It was vicious... an experience that you will never forget

Matron reflects on anxiety of Covid-19 and the huge team effort as patients swamped hospitals five years on from the pandemic

- GURDIP THANDI

THE matron of major Birmingham hospitals during the Covid pandemic has lifted the lid on the anxious moments doctors, nurses and other staff will never forget.

NHS staff in Birmingham overcame anxiety to spring into action to look after patients and each other when Covid-19 struck five years ago.

On March 23, 2020, former Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced tough restrictions on people across the UK to stem the quickening spread of coronavirus.

But, by that time, hospitals were already under severe pressure as the number of people being admitted showing symptoms of the disease were far outstripping usual capacity.

Collette Iles, Associate Director of Nursing with University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Trust, has shared her recollections of how the pandemic hit the region half a decade ago.

At the time, Collette was the Matron of Critical Care at Heartlands and Good Hope Hospitals and witnessed first hand the impact it had on services and said lockdown was "absolutely the right thing to do" to ease the pressure.

Within days of the first patient being admitted, existing wards were full and temporary ones set up to try to cope were at capacity often within hours of them opening.

In 'normal' times, critical care nurses look after one patient at a time but they were having to cater for four at a time during Covid.

This had the knock on effect of leaving them with a "moral injury" of not being able to give the standard of care they wanted to give.