Wilbrahams covid-19 Will and Claire Brown

A further item in our series about Wilbraham residents involvement with covid-19 and the changes it has mentor their lives.

Martin Gienke

Will and Claire Brown both work at Addenbrooke’s and outline their roles during the current pandemic.

We have lived in Great Wilbraham and worked at Addenbrookes since 2011. Our roles in the Covid-19 response are minor compared to those working in Infectious Disease, Respiratory Medicine and Intensive Care. But our working days have changed unrecognisably.

Will is a final-year neurology registrar and usually spends half his time overseeing clinical trials and other research in multiple sclerosis. Most medical doctors doing research for Cambridge University are now working in a clinical (hospital) role or are undertaking Covid-19 research (including laboratory research, covid testing or clinical trials of potential treatments). All NHS doctors’ roles and schedules have also completely changed to improve patient capacity in hospital and allow for staff illness. For example, Will has been redeployed as a neurosurgical junior doctor, ensuring that the neurosurgical service at Addenbrooke’s (which accepts emergency referrals from 13 other hospitals) is sufficiently staffed day and night. Similarly, instead of seeing an Emergency Department junior doctor, patients are frequently being reviewed by specialty consultants and professors in A&E to prevent admissions. Almost all clinic appointments have been changed to telephone consultations to reduce the risk of infection. Interestingly initial feedback suggests many patients prefer telephone consultations (due to convenience); by collecting staff and patient feedback we are using this opportunity to identify patients who might safely (and more conveniently) be followed up by telephone after the pandemic.

Claire leads the pelvic health physiotherapy team. Pelvic health physiotherapists typically manage pelvic floor dysfunctions (bladder and bowel leakage, prolapse and pelvic pain) and also see patients after gynaecology surgery on the wards. Patients stopped attending their appointments in early March, and shortly thereafter the hospital converted the majority of outpatient appointments to telephone consultations. Simultaneously, a new physiotherapy workforce was developed to care for the influx of covid-19 patients (and to fill the gaps these physiotherapists have left in other teams). Despite over a decade exclusively managing pelvic problems, Claire has been re-trained to assess and treat patients under the Care of the Elderly team.

The hospital is incredibly well prepared – the additional intensive care beds, a completely restructured ward and staffing system, a new A&E department for Covid patients and world-leading covid research are well covered in the media. On the ground, we are receiving intense psychological support, frequent training and daily Covid-19 updates. Despite frequently working outside of our comfort zones, and seeing very sick patients, there is a strong and enduring “can-do” atmosphere. This, coupled with the hundreds of free beds and sufficient intensive care capacity, should reassure the community that they will receive excellent care if needed, particularly as the peak has now hopefully passed. A growing concern is that patients may be harbouring significant (but treatable) medical problems yet through understandable fear of Covid-19 are not seeking medical help: please contact your GP, NHS 111 or 999 in the normal way if you are ill.

We are very grateful to Val and her incredible team at First Steps Nursery for staying open and continuing to provide such wonderful care for our children; and the mysterious easter egg donor who left eggs for them on our front door! And of course we humbly thank everyone for observing the government’s restrictions. As challenging as they are, they are saving tens of thousands of lives, and allow us to do our jobs.

Will and Claire Brown