‘NHS HAS PROBABLY SHOWN JUST HOW FLEXIBLE IT CAN BE’
profoundly unwell. Or you find yourself in the position with a family where perhaps their parent is dying and it’s very difficult for the family to appreciate that not everyone can come in in the way we would have done beforehand.
“It’s very uncomfortable.”
CONSULTANT endocrinologist and associate director of medical education Colin Perry, pictured below, was clinical director for medicine at the QEUH during the first wave of the virus.
As he stands in the reconfigured ground floor of the hospital, he reflects on the first time, before the building’s opening in 2015, that he saw the scale and size of the surgical receiving wing.
At the time he couldn’t picture it full. Now it is full – and full for reasons that would have been unimaginable then.
In March and April last year major changes were made to deal with the challenge of ensuring patients who may have Covid are quickly assessed and moved into single rooms, one of the stand-out advantages of the hospital where all wards have private rooms.
Acute patients come into the building either through the emergency department or the acute receiving areas, so a specialist assessment and treatment area (SATA) was set up to deal with the relentless flow of new patients.
This time round, the SATA has taken over the surgical receiving areas to cope with increasing demands.
As the surgeons were relocated to another part of the hospital, an x-ray machine was redeployed to be immediately by the door of the SATA so patients can be x-rayed in place and not moved through the building to radiology.
Meeting demands has very much been a case of all hands on deck, at least during the first wave.
“We’ve had increased input in medical high dependency from physicians who were not part of that team before,” Colin says.
“We’ve had a huge amount of help from the trainees and chief residents who put in an enormous amount of work.
“The trainees have been an enormous resource. We’ve also had redeployed trainees – doctors from other areas moving to help us in the QEUH.
“And we’ve even had help from the oral medicine team from the dental hospital who were a huge help in the first wave.” Colin said “a unity” has developed between specialists, with the pandemic response showing how quick and nimble the NHS can be when the situation is as stark as it has been. This time round, Colin says, better understanding of the illness is having an impact on the number of patients needing intensive care support.
He explains: “When there’s only so many patients in the world, you’re feeling your way, but it’s extraordinary how far we’ve come in a year.”
This time round, too, staff are bone-tired.
Colin points out something fairly obvious but which, perhaps, is easily forgotten.
“We totally understand that the public are tired – we’re members of the public too and we’re tired.”
Colin is due to receive his vaccine in the coming days. But, more importantly to him, his 91-year-old father has a date for his jab.
“Honestly, in amongst all of this that is a fantastic feeling and yeah, that makes me really happy,” he says. “That is a huge thing for me, that he gets his vaccine, and that’s part of the bigger picture because we all have families.”
During the height of the first wave when public affection for the NHS was at a peak, donations of support flooded in.
It was acknowledged that staff needed additional support so R&R hubs were set up to give staff a space to go to away from the wards.
At the QEUH, British Airways set up one of its Project Wingman centres – a space where cabin crew and pilots redeployed to serve NHS workers food and drink.
“It was lovely to go over there,” Colin says, “getting a cup of coffee from somebody who was flying you to New York a year ago.
“Extraordinary. And it allowed you to decompress slightly.”
Senior NHS staff say protecting staff mental health and wellbeing is vital and there are plans to sustain the R&R hubs after the crisis is finally over, not least in thanks to a £250,000 donation from Barclays bank.
Like every doctor and every nurse the Glasgow Times speaks to during our time in the hospital, Colin repeats the plea to please follow government advice.
He looks to the silver linings, the positives learned during a hellish time.
Better communication between teams is one, rapid and imaginative evolution of ideas another. The speed at spreading medical learning and the importance of staff wellbeing are others.
“The NHS has probably demonstrated just how flexible it can be,” he says. “And there’s a lot of pride, a lot of pride in working for the NHS.”
He pauses and takes a moment.
“Sorry, I start to well up when I think about it.
“The visible caring, the visceral caring people have shown.
“The other silver lining is just more people look out for one another, people do look out for their colleagues a bit more. None of us are indestructible.”