Patient praises our NHS over treatment efforts
An East Kilbride woman tested for coronavirus has praised the NHS staff that took care of her.
But she has warned that hospitals and staff are already at breaking point as they try to control the spread of the virus.
The woman, who wishes not to be named, was admitted to Hairmyres Hospital after showing many of the symptoms associated with COVID-19.
That included severe aching, “banging” headaches, sickness, a cough and phlegm.
After phoning 111 and explaining her symptoms, she was transferred to the East Kilbride hospital via ambulance by medical staff in protective clothing, and segregated at the back of the A&E unit.
The 33-year-old told us: “My son and my ex partner were there with me.
“I was in A&E for a day before I was transferred upstairs.
“They were in protective clothing and face masks.
“I was told there were four suspected cases at that time. And the whole hospital was in lockdown – it was chaos.”
The mother-of-two, who used to work in the NHS, had her nose and mouth swabbed as she was tested for influenza and COVID-19.
She said it took for a day-and-a-half for the results to come back – thankfully they were negative.
“They think I have some kind of infection,” the woman told us.
“My blood markers were high and I had the symptoms, but thankfully it’s not coronavirus.”
Staff at the hospital took the utmost care in protecting the woman, and others in the hospital, when moving her from A&E to an isolation ward.
That saw fully covered medical staff and porters shut off all routes to contact with her, other than a direct route to her new room.
Porters were stationed along the corridors stopping anyone coming near the woman, running between doors in a relay-system to open the door to minimise contact with anything.
It was “like 007 or something” and the woman’s son was not even allowed to press the button on the lift, with a gloved and masked porter pressing it.
She added: “The staff told me it was so difficult because their directive was changing constantly.
“They’d just be getting into a rhythm with one way of working when they had to change to another. It was chaos.
“That was them when they were dealing with, what I was told, just four cases. I have no idea how they will cope when this thing kicks-off for real.
“They’re doing the best they can with what they’ve got, but it’s a really hard job. They need help. Fast.”
The woman was kept in hospital for a total of five days and was in isolation for two of those.