Covid ICU matron: 'We never imagined it would be this hard'
Video report by ITV News Meridian's Kit Bradshaw
Frontline NHS staff have spoken of their "relentless" work treating critically-ill Covid patients, amid growing fears of the toll it is taking on their mental health.
"I don’t think we could have imagined how hard it was going to be." That is the assessment of Intensive Care Unit Matron, Jane Sansom, on the impact the pandemic's second wave is having on her staff.
Ms Sansom is in charge of two ICUs at Tunbridge Wells Hospital – one for coronavirus patients and one for those with other conditions. She spoke to ITV News Meridian as part of our exclusive coverage of the hospital’s response to a second wave of Covid patients, almost 4 times the size of the first.
A Kent MP has raised fears that NHS staff could suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) because of what they are being exposed to.
Conservative Tracey Crouch, who represents Chatham and Aylesford, asked Boris Johnson at Prime Minister’s Questions, yesterday, to "urgently invest in training sufficient numbers of psychology professionals to support our heroic nurses and doctors".
Ms Crouch added that many in critical care units were working "continuous shifts" with their patients facing "dismal survival rates". In reply, the Prime Minister said he would "look at" her recommendation.
A recent study, by King’s College London, found that the 'substantial burden of mental health symptoms being reported by ICU staff towards the end of the first wave in July 2020' was 'highly likely to impair some [of their] ability to provide high quality care'.
Dr Andy Taylor, a consultant anaesthetist at Tunbridge Wells Hospital, was part of a British team sent to Africa in 2014 to help tackle the Ebola outbreak. He says the coronavirus pandemic has felt "relentless".
He added: "I went to Sierra Leon for six weeks. I knew at the end of that six weeks I had a flight home and Ebola wasn’t in the UK. Whereas here at the moment Covid is in my home, I go home I’m still in the Covid environment, I go to work, I’m still in the Covid environment. It’s been a long struggle so far."
During our filming inside the 'Red ICU' – which is full of coronavirus patients – we spoke to 60-year-old Jesus Gacuma. He had this warning for others: "Be careful of the Covid. It’s very, very bad. It will get you slowly. You won’t know what will happen. You’ll be scared. I have a [heart] bypass but Covid is worse."
He is one of many patients that the staff are currently caring for. They are running at double their usual capacity of critically-ill people. However, like across England, the number of daily new Covid admissions has begun to fall.
The hospital's staff are keen for the public not to see falling case numbers as a reason to stop following the social distancing rules.
Miles Scott, Chief Executive of the Maidstone & Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust, praised the work of his staff: "The second wave has been the most enormous challenge. I think the way that the staff have just pulled together has been absolutely extraordinary."