Medics ready to go to war against virus
Doctors and nurses across Kent are on a war footing to fight the spread of coronavirus as infected patients are being treated at every hospitals trust in the county.
Wards have been reconfigured to increase intensive care capacity by as much as four-fold, with extra ventilators brought in and some operating theatres converted.
Staff are being redeployed to help treat coronavirus patients, while some nurses and doctors have been given training so they can care for those most seriously ill. But one intensive care nurse from Kent, is stuck in the Philippines after being stranded by the outbreak. Lorenzo Gacuma, 26, who works at the Tunbridge Wells Hospital, is in the country to celebrate his grandad’s 90th birthday.
The country went into lockdown on March 17.
He did not want to take a flight earlier this month, fearful of leaving behind his parents.
His other attempts to get home have not worked and restrictions are not due to be lifted until April 14.
He said “It’s very frustrating and I feel utterly useless as I want to be back in the UK helping my colleagues, but instead I’m 11,000 km away.”
His case has been flagged up with the Foreign Office.
Dr Sara Mumford, the director of infection prevention in Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells, said: “Everyone must stay at home.
“If we all work together we can make a massive impact on the spread of this disease.”
The first case of coronavirus in Kent was confirmed on March 2 when NHS offices at Maidstone Studios confirmed a staff member had tested positive. Three days later the infection claimed its first life in the UK.
The national death toll stood at 422, with more than 8,000 positive cases. London has been the epicentre of the outbreak in Britain, with more than 150 of the deaths occurring in the capital, where doctors tell of hospital wards being overwhelmed.
But Kent’s four hospitals trusts say they are doing all they can to prepare for what is to come.
At hospitals in Margate, Ashford and Canterbury, the number of intensive care beds will double next week from 33 to 66, and then again to 132 in mid-April. The east Kent trust which manages the sites also has its own microbiology lab providing results to quickly identify patients with Covid-19.
Vascular surgeon Lal Senaratne works at the Kent and Canterbury Hospital and spoke to this paper after completing a 65-hour shift on Monday.
“I started on Friday evening at 6pm and I’ve just finished now,” the 57-yearold said.
“Today, just before coming to the supermarket, I was at the hospital and there were people working in panic mode.
“Any patient who is unwell with a fever, they panic that it’s Covid.
“Most of the time it is not Covid – we don’t have that many people who are sick with it at the moment – but we expect in the coming weeks a number of people to get sick.”