NURSES at Colchester Hospital have revealed the true toll of working during the coronavirus pandemic as they nursed the “sickest patients” in their careers.

Hundreds of patients have been treated for Covid-19 at the East Suffolk and North Essex Trust since the outbreak began in March.

Life was turned upside down for people across north Essex, including those on the frontline.

The trust has now produced a video speaking to the staff who kept the hospitals running during the pandemic.

Nicole Crockett, sister at the Colchester Hospital urgent treatment centre, had to send her children away for three months to protect them.

She said: “What I won’t forget is how everyone has just pulled together.

“We have had colleagues redeployed who came to work in A&E who had never been there before and everyone just mucked in.

“It was a team and real family feel. Everyone really looked out for and supported each other.

“I think the hardest part of this year was during the pandemic when I sent my children away for three months to go and live with their dad and other family so I wasn’t putting them at risk and other family members at risk.

“At lot of my colleagues did that as well and we kind of supported each other through that.”

Oscar Hortua, deputy charge nurse on Layer Marney ward, said the pandemic had allowed staff to speak more openly about mental health.

“The best moments were being open about mental health and being able to discuss it with colleagues and not being judged and not being measured by that,” he said.

“Just being open about how we are feeling and how we are struggling and how we can just be supportive to each other.”

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Helen Buist, sister at the urgent treatment centre, battled Covid herself.

She said: “I had actually had Covid myself, came back straight to a 12 hour shift after a week off and then nursing the sickest patient I have ever looked after in my entire career.

“Thankfully both he and I survived the day, which at that point was really all you could hope for.

“You were just going day by day, shift by shift, hour by hour in there.”

Trust chief executive Nick Hulme described 2020 as the “most extraordinary year” seen in health around the world.

He said he was left with an “extraordinary sense of pride” at how his staff had responded.

“I hope that what we have learned about the incredible organisation we work for isn’t lost,” he said.

“I hope that the support and understanding we have seen from the public doesn’t dissipate.”