Barnsley community services make nearly 5,000 home visits in one week

Natalie McCarthy is a trained nurse is a trained nurse who usually works as a training and education coordinator with care homes in Barnsley. She’s currently taken on a special role helping respond to the Coronavirus pandemic.

“It’s a really busy time for us in community services. In the past week we’ve made nearly 5,000 essential home visits providing a variety of care and treatments to vulnerable patients. We’ve also done around 10,500 telephone/video consultations, recorded some 2,500 patient interactions on our stroke and neurological rehabilitation units and held more than 50 management meetings. It’s a huge team effort.

“My role in this is to support the whole process of us dealing with Covid-19. I’ve been doing swabs at our drive-thru testing facility, helping staff and care homes keep up-to-date with the latest advice and training staff who have been re-deployed.

“The main differences people we care for might notice are that we’re doing more telephone contacts. Another change is that we’re teaching family members and care home staff how to deliver simple care such as administering eye drops. We’ve had a very positive response from people who have been very positive and understanding. People helping us out at this difficult time means we can prioritise the most seriously unwell for a home visit.”