‘We are ready for the second wave’
Proud James says his staff are coping in the face of huge pressure
Fat i g u e d s t a f f at Hairmyres Hospital are under huge amounts of pressure as they battle back against the second wave of coronavirus.
That was the stark reality painted by consultant surgeon and chief of medical services at the hospital, James Saldanha, who spoke with the Advertiser this week.
But he believes his staff are better prepared and “coping well” with the daily challenges they face this time around.
And he is confident that health professionals have what it takes to deal with the issue in the face of increasing death and hospital admission rates across the country.
He told us: “The biggest challenge is resilience and fatigue.
“All staff in the hospital, clinical and non- clinical, have been working under very difficult circumstances all year.
“They have had to continually adapt and work incredibly hard to keep patients and each other physically and mentally safe.
“There is, correctly, an enormous focus on staff wellbeing at the moment as it is very tough and will continue to be that way for the rest of the year.
“But we were well prepared for the first wave and we are even better prepared now.
“It is even more challenging this time in terms of resource as we are continuing many services that stopped during the first wave and we are also approaching winter.
“However, I am proud how we have learned and adapted and this is allowing us to cope well again under great pressure.”
A total of 545 people have died from the disease in Lanarkshire since March 17, with the area seeing some of the highest transmission rates in Europe in recent weeks.
In April we spoke with consultant surgeon and chief of medical services at Hairmyres Hospital, James Saldanha, as the virus took hold of our lives.
At that time he praised his staff and spoke of the challenges they faced in dealing with a surge in hospital admissions and the highly contagious disease.
Seven months on, he tells us how his selfless staff are adapting to the second wave and the challenges they face, and we again say THANKYOU to all NHS staff for helping get us through this pandemic.
That has begun to stabilise since new restrictions were put in place and new weekly case numbers fell this week for the second time in a fortnight.
Weekly Covid- 19 cases in
South Lanarkshire fell by almost a fifth last week (pages 6 and 7). But James warns that we may not yet be at the peak of the second wave.
He added: “We now have more numbers of patients in the hospital with Covid-19 than during the first wave and it has been that way for the last few weeks. Lanarkshire has, so far, had a far greater prevalence of Covid-19 over the last few weeks than most of the rest of Scotland and the UK.
“In terms of Scotland and the UK, I don’t think we are at, or past, the second peak yet.
The problem with the peaks is that you don’t actually know whether you are at the peak until after the event.”
Although the second wave is a bigger challenge for staff at Hairmyres due to bigger numbers, James is confident his staff can counter that because of the lessons they learned from the first wave, as well as their ability to adapt under pressure. He said that he is confident that if the public play their part and stick to guidance, and only attend the hospitals Emergency Department for true emergencies, the hospitals will cope.
Appealing to the public to do their bit, James added: “It is really important they help out. They need to adhere to government guidance in terms of physical distancing and precautions as it definitely has an enormous impact on our admissions and allows our services to cope.
“Essentially, the more people limit their contacts the sooner the levels of the virus will fall again.”
The darkest period of the first wave in Lanarkshire was, approximately, between March 28 and June 22.
From then, there were just two deaths until September 13, after which the death rate has steadily increased.
Over 16,000 people in Lanarkshire have now tested positive for Covid-19.
As he told us in April, James reiterated that “every single member” of Hairmyres staff has shown great enthusiasm, adaptability, and incredibly hard work to face these challenges.
He added: “We are very good at dealing with stressful complex situations every day.
“This challenge is bringing out the best in staff and I’m proud of the way we’re continuing to look after patients.”