THE work of the South Lakes Rapid Response Team has been hugely important during the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis as this Community team helps patients to stay out of hospital and in their own homes.

South Cumbria resident Donna Malcolm, who has worked as an occupational therapist for 20 years, has spoken of the challenges treating patients at home during the crisis has brought her and her team.

She said: “In our team things are constantly changing and you never know what each day will bring. Since the pandemic started, we have seen a swift increase in the number of patients we are supporting.

“Quite a few of our patients have been COVID-positive. At the start, it was obviously a new illness for us to deal with but have adapted quickly and learned new things.

“A very positive aspect is that we have been able to support a lot of people to successfully stay at home during the pandemic. We have done this wherever possible.

"It is very rewarding when a person is acutely unwell and we can support them to stay at home with medication and adjustments to their environment. Often, people do recover and manage to stay at home."

As the Rapid Response Team’s role is to go out to patients’ homes, team members are currently wearing PPE (Personal Protective Equipment).

Ms Malcolm said of the difficulties with PPE and keeping staff safe: “That has been a challenge, particularly because there isn’t always a lot of space in some households.

“We have been contacting patients before we arrive so that they know we will be wearing PPE and can understand why we are wearing it. It’s better if they know what to expect.

“We have widened our OT assessments to include taking routine clinical observations and pressure area checks. This is a new way of working for OTs in our team and has helped reduce the number of people visiting our shielding or vulnerable patients.

“We’ve had people deployed to work with us from other team such as the Lancaster Therapy Team, and the Community Respiratory Team and the Case Management Team. Some of our staff have had to self-isolate so it has been great to have thatsupport from other teams.”

The South Lakes Rapid Response Team shares offices with a Psychology Team and Acquired Brain Injury Team. It also provides a Community IV Service for University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust.