Name withheld (6)

During the outbreak, I was working in the NWRH largely and, unfortunately, was one of the staff members who contracted COVID.

Throughout the beginnings of the pandemic, it was clear that no one knew much about the disease, how it was spread and what the impact might be. I had heard that the hospital was bolstering their medical response but changes to our ‘culture’ of how we (staff) interact with each other only came weeks after the pandemic took effect.

When we first had a few patient cases in the hospital, anxieties were quite high, amongst all staff. Concerns that I heard included, “is it being spread through the air conditioning” to “we don’t have enough PPE”. I know that our local management were trying their best to communicate the risks with us but the advice was changing so regularly that none of us could keep up.

When the hospital was finally shut down, I felt that the NW was treated as a pariah. Friends interstate were messaging me commenting on the doctors’ ‘illegal dinner party’ and how we might have had poor hygiene. It is only now, months on, when similar situations have happened in different hospitals and different states, that things have been put into perspective.

PPE was discussed a lot during the outbreak. Many staff felt that there was not enough but given that most of our cases were staff-to-staff transmission, I am not sure how much of this assertion is politically motivated rather than a reflection of the reality on the shop floor.

My contraction of the virus was very confusing on how/where I would have caught it. The Public Health and ‘check-ins’ from the Emergency Services were good and, thankfully, I had enough friends who were able to help with groceries etc.

Following the shut-down and us re-entering the hospital, I felt that there were lots of changes that had been made but changing our ‘culture’ of how staff interact with each other, would take a lot longer.

My main concerns throughout the time is how often the advice was changing on what to do and when to do it. I know that this was due to the whole world learning about this virus on-the-fly but it was still very confusing for people on the ground.