Dr Darren Briggs

thanks for opportunity for people to speak about their experience of the covid19 outbreak in the NW of the state

As a senior doctor in the Emergency Dept of both MCH and NWRH hospital I have had and continue to have the opportunity to work with some extraordinary staff.

For much of the outbreak I was confined to home isolation having  worked in the NWRH up until its shut down.

My hands on experience and action was minimal to non-existent.

I did however have intense and ongoing contact over that time with many nurses and a number of doctors working clinically at MCH and in one instance at NWRH.

The first hand stories from those nurses and doctors were harrowing and humbling.

....Harrowing in the shocking experiences they encountered, lack of support and planning they received from hospital management and at times senior staff; particular in regards to the implementation of the decant of patients from NWRH to the MCH......lack of planning, lack of communication, lack of physical infrastructure, lack of PPE, lack of staffing, lack of training, lack of education and awareness of the situation and infection control requirements by some of their co workers.

...Humbling in the way they made do, came together as teams, designed wards, set up structures and processes, worked countless overtime hours and looked after patients to the best of their ability often at their own risk without significant senior support & oversight on the ground.

These experiences I will leave for them to share with you, I simply hope they will be able to do that without fear or favour and will be given the time to tell their stories, inpart for their own benefit and closure and also ultimately to improve our response when next we are faced with a similar situation.

My only first hand experience of a hint of these emerging issues was when working at MCH prior to the ED being scaled back and senior staff being deployed to the NWRH, before it too was shut down.  I tried to source education for staff in the donning and doffing of PPE.  I tried a number of times to have on the ground tuition for staff on shift.  It was difficult to obtain, I was told, due to staff shortages in infection control in the NW.  We eventually had an infection control nurse demonstrate to approx 20 staff how to don and doff PPE in the staff tea room in a room where two rooms merge at a 90 degree angle, you can imagine how poor the view was for some.  We were not allowed to practice ourselves as we were told supplies of PPE were in too short a supply at that time.  In subsequent days we were then advised to teach ourselves donning and doffing from THS videos with our co workers as buddies to critique our methods, again PPE was short and we had to reuse gowns and were not allowed N95 masks to practice with. This was the only formal PPE training I received since commencing in the NW in 2011, apart from yearly online hand hygiene training. This was just the tip of the iceberg I was later to discover as I have alluded to above.

Thanks to all those who have worked tirelessly on the wards, in administration, in management, in public health, in infection control and elsewhere.... We all have lots to share and learn from each other and make things better for all in the future.

Happy to discuss further.