Oban hospital welcomes new graduates to help on front line
Three trainee doctors have joined the front line team treating COVID-19 at Oban hospital, writes Kathie Griffiths and Britt Doughty-Godchaux.
The interim junior doctors who arrived early as firstyear graduates at Lorn and Islands Hospital are just some of the nursing and medical students nationwide who are being asked to give up the last few months of training so they can bolster the ranks of already qualified colleagues fighting the virus.
Instead of completing projects for graduation and not starting work until August, the three have been hired to spend their first three-month leg of first-year graduate training here in Oban.
It is not unusual for the hospital to train students from across Scotland and the UK at different stages of their medical education but starting their medical career early was unexpected for these new recruits until the coronavirus struck.
James Warne from Glasgow had to cut short a research project in Australia when lockdown began there. His thesis on paediatric diabetes should have lasted several months, but only two weeks into it he was on a plane home.
Despite cancelled graduations, parties and plans for Euro2020, Craig Osborne from Ayr – together with his two colleagues – feels lucky to be here in Oban.
Andreas Day from Taynuilt, who has already done some of his anaesthetics training at Lorn and Isles, and is happy to be close to home at a time like this, said: ‘The Oban hospital is really friendly and has a nice atmosphere.’
The recruits will be supporting hospital staff and ‘lending a hand’ where needed.
‘Though the three have begun shadowing work this week to become acclimated to systems and ways of working, regular staff and the students alike feel confident everyone will soon be part and parcel of the work that goes on daily at the hospital,’