That includes not just the Royal Surrey staff but also all the community nurses serving Guildford and Waverley, plus Milford and Haslemere hospitals.

We clapped them during the first wave and we need to think of them every day now in the second phase. The pressures they are experiencing on our behalf are difficult to envisage.

They are not just doing everything they can for Covid patients but also doing everything possible to continue treatments for cancer and other patients in urgent need.

But Dragon readers might wish to appreciate some of the less obvious efforts which support the whole. Some of the work the Estates, Facilities and Capital Planning team has achieved include:

• Within two weeks of the first positive Covid-19 case at Royal Surrey, the need for additional oxygen meant a new tank was commissioned and installed, increasing capacity by 66%;
• An extension to the waiting area for the Emergency Department was built in 14 weeks to enable social distancing;.
• The new 20-bed Guildford Covid-19 isolation ward was commissioned, designed and built within 14 weeks;
• New maternity hubs at Cranleigh and Berryfields were built, and refurbishment of the Royal Surrey’s community hospitals started;
• A second maternity theatre was built and the Special Care Baby Unit re-sited;
• Operating theatres 1-10 were refurbished;
• The MaxFacs [mouth, jaws, face and neck] laboratory was refurbished;
• Histology [microscopic anatomy] capacity at the Guildford site was refurbished with additional capacity; and
• Within five days of the initial request, the Wellspring Restaurant was converted into a clinical vaccination hub.

How lucky we are to have the Royal Surrey looking after us.