Changes at Larbert hospital to stop spread of virus

Forth Valley NHS medical director Andrew Murray said: “People coming to the hospital will notice a huge difference in the emergency department.”Those who find themselves in the ED now will find two entrances – a ‘yellow’ entrance for patients with no signs of the deadly respiratory disease and a ‘red’ sign for those who do have symptoms.From that point on, there are many changes in how people ‘flow’ through the hospital in order to stop the spread of the highly contagious virus.Mr Murray praised the work of all the staff who have been working to streamline the hospital’s response to the crisis.But he added: “I’ve got to give credit to the emergency department because they were one of the first departments in Scotland to really recognise what they were being asked to do.”“They’ve implemented it, they’ve optimised it and they’ve changed things on a daily basis as they’ve learned what’s worked and what’s not worked – they are a credit to the whole organisation.“It’s all being very carefully controlled – we’ve got SERCO colleagues helping with security and we’ve got senior staff at the doors.“It’s a very active process to safeguard the patients coming in to the right areas and not exposing the risk to anyone else.”The transformation has been helped by people in Forth Valley heeding government warnings to stay at home – something that has made things much quieter for a department that is often under immense pressure.Mr Murray said: “Undoubtedly people are not coming to the ED in anything like the numbers we’re used to which means that we have had that breathing space to reconfigure for COVID so it’s been a real, unexpected boon.”Dr Graham Foster, NHS Forth Valley’s director of public health, said the reductions in numbers were a sign that the stay-at-home message was getting through.He said: “We’re seeing less workplace injuries, we’re seeing less sporting injuries. We’re not seeing the weekend rugby and football matches that always cause a bit of work for A&E so that’s quite helpful.”And he had a plea to keep the department quieter as they concentrate as many resources as possible on the COVID threat.“If you’re out exercising, it’s really helpful if you do something safe and sensible like go for a walk – if you could rule out the likes of downhill mountain biking that would help us enormously!”Other changes have been happening behind the scenes, the result of weeks of planning, said Mr Murray.“We’ve now got consultants in most specialities on the ground 24 hours a day and that is a huge change as well so we’ve got senior decision making when we need it and when the patients need it.”Some staff have also been redeployed; many of those who work in clinics and screening programmes have been stood down and a hub has been busy organising where they can best be used.Dr Foster said: “We’re keen to maximise people’s skills so, for example, a lot of the dental practices have stopped community works, so we’re using dental hygienists and practice nurses to do the COVID testing.“They have been a terrific resource because they are very good at swabbing, so it’s been a great help.”Medical students who would have graduated in July have also been fast-tracked to work in various departments.But while they are prepared for coronavirus to hit the hospital heavily, they are also aware they have to keep other services running.Mr Murray said: “People still unfortunately have other conditions, they’ll have heart attacks, strokes and people will still need assessment for things like cancer.“It’s very important to make sure we ringfence all those different parts of the services as well.”The medical director also said there had been a huge ‘step-change’ with the health service working with social care colleagues to help get people out of hospital to free up space for COVID issues.But they are aware that there is no room for complacency.“There’s a raft of things and it feels like a different place at the moment but that’s good because as the First Minister said ‘if things are normal, you’re not doing it right’,” said Mr Murray.

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