An emergency doctor, a general practitioner and a mental health nurse reflect on the challenges they are facing in their daily work and outline how public support is sustaining their morale and combating the spread of the disease. #coronavirus #covid19 #nhs #uk #doctors #nurses #health.
My name is matt i am working in an a&e department my name is jude vita and the mental health nurse i’m a gp in nottingham the department is actually physically changing so he no longer looks like the aney that i’m used to they’ve partitioned off a knee so that there’s now what we call a corona area and a non-pro area to try and keep um contamination at a
Minimum or so that poses some significant challenges in itself as a knees fundamentally aren’t whatever designed for this lots of stars are work in very different ways either remotely or we’ve had to tell people they can’t be at work because either they’re at risk or they’re not actually essential they can be a home and that’s lots of stuff that’s really upsetting
If they want to be helping they want to be here and not being there there have been a lot of tears and it’s that’s been really difficult our main focus what’s so far more mental health and now we have to focus a bit more on physical health as well which is it change in itself as we are not really equipped for this level of care you know the stories about doctor
Who’s on full life support as a nurse in her with relatively few health complaints that that is on on ventilation on ice what as well when you hear stories amongst colleagues they they scare you in terms of the stress levels they’re extremely high i know that lots of us aren’t really sleeping waking very can be worrying about things the first thing you think about
When you wake up days the coronavirus mentally how what impact it will have on me on my colleagues where there will be as resilient as we are now and whether we will have enough staff actually to care for patients so these are the questions i kind of have been asking myself more and more now so mine now i sort of go home in the evening i think about the patients
I’ve spoken to and the decisions that i’ve made as safe as possible in two weeks time i fear that the burden on me won’t be about that to be about the decisions that i’ve made to say to people actually i’m afraid you can’t go to hospital and there is no treatment it’s just a case of we we just don’t have the equipment and the staffing to support you anymore and
That you know you’ve been unfortunately hopefully there’s nothing more we can do so there’s gonna be some pretty difficult situations pretty difficult conversations and but feel like the worst is yet to come the best way for me is to admit that i am on the human being so all this anxieties frustrations and anger and fear are present in me i cannot escape
Or pretend or deny that they are not there what i can do is to be aware that they are and do what i can to my best ability my wife is a consultant paediatrician and i’m a gp and as definitely are in in the work i think we’re different in personality as well so i’m very brain is optimist generally my wife is absolutely the opposite so we do chat about things both
Doctors don’t don’t live with other doctors and don’t have that and that option and and i guess we were able to bounce our concerns and worries off each other and and anything that’s particularly affected us during the day or during the shift we can we can discuss with each other and try and reassure each other and calm each other down there are patients that
Patients that are dying and i guess it helps it is helpful being able to discuss that with each other and i guess we should lucky for that which a lot of doctors and health care workers don’t have that option a moment we try and do norm normal things as much as possible i’m actually just when you get home dinner the date on your phone a lot and it’s it can be it
Can be all-consuming basically but having me just that sense of normality things that are reassuring at these times really really key and that’s how we’re trying to trying to manage things there’s lots of nice things being done we’re getting food random food deliveries to the aeneid apartment from the local food suppliers we’re getting lots of nice messages
And lots of support from the public in general my phone is probably the busiest it’s ever been just general messages from my friends saying keep going doing a great job and so yeah we’re doing our bit and we’re trying to stay positive and it’s the little things that get you through the shift i guess the fact that for example i can go to costa cafe and get a cup
Of coffee free which is a great thing and you know watching a lot of positive examples from from the news a lot of people ready to help and support nhs is a great motivation the public reaction and the amount of support that the nhs is getting is really really humbling and it really does make a difference to me i think over the last few weeks i have never felt
As valued and i’m waking up feeling enthused and looking forward to going through as best i can what i find really helpful is that the attitude within the society and public has changed to be more respectful of the requirements so i feel safe that i am not exposed to crowds on the bars stay at home and if you’ve got people who you know you’re doing shopping for
Doorstep drop drop on the doorstep don’t go in then go and drop it on the doorstep when you’re calling your gp or you’re dealing with nhs stuff please bear in mind that there are enormous pressure and they’re trying to do the best things for you these are unprecedented times and things will continue to change as we as we learn more at the moment we we don’t have
A lot of evidence so we don’t have a lot of experience with this new virus so um things that help us as doctors and as a health care service is just people being vigilant and and following what guidance there is out there that will help us you
Transcribed from video
Coronavirus: how frontline NHS medics are coping | FT By Financial Times