Across the
country, our NHS has experienced one of its most testing periods on record.
Bed occupancy
has reached a staggering 94.4%, over 185,000 people have been left waiting in
the back of ambulances for over 30 minutes and there were 386 diverts from
A&E departments.
But
throughout the Winter crisis, our two local hospitals - St Helier and St
George's - battled on. As always, our outstanding NHS staff continued to go
above and beyond what was expected of them. Siobhain has so much respect,
admiration and gratitude for their incredible efforts in such testing
circumstances.
She visited
the two hospitals to see for herself the immense pressure they were under and
she then decided to host two receptions in the Houses of Parliament to thank
those staff nominated as 'Winter Heroes' in their respective hospitals.
Chief
Executive's Daniel Elkeles and Jacqueline Totterdell brought a collective 150
staff over two evenings.
After drinks
and nibbles, and a special surprise thank you from Jeremy Vine, the staff were
taken on a tour of Parliament, with the House of Commons and House of Lords
opened up specially for them.
Our NHS is a
national treasure. But at the heart of it are thousands upon thousands of
truly dedicated individuals whose efforts we should be extremely grateful for.