Hospitals using donated iPads to help coronavirus patients speak to their families before going on ventilators

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An employee holds an iPad outside an Apple Store which is closed during the global outbreak of coronavirus
REUTERS

Donated iPads are being used by hospitals to enable coronavirus patients to speak to their families before being placed on a ventilator — in some cases the last conversations they have.

Barts Charity has given £80,000 to buy 200 of the devices for hospitals across Barts Health NHS Trust to help families make video calls at a time when visiting is restricted to prevent virus spread.

It came as the Department of Health today announced a partnership with Facebook under which it will provide more than 2,000 of its Portal video-enabled devices free to hospitals, care homes and hospices across the country.

Dr Mamta Vaidya, consultant paediatric intensivist at the Royal London hospital, in Whitechapel, said the iPads were invaluable for patients receiving end-of-life care.

She said they also helped doctors speak to families about how best to care for dying relatives. Prior to their arrival, they were having to improvise.

On one recent occasion a chaplain placed a mobile phone in a plastic bag — to prevent infection — to let a critically ill 80-year-old patient speak to her daughter who was also Covid-positive.

Dr Vaidya said: “As healthcare professionals, it’s really hard to see people being alone, particularly during this time. Once they get intubated, we won’t know whether they’re ever going to be able to speak again.”

Twenty iPads have been donated to St George’s hospital, Tooting, including 15 from financial firm Cardano UK for end-of-life patients.

An extra 201 coronavirus deaths in London hospitals were announced yesterday. This included the first reported death at the Royal Marsden cancer hospital.

A further 26 deaths were reported at London North West Healthcare NHS Trust, which runs Northwick Park hospital in Harrow. The trust has now reported 209 deaths.

Today the Daily Telegraph reported that three nurses at Northwick Park who posed wearing bin bags last month — to highlight the shortage of personal protection equipment — had all tested positive for the virus.

The trust said it was giving support. It also emerged an engineer who helped convert the ExCeL centre into the Nightingale hospital had contracted the virus.

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