Norfolk businesses and organisations have donated 120 tablets to help hospital patients and their families stay connected during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital has seen a number of donations over the last few weeks as it has worked to carry out virtual visiting on all of its wards and critical care complex.

NNUH patients and families are keeping connected during the Covid-19 pandemic thanks to a number of innovations implemented by teams across the Trust.

It has also established a relatives’ liaison team to act as a link between families and ward staff.

Clinical Educator Stuart Callow, who leads the relatives liaison team, said: “We’ve not forgotten that so many people in our community will be anxious and worried, unable to visit loved ones, and with this service we can reassure people that those closest to them are being holistically cared for. Our new service does not replace the clinical conversations that doctors have with patients’ relatives. Instead, we are here to ease pressure off ward staff and alleviate some of the anxieties for relatives of patients.

“Every day we contact as many wards as possible to get a handover of a patient’s overall health and future developments in their care. Then we phone relatives giving priority to those who are more vulnerable, such as those who can’t use Skype or video calls to keep in touch with their loved ones.”

The hospital’s Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) also provides a ‘message to your loved one’ service enabling emails or messages sent via the portal on the NNUH website to reach family and friends on the wards.

Sarah Higson, lead for patient engagement and experience, said: “We know that enabling people to see each other as well as speak to each other will make for much more meaningful communication and will make a huge difference to them. This is helping to reunite couples; parents, children and grandchildren and we know this means the world to them. This is also really important for our staff: knowing that you have done all you can for your patients and their loved ones is a major morale booster. Going the extra mile is hard wired into our teams and having access to this resource makes caring that bit easier.”