Northwick Park Hospital nurse reflects on pandemic two years on

It was two years ago on Saturday (February 5) when the first Covid-19 patients were being treated in London.

To reflect on the progress seen in the last two years, various NHS members have discussed how things have dramatically changed since the wake of the pandemic.

The London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust, which runs Northwick Park, was one of the first hospitals in London to be severely impacted by the pandemic due to an influx of unprecedented Covid cases in March.

Now Tricia Mukherjee, the head of nursing for emergency and ambulatory care at the local NHS trust, has looked back at how much has changed.

She said: “Initially, Covid-19 was frightening with so many uncertainties, fear, nervousness, worries about loved ones and so much more. Staff were amazing during the initial phase of the pandemic and still continue to be.”

The nurse added that all members were “incredible”.

Franco Palo, a nurse at Nothwick Park, was cheered out of the hospital after his nine week battle with Covid in June 2020

Northwick Park declared a “critical incident” on March 19, which lasted 24 hours before it was stood down and staff told the Harrow Times they were “overwhelmed” with patients.

From there the hospital began to rapidly restructure itself to cope with patients seen around the time of the first lockdown and managed to create a system efficient enough to deal with the waves of patients admitted since.

Now high vaccine rates across the UK and the less-severe Omicron variant becoming the dominant strain has contributed to more control in the virus.

Ms Mukherjee added: “When I received my first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, it felt like a saving grace, the start of protecting us from this invisible enemy.

“Thanks to the vaccination programme the situation is so much better today, our patients are not as sick and we feel so much more prepared and in control.”