#DoingOurBit

The efforts of finance staff have been catalogued in Healthcare Finance weekly and online at www.hfma.org.uk/our-work/doingourbit. Some felt they could lend a hand as their finance work was curtailed following the introduction of the temporary finance regime, but many others have been helping out and completing their financial duties in their spare time.

Finance staff were able to use their skills to work laterally – interpreting large datasets, taking charge of daily sitreps, or managing PPE.

Alice Forkgen (pictured), assistant director of contracting and transformation at North West Boroughs Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, used her audit experience to create a stock management system and ensure the trust had the PPE it needed, for example.

Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust director of finance Paul Dunn and his team used contacts in local businesses to set up a factory to produce gowns.

Chesterfield Royal NHS Foundation Trust management accountant Naomi Bennett (pictured) used her accountant organisational skills to set up transport for staff when local buses began running a Sunday service over seven days a week.

Others helped in PPE delivery. For example, Ben Roberts, assistant director of finance at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, was often seen delivering PPE to the wards from one of the trust’s central stores or driving to a neighbouring trust to pick up supplies.

Darrell Tobin’s expertise in big data helped him model the likely impact of Covid-19 on his trust – East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust. But some of his colleagues volunteered to support the front line. Senior finance officer Abbie O’Malley (pictured) has worked Saturdays in the trust’s A&E department for the last eight years – alongside her full-time finance role. She responded to the department’s call for help, working eight-hour shifts, six days a week. Julie Walmsley, divisional accountant for the trust’s family care division, worked in an operational role in the obstetrics and gynaecology department.