Stepping up: NHS workers swap roles to join the frontline

Health service staff in other specialisms are volunteering to join frontline colleagues. Here, JANET BOYLE speak to three of them

THE NURSE

Nurse Dolly Beagent has stepped back from her job in care home health education and gone into the frontline in critical care at Raigmore Hospital.

The mum-of-two is nursing ill Covid-19 patients in the large Highlands teaching hospital. “I work with a team taking care of patients who have been admitted to hospital and are critically ill. Some of them have Covid-19. I was anxious about going back to critical care where I had worked previously. But it all comes back to you and that along with our safety training, makes it possible to become a valuable member of staff on the frontline.”

Dolly’s shifts involve day and night working. Back home, her husband Marc, a roofer, looks after their two young daughters. He is off work on isolation but before that bosses allowed him home early for childcare.

THE SURGEON

Core surgical trainee in plastic surgery, Jessica Roberts, volunteered to work in the frontline of A&E at Glasgow Royal Infirmary.

“I volunteered on the Friday and was in A&E working with patients including those with suspected Covid-19 on the Tuesday,” Jessica, 29, said.

“My health board was keen to be as prepared as possible for the arrival of large numbers of patients with the virus in Glasgow. I had not worked in A&E for a while and worried about getting up to speed with all the demands emergency medicine presents.

“I worried about whether I would remember everything I had learned about A&E medicine but the training to go back in was hugely reassuring. Every doctor worries about whether they will contract the virus from patients but strict training and liquid-proof face masks, gloves and aprons are essential.

“Everyone is stepping up the mark – I am one of three from plastic surgery to volunteer for A&E. Other trainees are here from ophthalmology, dermatology, psychiatry and general practice.

“Everyone in A&E has been welcoming.”

THE DENTIST

Orkney dentist Steven Johnston, has volunteered to set up and carry out Covid-19 testing of NHS staff on the island.

The dad-of-two left his day job as a practising oral surgeon at the Balfour Hospital when the call went out for frontline staff to deal with the pandemic.

“I wanted to be part of the fight against the virus,” said Steven, 34. “We have been testing NHS staff since Tuesday but I could only start working after coming out of a 14-day isolation when a family member developed a temperature which proved not to be Covid-19.

“Preparation for our unit involves washing our hands twice on entering and leaving, before and after changing into scrubs and our clothes on the way home.

“I then shower after arriving at home to protect my family. We work eight-hour shifts with briefings at 8am and 4pm.”