Coronavirus: Letters from loved ones provide comfort to Peterborough patients

Currently, visiting is restricted due to infection control, but families and friends have been able to keep in touch with patients on wards during the pandemic by sending them get well messages and family photos.

Staff have them printed, laminated and then handed to the patient to keep.

Jo Bennis, chief nurse at the North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Receiving letters of support from loved ones has made a real difference to patients, reminding them that, despite not being allowed visitors, they are not alone.

“We have also received lots of positive feedback from relatives who have found comfort in the knowledge that their words can be passed on.

“Sadly some patients will be receiving palliative care and, while we try to give the family the chance to say goodbye in person, the risk to them is sometimes too great, especially if they have an underlying health condition. These letters provide them with the opportunity to say goodbye.”

One gentleman who wrote several letters to his elderly mother during her hospital stay said: “Thank you so much for passing on my emailed letter to my mother; although she was very sleepy and eventually succumbed to Covid-19, I believe she would have heard and been comforted by hearing from her family.”

Details of how you can send letters to loved ones in our hospital during the pandemic can be found at: https://www.nwangliaft.nhs.uk/about-us/trust-news/trust-launches-letter-to-loved-ones-initiative/.