Week 2

Monday 30th March

Still getting used to the extended 'lie-in'. I'd stopped going to the David LLoyd Gym for my morning exercise (shower & coffee) 2 weeks before lock-down. I've had to completely reprogramme the heating and amount of hot water now that I'm having my morning shower at home. On the plus side, David Lloyd have frozen the membership, so hopefully that'll cover the increase in gas & 'lecky.

Decision made that I and some of our Dental Nurses are drafted in to help the swab team. A small van has been hired so we don't have to use our own cars, but someone will have to go and collected from the site where it is securely located.

We've practised putting on/off or in NHS terms 'donning&doffing' the PPE. We've had a look at the test kits but still haven't had a 'live' patient to 'have a go'. I sign up to offer to do a weekend shift as is seems that some of the current team are starting phone in saying they're self-isolating.

The training from Friday left us with a lot of online courses to complete. Make a start on these just in case I get called up to help with the District Nurse teams.

Tuesday 31st March

Arrive in work to find things have all changed again. One patient who is looked after by the District Nurse Teams has been diagnosed with Covid-19. There's a list on nearing 20 staff that have been involved in his care over the last week. Community Managers make the decision to swab all of these staff otherwise they'd all be off work.

So the Dental Department is designated as the most suitable site for these staff to attend. We (dental team) get a live demo of the technique and get some 'willing' guinea pigs to practice on.

I have to warn you that having a swab for Covid-19 is not pleasant if it's done properly. The one in the mouth has to swipe over the tonsils and the wall at the back, past the dangly bit (uvula). It'll make you gag/cough. The nose one has to go far enough up that it'll make your eyes water.




By the end of the day, we've swabbed most of the day shift. Just some of the night staff to catch up with.

Wednesday 1st April

More changes. The central mobile swab team is going to be a fixed-site team for staff-swabbing to attend as a 'drive-in'.

The estates department have located an ideal site, a health centre not a million miles away (one, to be precise) where we will take over a pharmacy department which has recently closed down. We will be off there in the afternoon to have a trial run with a couple of staff who are currently off work, self-isolating for one reason or another.

So I and 3 of our nurses travel to our new site. We arrive to see that we have indeed got a ideal set-up. Facilities to make brews, a toilet, somewhere to sit in the dry and somewhere to store (and lock away) all the kit we'll need. Sorted! Some from IT is sorting out lap tops and wifi connection.

The staff car park has been commandeered for the drive-in. We have a security guard (in a cabin) with a remote door bell to announce an arrival, 2 disabled parking spaces right next to the front door for the cars to park up.

The first email with details comes through and the cars start arriving at 10-20 min intervals. Someone goes out to the car to check the details, and then reports back and the information is completed on the swab test. 2 members of staff go back out to the car (the swabber and buddy) and undertake the swab test through the car window. By the end of the afternoon we've completed 13 tests.

Here's the team at the end of the first day.

Thursday 2nd April

First full day at our new site. Now the process has started to feel a bit more comfortable the Trust is looking to increase the through-put. So we look at managing  2 staff to be swabbed every 10 mins. We calculate that we'll need a minimum of 6 staff to manage this, 2 pairs of swabber/buddy, one person checking details, 1 person admin checking for emails. The whole shift day is 8am-6pm, with staff doing 8-4, 9-5, 10-6 as well as a shift lead doing the 8-6 hours.

I volunteer to be a shift lead. Given that I nominally do a 37.5hr week this will mean a change from working 5 days of 7.5hrs to 4 days of 9 and a bit hours. I offer to cover weekends. So as I've already done 4 days this week, I'm having a day off tomorrow in lieu of working Saturday.

33 swabs done today. We have a couple of children to swab today as they're the ones with symptoms causing their parents (staff) to be off work.

Friday 3rd April

A relaxing day off. Or it was until I spot 'roly' rat run across the far patio. Mmh, will need to keep an eye on this if the bin collection becomes a bit more sporadic.

Saturday 4th April

Last time I worked a Saturday was over 25 years ago. How times change. We have some new members on the team, all eager to join in. We have a whatsapp group now, not something I'd used a lot, but getting used to it. Seems that a lot of the other community services use it a lot to keep in touch.

40 staff/family members swabbed today. It takes 48hrs for the results to come through, but could mean some of these will be back in work next week if the results come back negative.

Sunday 5th April

Another day off. The grass is looking a bit long and infiltrated with lots of moss. A nice sunny day so decide to tackle both instead of a run. I have 2 machines, one that cuts the grass and the other that scarifies it. 2 x the 'steps'. The amount of moss the scarifier pulls off is immense. It fills two of those large foldable plastic green waste containers. Would be perfect for filling hanging baskets, but I don't have any.

A glass of wine to finish the week.

TF