Tales from trenches In war against Covid
From taking on multiple roles to coming out of retirement to help, staff on the frontline tell of their pride in doing their bit in the fight against the coronavirus
Three NHS Lanarkshire workers have risen to the challenges of the pandemic and helped reduce the spread of Covid by embracing considerable changes to their traditional working lives.
NHS Nurse Ashley Gardner is proud to have set an unusual record within the health board area for switching jobs more times in the past 12 months than any of her Lanarkshire colleagues.
And retirees Kenny Rogerson and Mark Ingram have swapped careers in the police service and academia to help keep people safe by joining Lanarkshire’s vital contact tracing teams.
Ashley, who has worked for NHS
Lanarkshire for nearly four years, has been redeployed to seven different roles in response to Covid. Over the last year, her fluctuating posts have given her the opportunity to develop her knowledge and skills and build strong relationships with colleagues across the health board area.
Hundreds of NHS staff like Ashley have worked beyond their normal roles during the pandemic, including GPs who have been deployed to the Acute Respiratory Illness Centre and staff who have been transferred to vaccination centres.
Yet 29-year-old Ashley, who usually works with individuals and groups as a nurse in the small, nurse-led Keep Well team, can claim to rival the number of varied roles experienced by most of her colleagues during the pandemic. For a week, two weeks or several months at a time, she has worked within: the incident management team in public health at Kirklands; contact tracing of travellers returning from Italy in the early stages of Covid; Test and Protect at the community assessment centre in Airdrie; testing in the community and in the acute Covid wards at University Hospital Wishaw and, most recently, in vaccine delivery.
Ashley, who qualified as a nurse in 2012, says the past 12 months have been the most challenging in her career.
She explained: “I returned to my own job this week and am enjoying seeing my own patients again.
“Moving between teams was difficult and sometimes scary, with new colleagues, new settings, new routines and then Covid on top of the changes.
“However, I feel I was very lucky. Every time I moved to a new team, they were very supportive and grateful for the extra help. You’re meeting people you’d never normally come across, which is really useful in my normal job.”
Also switching roles are Kenny and Mark, who have joined NHS Lanarkshire’s contact tracing teams in the last six months.
Kenny, a retired police officer from Law, followed in the footsteps of relatives who have been proud members of the NHS workforce – including one who worked at the former Law Hospital.
“In the current climate, I felt I’d be making a useful contribution to the cause of fighting the pandemic,” said Kenny, 57.
“I’ve found the system of working and being part of a team – while working alone at home – much like working for
I watched in awe at the amazing job our NHS were doing and felt a desire to help
the police, with rules and systems to follow, dealing with the public, writing up reports and updating case notes and such like.
“It’s satisfying when you’re able to help or offer advice or reassurance to someone who is worried about Covid.”
Kenny, who served as a police officer for more than 30 years, says the most difficult calls he’s handled are from people who are suddenly bereaved, having lost a family member during the night to Covid.
He said: “One caller was obviously very upset and confused. Sometimes, if someone’s just been bereaved they can quite understandably be angry and upset. But, due to my experience in the police, I’m able to deal with that.”
Also working as a contact tracer is retired academic Mark Ingram, who was head of the Faculty in Engineering and Automotive at New College Lanarkshire.
Mark, 61, says the dedication of NHS workers in the early stages of the pandemic inspired him to join the team.
“I watched in awe at the amazing job our National Health Service were doing to keep us safe and save lives and felt a strong desire to help in any way I could,” said Mark, who is proud to be playing his part in helping to reduce community transmission of the virus.
While he’s handled some challenging phone calls, Mark, of Carluke, says he finds the role extremely rewarding.
“I get a great deal of satisfaction at the end of my shift, knowing that I have played an important role in helping people to self-isolate safely and reduce the number of people who potentially may have caught the virus otherwise,” he explained. “Most people I talk to have been very helpful and supportive of what our team are trying to achieve.
“During each call, you feel as though, for a brief moment, you are part of someone’s family, talking about their partners, children, and friends, what they work as, what their day or week has been like, how they’re feeling, their worries and concerns.
“You try and work with them to reduce the risk of onward infection to their family and friends and keep them safe. It is like no other job I have ever done before.”
Paying tribute to the many staff who have redeployed during the last 12 months, as well as those who have joined contact tracing and vaccination teams from outside the health service, NHS Lanarkshire chief executive Heather Knox said: “As we mark the anniversary of Covid-19 arriving in Scotland, I would like to thank NHS Lanarkshire staff for their flexibility, dedication and resilience in the face of this unprecedented challenge. “I’d also like to acknowledge all those who have joined our ranks to help keep all of us safe. “We have had nearly 38,000 cases in our health board area alone, but that number would have been much higher had it not been for the unswerving patience and sacrifice of the community, who saw their NHS change so much in the last year and helped us, by sticking with the restrictions.”