"The pandemic equivalent of a tsunami"

Wednesday 01 April 2020

The hospital is as well-prepared as it can be for when the corona virus "tsunami" hits, its Medical Director has said, as he explained what measures have been taken to increase bed space and availability of life-saving equipment.

Dr Peter Rabey's job has been to prepare the hospital for the worst possible situation when the "coming storm" arrives.

"We have been bought time by the strategy that Public Health have adopted and by the engagement of the public of Guernsey by staying at home. We want as much time as possible to get ready," he said. 

"We expect about 8% of people, although it varies from country to country, who present with the disease to need admission to hospital and in some places it’s been a bit higher than that, we’ll see what it looks like in Guernsey when it arrives. For most people this is a mild disease that can be managed at home."

For those whose health is severely affected, five negative pressure rooms have been set up for the first patients, plus side rooms that can be used safely by staff.

"Eventually we are prepared to use entire wards," said Dr Rabey. "We know exactly who needs to come to hospital and who can be manged at home and we are doing everything possible to increase the amount of patients we can manage at home by ordering oxygen concentrators and things like that for any overwhelming situation."

It was a good team effort. And hats off to the HSC procurement team for shaving almost 6 weeks off the delivery date! @HeidiSoulsby

— Andrew Bell (@Gsy_Bell) March 30, 2020

HSC has got a covid-19 laboratory set up at the hospital faster than anyone could have predicted.

The island already has more critical care beds per capita compared to UK hospitals and the estates team have built on those strong foundations in allocating significant space for covid-19 patients.

"We think we have enough beds, we are prepared for the coming storm, we are doing what we can to get more beds available, we are looking at whether we can manage more people at home on oxygen that sort of thing if we are overwhelmed because like any healthcare system, it’s possible we could be overwhelmed.

"At the moment we feel well-prepared, we have got a ward completely empty and ready to receive covid patients, the ward next to it will become a second covid ward if need be. Beyond that we can expand into a further ward and beyond that we have further plans."

Other measures have been taken, such as converting the Day Patient Unit into a intensive care facility capable of holding 15 ventilated patients. 

Ultimately, Dr Rabey said they were relying on the community to heed public health advice and help avoid a bottleneck.

"We can still be overwhelmed, any health system can be overwhelmed by this disease, and that is why it is so important that you stay at home, follow the public health advice and that we get as few people as possible into the hospital."

Pictured top: Dr Rabey has given a tour of the ICU which can be watched HERE.