Page 49 - 4RA Regimental Journal 2019-2020

4th Regiment Royal Artillery
ment. These personnel were split into 15 teams of a dozen or so soldiers, led by a junior officer or SNCO. At very short notice trainers from 3/29 (Corunna) Battery were qualified by the Department of Health and Social Care to cascade instruction to the Regiment’s MTU teams on PPE usage, testing procedures and MTU duties. Within the space of a few days the 15 teams soon found themselves deploying across the region to service the high demand from the public for COVID-19 testing.
A typical routine soon developed. MTU commanders would receive a warning order the evening prior detailing the loca- tion of their next day’s testing site. In the morning the MTU commanders and 2ICs would collect PPE and testing kits from a regional hub – typically a huge carpark covered with marquees and ISO contain- ers, and known as a Regional Testing Site. With stores collected, the team would con- tinue their journeys to their allocated sites to set up their MTUs. When erecting their site teams had to consider security, traffic flows, parking, registration area, signage and liaison with local authorities. Mem- bers of the public would soon start arriv- ing in their vehicles. They would be halted by soldiers tasked with registration duties before being given a testing kit and guided to a parking bay. Other soldiers would talk them through the testing process, often working through language and cultural barriers. Tests would be retrieved from the public at the exit, where soldiers would log and store the swabs in clinical boxes. By mid-afternoon sites would collapse with completed tests returned to the Regional Testing Sites for processing.
The Regiment sustained this MTU routine throughout June and July, and even man- aged to train additional teams from the RAF and from civilian contractors. By the beginning of August, the teams had suc- cessfully handed over their MTU duties to those civilians, proud of having both trained and assured their replacements just in time for some well-earned summer leave.
LIVERPOOL COMMUNITY TESTING
After summer leave life in 4th Regiment RA had somewhat returned to normal: BCS training had started again, person- nel had deployed on Exercise CERBERUS and attention had shifted back towards future collective training events. At the start of November Operation RESCRIPT was to suddenly dominate Regimental life once again. Liverpool had found itself in one of the centres of the ‘second spike’ of the COVID-19 pandemic and was con- sequently selected by the Government to trial mass community testing of asympto- matic people using the new, rapid Lateral Flow Device tests. 3/29 (Corunna) Battery and 88 (Arracan) Battery, heavily rein- forced by their colleagues from across the
Registering members of the public for Lateral Flow Device testing in Liverpool
other batteries, were tasked to deploy sub- units under the command of 1st Battalion the Yorkshire Regiment to deliver this test- ing alongside various other units.
After a relatively short and extremely dark journey the batteries arrived at Pontins holiday camp in Southport. This was to become ‘home’ for the next month. After just a couple of hours to settle into the flat accommodation the soldiers were soon conducting training on the Lateral Flow Device procedures under the instruc- tion of many of their own SNCOs who had deployed the night before. The next few days were hectic. Platoons built their testing sites with the assistance of Royal Engineers in council-owned gymnasiums and public buildings. BQMS staff raced between the sites and the logistic hub in Bootle to deliver PPE and consumable stores. After a manic race to H-hr, the two batteries succeeded in opening and man- ning three of the six very first sites to be established in Liverpool, subsequently opening an additional two sites over the coming days. Queues were extreme on the first few days, but with the previous expe- rience of the Mobile Testing Units (MTU) the batteries were able to feed up a signifi- cant number of both new and old lessons to streamline testing across the city.
A typical site consisted of 24 booths in lanes of 12 either side of the hall. This allowed for a simple one-way system to
Processing Lateral Flow Device test results in Liverpool
ensure that members of the public social distanced whilst having the test con- ducted. Soldiers would rotate throughout all roles at the site; everything from greet- ing members of the public and helping them register using the online form to helping them conduct the actual test. A significant amount of manpower was also utilised in the area between booths where the swabs were placed in a solution and dabbed onto the Lateral Flow Device in order to obtain the result of the test.
After this initial rush the deployment set- tled into a manageable rhythm of roughly two days on followed by a day off. Some dodgy WiFi was soon installed in Pontins to partially mitigate the atrocious phone signal, while the 4th Regiment RA gymna- sium kindly sent up some exercise equip- ment to keep everyone in shape. PT was permitted along the beach and Deliveroo was kept busy to break the monotony of packed lunches. The question that bugged everyone though was ‘when will the task finish?’ Fortunately, the answer came on the 4th of December, with all personnel recovered to Topcliffe by the 5th just in time for Christmas leave close-down. Overall the deployment was highly rewarding with the Regiment playing a very key role in establishing the rapid community testing programme on behalf of the Government.
Keeping fit at Pontins Holiday Camp in-between testing duties in Liverpool
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