Tameside NHS medical director encourages people to still attend hospital when necessary despite coronavirus pandemic

Tameside and Glossop NHS Foundation Trust’s medical director Brendan Ryan has reassured people that the hospital is safe and open for business during the coronavirus pandemic.

He told the Reporter that a raft of measures were in place to ensure that necessary treatment can still go ahead and accident and emergency was still available to the public.

Brendan said: “The risk associated with Covid is actually less than the risk associated with not having the treatment that people need.

“We know that people might be worried about attending the hospital now. As a result, some people are reluctant to come for appointments and surgery.

“We don’t want people to suffer long term as a result of not having it [treatment], so we’re doing what we can to make the risk of Covid as low as possible.”

The trust have implemented a number of measures to make a visit to the hospital safer than ever including testing.

Those that are undergoing important surgery, such as cancer patients, are asked to self-isolate for 14 days before the procedure, whilst those having more minor surgery are tested three days before and are only admitted once given a clear test result.

Brendan explained: “We know that not everyone can isolate for 14 days.

“If a person can't do that, it won't stop us carrying on with their treatment. But it's what we'd recommend for higher risk cases.

“For people having planned operations, we have green zones within the hospital. So they’re areas that we we don't put patients who have Covid and that we try and keep as Covid free as we can.”

Staff working within these ‘green-zones’ are also subject to regular testing, ensuring that those most at risk are kept safe. Brendan said: “The staff who work in those areas are tested on a regular basis and would only be allowed to continue working in those areas if they're testing negative.

“Where care is planned we're doing everything we can to make it as safe as possible and plan to have the patient feel they're in a safe and controlled environment as possible.”

For those attending the hospital via accident and emergency, there’s an assessment before they enter to look at the condition of the patient and see if they need to be isolated for Covid. Brendan explained: “The staff would then direct patients into areas appropriate to their needs.

“We have arrangements whereby we can bypass the emergency department or pass someone through quite quickly.

“We want folks to know that we're doing everything we can, either for planned care or for emergency care and to recognise that it's a bit scary in this time of COVID. 

“We're doing everything we can to make people feel confident that they are being handled as safely as possible in respect of their their problem.”

The hospital has special measures in place for those that are visiting, either as family members and friends or as workers.

Brendan gave special praise to the hospital staff who have gone above and beyond during this pandemic, praising how they’ve balanced pressures of the job with worries about the virus like the rest of the public.

He said: “We're trying to ensure that patients who, who feel to be vulnerable when they're in a hospital are not made to feel vulnerable by lots of contact with other folk. So we're trying to manage our visiting arrangements as best we can.

“We need visitors to show up in the right numbers and not having close contact with loved ones because they’ve come from the community and might bring risk in.

"It’s easy to make people feel blamed, we're just simply talking about recognising what the risks are, and particularly the risks to vulnerable patients and us trying to do everything we can.

“We are very proud of folks who've been extremely busy, particularly with our sicker patients. We had to double the size of our critical care unit and staff have worked extremely hard.”