Meet the faces of the Royal Bolton Hospital Covid care team
These are some of the faces of the Royal Bolton Hospital's Covid care team.
The staff want to show what it is like inside one of our region's busiest hospitals. On top of the normal winter pressures, it is also dealing with the huge strain of a pandemic.
Across the rest of Greater Manchester, it is thought a quarter of all patients being treated in hospital have the coronavirus.
DR RAUF MUNSHI - Clinical Lead for Acute Medicine
"It's busy, it's difficult, we're seeing more patients which means we have to open more beds.
"We don't have more staff due to high sickness levels so you're having to learn to cope and manage with what you've got, so although there is guidance to suggest that nursing ratios, doctor ratios, staffing levels to keep patients safe is recommended, you can't always deliver that and sometimes you have to make do with what you've got - which puts extra pressure on the staff looking after unwell patients."
Dr Rauf says the limits to what they can do have meant the team have had to change their attitude and mentality to providing "as much care as you possibly can, for as many people".
This has been ongoing since March of last year - it's been a very long and difficult year
78 number of people have lost their lives to coronavirus at the hospital in the first four weeks of January alone, something Dr Rauf says, "effects you every time".
He added: "You never get used to it, you never get desensitised to it, it always effects you."
He says the worst part of his job is seeing all age groups coming into the hospital - many for whom the treatment does not always work.
Dr Rauf says he sees evidence of burn out on a "day-to-day basis" as more and more are forced to work in environments they are not familiar with, to cover for colleagues.
CAROLINE LITTLE - Critical Communications
Caroline joined the Critical Care Communications team during the pandemic, moving away from her usual role working with children and teenagers.
Her role sees her contact families who cannot visit their loved ones with updates and messages, as well as supporting those families in the community.
"The conversations have been very difficult. You just can't comprehend how they must be feeling and if we can just be that person at the end of the phone that offers them that little bit of support, someone to listen to then, you know, we're very privileged to be able to do that."
Staff use mobiles and iPads to allow patient's to speak with their loved ones, as well as operating an email service and hearts to home - where relatives are given an identical hand-made heart to the patient to create a connection.
It's difficult to have these conversations with families
LIZ RIBCHESTER - Trainee Pathology Technician
"On a daily basis it's hectic, it's constant, you never know what's going to happen.
"Obviously in March when all of this came and hit us initially we were kind of 'it will be alright, it's like flu, it's going to be ok'. That wasn't the case.
"Not being able to offer the service to the families, we were having relatives ring up and say they've not been able to be with their loved ones for weeks and could they come and see their loved one.
"We had to just talk to them on the phone and give them that comfort because we were on lockdown and couldn't have anybody into the mortuary."
We've all lost people, I know how important it is to hold their hand
ASH HUSSAIN
Ash is a matron usually covering gastroenterology and cardiology, but after his wards were changed to help with Covid patients he now looks after those with the virus.
Matrons are responsible for overseeing the nurses in their ward and ensuring patients receive the best care at all times.
"In my role as a matron I do speak to a lot of staff who are struggling, dealing with unwell patients, patients that are dying.
"It is a challenge, we work together, we offer the support, we're always around to support and help - we just get the message out to the staff that they are not on their own."
Ash also has to deal with worried family members, many who want to see their loved one.
"It is difficult, I've made calls to families myself, and it is really difficult when you're saying to them we can only allow one member of the family to come in - and the patients are really unwell at that stage - and it is really difficult for that family because they've not seen them for months.
"But we try and do everything we can when they do come in to try and support them and spend time with the patient and the family to try and make the comfortable, and it is really difficult."
It's hard to ring families when their loved one is dying
He says he also worries about those patients who do now have Covid he is unable to treat.