Students make early start to help in fight against virus

Final-year medical students across Wales are stepping into their first roles as junior doctors to help in the fight against coronavirus. Despite expecting to start their medical careers in August, hundreds of students have been drafted in early to put the

thomas grother

After spending six years studying at Cardiff University School of Medicine, Thomas said he felt ready to play his part.

Following two days of orientation where he learnt how to “don and doff” his personal protective equipment (PPE) safely, the 27-year-old is now starting work at the Royal Glamorgan Hospital in Llantrisant.

“It’s been a long road going through medical school – it wasn’t a walk in the park,” he said.

“But I am proud to be able to help the NHS, particularly in Llantrisant as it’s like returning home for me.

“My mum and dad are from there and my grandfather was in and out of the hospital quite often when I was young.

“Experiencing the care of the doctors and nurses there gave me the desire to work in medicine in the first place.

“I knew from that moment that it was something I wanted to be a part of.”

Thomas said as the number of cases of Covid-19 continued to increase in Wales, he was told by the university that the NHS was looking for help.

“The medical school kept us up to date with what was going on,” said Thomas, a member of British Medical Association’s Welsh Medical Students Committee.

“Obviously everyone’s lives have been turned upside down by the current situation, and as students it’s not ideal to go into hospitals which have changed somewhat, but I’ve felt happy and ready to get stuck in.”

Thomas said his first job will be to work in anaesthetics at the hospital and he has been paired with a anaesthetic junior doctor.

“That was my first job rotation in August anyway,” said Thomas, who is due to graduate in five weeks.

“I will be doing a lot of the routine work like doing bloods, drugs charts, but due to the nature of anaesthetics I will be looking after patients who are very unwell, so it may involve those with Covid-19.”

Thomas, who was living with his parents in Llantrisant, has chosen to move out for the foreseeable future on his own in order to protect them from the virus.

He said the PPE training from both the health board and the university will mean the process of keeping himself safe will soon become second nature.

“We’ll still be students but we’ll be doing a little bit more and we’ll be more part of the overall team.

“It’s a privilege to be able to help out.”

millie tee

Millie, who had been studying in her final year at Cardiff University School of Medicine, said her first experience of the pandemic came in March during an overseas hospital placement in the southern Caribbean island of St Vincent and the Grenadines.

“There was only one confirmed case on the island. I was watching the news back home and it was difficult to comprehend what was going on,” she recalled. “I was then due to fly from Miami to Columbia but while I was there their borders closed completely to EU nationals.

“Then Donald Trump suspended all flights from Europe so I knew I had to book my flight home to the UK straight away.”

The 24-year-old, from Northamptonshire, said she had one more placement to complete in her final year at Cardiff.

But instead of that she is now being given paid work as part of the team at Wrexham Maelor Hospital.

Her role at present is to care for the elderly, many of whom need to be swabbed for suspected Covid-19.

“We have learnt that symptoms present in the elderly in bizarre and different ways to other people in society,” she said.

“But if they haven’t got the virus getting them home is the absolutely priority as the hospital is the most dangerous place.”

But soon enough Millie has been told she is likely to be placed at the Rainbow Hospital in Deeside, a temporary

250-bed hospital housed within Deeside Leisure Centre.

“They dismantled the skate park there which I don’t think some people were pleased about,” she joked.

“I will be looking after patients who do not require ventilation, so not the most severe cases.”

Millie admitted that the proper “fit test” for the PPE did make her face pretty red. “It’s quite claustrophobic wearing it but in truth I’m more worried infecting others.”