Covid pandemic remembered: West Midlands medics reflect on experiences
"We were dealing with death, death in the droves, death of young people and death of our colleagues."Five years ago, as the UK went into lockdown and the world was gripped by the coronavirus pandemic, Dr Sarb Clare was on the front line for the NHS.Working in the West Midlands in Sandwell and west Birmingham, she said it was "incredibly tough" as "we didn't know what was coming"."There was a lot of death that we saw. But we also saw great team spirit, the spirit of the NHS and also the art of the possible," Dr Clare added.
She was among NHS staff reflecting as a new critical care unit opened at the Midland Metropolitan University Hospital in Smethwick, replacing those at Sandwell and City Hospitals.Looking back to 2020, senior sister Laura Harman described the pandemic as "the most challenging time in my career" and one in which staff were dealing with "fear of the unknown"."We were under immense pressure, working in fear, we were working harder and being stretched more than we ever had been previously," she said."I definitely experienced anxiety working through that period."
Ms Harman had to move out of her family home as one of her household was vulnerable and she said that left her without a place to relax and enjoy company away from work."Everything was turned upside down and everything was difficult and that was a really anxiety inducing time," she added."I definitely witnessed nurses having panic attacks when they were required to put their personal protective equipment (PPE) on."People were sick, people were having panic attacks, people would put their mask on and then just have to remove their PPE immediately because of the panic it was causing them to feel."
Dr Clare said it was especially tough given the area around the hospital which she described as "the biggest deprived ward in the country"."They couldn't isolate, they had to work, they were our shopkeepers, our bus drivers, they were the ones who were serving us but yet they were coming in their generations – mums, kids, grandkids and dying," she said."That was the most heartbreaking and gut-wrenching and we've all been scarred from that."
Critical care in the Sandwell and City hospitals was stretched to 350% of their usual capacity in 2020 during the pandemic and their area was one of the hardest hit in the country by Covid, according to the NHS trust running them.For matron Noku Sileya, it was the team around her in the hospital which helped her get through the dread and fear she felt during the pandemic."You always felt that you fell short because you weren't doing the standard of care that you were used to," she said."My fellow nurses and colleagues, we were all going through the same so we were all able to relate and able to share our experiences and keep each other going."Ms Harman agreed it was staff "pulling together" which helped her."The level of teamwork that was exhibited was the best I've ever seen and I felt so privileged to pull together and work with people who were all in the same boat," she added.
Despite the memories of five years ago still remaining vivid to many staff, they are positive about the future.Doctors say the new Midland Metropolitan hospital is much better equipped to cope in future.Prof Jonathan Hulme, joint clinical lead in critical care, said the new unit would make a big difference with any future pandemic."These are our new isolation rooms and if we had people with particularly infectious diseases, they'd now come into the isolation rooms," he explained."Within Covid times, we didn't end up using individual rooms because so many people had it that we just turned a whole unit into a Covid intensive care unit."It was traumatic for a lot of the time - being frustrated that we didn't know what Covid was, that we didn't know that we had any effective treatments for it."So many of the patients who ended up with us in intensive care on a ventilator would die."
A hospital gift
Dr Clare, the hospital's deputy chief medical officer, was awarded an MBE for her services to the NHS and leadership during the pandemic.She said other parts of the site would also be vital in the future."What's brilliant is that 50% of our rooms are single, side rooms and that is absolutely vital," she said."If we had this during Covid a lot more people would have survived. We were working in Victorian hospitals."We've already tested this out during the winter. Obviously we've had a flu outbreak and what we noticed is that we didn't have a spike, we didn't have to shut down wards."Our staff were kept safe, we didn't have any increase in staff sickness, so it's working."Our people of Sandwell and west Birmingham deserve the best health care and now they have got it. This [new hospital] is the gift to them."
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He added: 'We haven't got to the bottom of it, and that's why I'm not blaming anybody, and I don't want to, but I can talk about my experience and my observation of what happened to my mum. 'How does that happen? I know it does happen. People have chronic diseases and people don't know and they die of them – I know it's more likely to happen if you're black, it's also more likely to happen if you're poor. 'It's all part of the same story. I used to own story to illustrate a bigger problem, which is systemic.' On his mother, whose full name was Grace Amoke Owuren Adebowale and who worked in various nursing sectors including mental health, acute care and maternity, he said: 'If you a nurse it is what you are, it's what you're born to do.' Commenting on Lord Adebowale's remarks, Professor Habib Naqvi, chief executive of the NHS Race and Health Observatory, said: 'We extend our sincere condolences, thoughts and support to Lord Victor and the Adebowale family. 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