The One Ashford Theatre Staff and COVID-19

 

During the Covid -19 pandemic, Theatres at One Ashford Hospital have had to adjust to the challenges of working with an unknown assailant that the virus was in March 2020.

 

Lisa DeBono, Theatre Manager explains how the hospital managed the challenges they faced during these uncertain times.

 

‘The COVID-19 pandemic has meant completely re-evaluating the way in which we were able to safely offer surgery and care to our patients.  National guidance from Public Health England and governing expert bodies was ever changing as new evidence evolved on a sometimes weekly basis.

 

Policies and procedures were under constant review and practice changed rapidly, to ensure we were keeping both staff, medical colleagues and our patients as safe as possible.

 

These were frightening and challenging times for all theatre practitioners and our medical colleagues.

 

The pathways that our patients followed to enable them to have surgery were revised for best practice for prevention and control of infection. Staff were having to don additional PPE and follow different routes in and out of the theatre environment to ensure we kept everybody safe.

 

 

All of our frontline staff have worked extremely hard and tirelessly to meet these challenges in the best interests of our patients.

 

We are proud as a team to get through the worst of times and we are pleased that we have accomplished ‘green pathways’ through necessary patient isolation and pre-surgery testing, as well as twice weekly testing of staff who are now on the vaccination programme.

 

 

We will never know if we will return to surgery as it was in pre-COVID times, but the One Ashford Theatre team aim to keep all of our patients safe in any circumstances and hope that their surgical journey is a pleasant one.”

 

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