PREPARING FOR WHAT COMES NEXT
HEALTH BOSSES TELL OF OUTBREAK’S IMPACT AND HOW LIVES HAVE CHANGED
AS news of a new virus in China started to spread around the world, no one could have known the massive effect it would have on all of our lives.
But three people who did have some idea of what might be to come were Leicester’s health chiefs, who were busy preparing to head up the city and county’s response.
The Mercury chatted to Ivan Browne, Leicester City Council’s director of public health, his Leicestershire equivalent, Mike Sandys, and Rebecca Brown, acting chief executive at Leicester’s hospitals, about how the pandemic has been for them.
IVAN BROWNE
“I’m a Leicester boy, I was born in Leicester, the people in this city are people I’ve grown up with, my friends and family, work colleagues. There was a moment when I thought to myself the decisions I’m making are critical, they will impact on everyone I know, everyone in the city.
“It’s daunting but it is part of the job. We train for it, we plan for it but we came into this with nothing. It’s like nothing we’ve ever had to do before.”
One June afternoon, health secretary Matt Hancock casually referenced Leicester in a daily briefing. He gave the city as an example of an area with high rates. At the time the data wasn’t there to back it up, so it was news to a lot of us.
Ivan Browne was already trying to manage the city’s response, and had been since the city’s patient zero. “At the start, every individual case was reported when it first arrived in the country, then we heard about each new confirmed case, we knew where people had travelled, we had an idea where it had come from.
“We were on tenterhooks waiting for it to arrive in Leicester.”
The virus took its time arriving. “It was a case of when it would arrive in the city, not if. It was in the county, it was in neighbouring areas. I remember taking the call and thinking it’s happening, but work started long before that moment. This was the unknown, an unprecedented illness.
“The moment it arrived we became concerned with how to communicate with the public about this, how do we make them aware of what we’re dealing with but urge them to remain calm?
“We were already delivering public health messages but we were ready to up things when it did arrive, we had to be.
“When the call came, the first question in my mind was how fast will this spread through our city?” When the national lockdown started there had been around five
confirmed cases in the city. A week later that number had more than quadrupled.
With well-documented data struggles, health bosses faced a challenge when it came to stopping the spread of the virus. In the early stages even Ivan wasn’t armed with the detailed data he said he needed to be able to mount a targeted response.
“It was impossible to switch off. It does impact on family life but it’s the job I want to do. You feel that responsibility, you worry you will drop the ball, but I’m supported by excellent colleagues.”
MIKE SANDYS
“It was late on a Friday night when I got the call. I kind of paused, I knew it was coming and I knew we were as ready as we could be, but that was the start of it all.”
Mike, too, knew the call would come, he just didn’t know when. It was March 7 when it did - almost a week before the city’s first confirmed case. “A week later, I thought back to that call, by then we had five cases, another week later there were 20. It was mad to see it spread.
“Soon after that the calls stopped, the numbers had started to increase quite significantly and the bigger changes nationally were coming into force.”
Preparations that had been planned were actioned in the county as Mike headed up the area’s response. “It did feel like a huge responsibility, but it also felt like one of those moments that I took the job for. It was almost like a training exercise, worst case scenario situation. While it still felt surreal we were as ready as we could be.”
As national measures were introduced, health bosses and the government hoped to stop the virus spreading in an attempt to save lives and protect the NHS. The other part of that message was stay home, something which the county did. “I did get the chance to do what everyone else was doing sometimes and managed to watch some TV.
“I remember watching the Salisbury poisoning thing in lockdown and what happened there almost compares in a way. It started as one case and it’s almost detective work, tracking back, but one thing leads to another. I wasn’t sleeping on a pull-out bed in the office like the director of public health in the show was but it wasn’t far off that.
“My wife joked the other day that she only knows it’s the weekend because I don’t have my headset on.”
REBECCA BROWN
Rebecca had not long been appointed acting chief executive.
“We were out for dinner with friends, the phone rang and I heard we had our first patient.
“I took the call and went back to the table but I couldn’t finish dinner. I knew from that moment my life was going to be very different. I left and went home but I couldn’t be there either. I had this feeling of ‘this is it’ and I had to be at the hospital.”
She drove to Leicester Royal Infirmary. “I went there to see the staff, to just be there, I knew it was the start of something big and I wanted to make sure we were ready.
“I think conversations about coronavirus started at the very beginning of the year. John [Adler] had been poorly and I was acting chief executive. For me, it was almost the right time to be the acting chief, because, yes, I was new, but actually no one had done this before so it was new to everyone.
“From the beginning, the senior team and partners made the decision that we would approach whatever was to come as a team.
“Covid was the common enemy and the way to fight it was together.”
Walking the wards, donning a hair net in the hospital kitchens, chairing medical meetings and recording video messages for staff have all formed part of Rebecca’s management. Her personable approach has been a hit with the staff she speaks so highly of.
“Our staff have been wonderful. Lots of them didn’t see their families for weeks, months. There were mums who stayed away from their children, people who haven’t seen their grandchildren, all so they can carry on working and protect their families.”
Her attention has now shifted to winter. “We need people to be comfortable enough to come into the hospitals for other things. Urgent care, cancer care, it all needs to continue. We’ve got a really tough six months ahead of us.”