their lowest ebb.”

 

 

 

 

1st June 2023