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guidelines and restrictions are disruptive and challenging but have been implemented and followed by everyone in the unit to ensure we stay safe and continue to protect our patients.
When it comes to COVID-19 recovery, the HCA ward has taken on a new role. We now have the huge responsibility of supporting serving personnel suffering from the long-term effects of COVID-19. The majority of the serving personnel we manage have suffered from breathlessness, cough, fatigue and difficulty in performing physical tasks. One of the new support programmes is a two-week recovery course which primarily focuses on ways to self-manage symptoms and set realistic goals. It also provides sources of advice and support with regards to physical and psychological aspects of rehabilitation. Additional support is being given through a three- day Defence COVID-19 Recovery
Service course which is also run by the HCA ward. The course is designed to examine the physical and mental state of serving personnel affected by COVID-19. Various tests and assessments are conducted within the facility and at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford to determine whether an individual is fit to work without risking their own and others health and safety.
For our efforts in shifting focus to support COVID-19 recovery, the ward received a CO’s commendation. More recently, DMRC has been asked to operate a Defence COVID-19 Bedding Down Facility (DCBDF) if needed with two hours’ notice of any incoming patients. CT ward is on standby to take low dependency COVID-19 patients with their patients transferring either to Neuro or HCA ward.
During this time of lockdown DMRC has been very active. We continue to provide our core role of supporting
DMRC Nursing Division
rehabilitation but remain adaptive to new requirements. Despite the profound shock and misery caused by the COVID-19 pandemic on the health care sector, we look forward to continuing to provide world class treatment for our patients and contributing to combat this global crisis.
Lance Corporal Kandangwa
The Gazette QARANC Association 19
Military Assistance Team Task Northern Ireland December 2020
On 11 December 2020 three members of 253 Medical Regiment in addition to colleagues from 204 Field Hospital took part in a Military Assistance Team (MAT) task. The Department of Health NI surge planning and modelling teams had predicted a dramatic rise in COVID-19 cases by end of January 2021. This looked certain to overwhelm hospital and resource capacity within the NI secondary healthcare, and there was recognition by the Department for assistance in looking at the surge planning piece as quickly as possible.
The Chief Medical and Nursing Officer identified a requirement for a MAT to assist in the strategic planning for the surge. This would involve a series of meetings to check, assure and advise planning already in place and response to surge crisis. Meetings with Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) and Critical Care Network on day one gave an outline as to how we should then move forward in fairly short succession so as to provide a quick turnaround of
our findings and advise accordingly. Each Trust had the opportunity to meet with the MAT and using a question set produced by the MAT, information was gathered as to each trust’s approach and planning to date. It was incredibly important that the MAT maintained a neutral, approachable stance within meetings and toward the planning as a whole. Throughout this part of the process, the MAT found each trust inviting, open, honest and welcoming to assistance from the MAT. Once information had been gathered a detailed report was produced by the MAT and presented to the CNO. This report gave outline as to the regional position along
with the specific needs of each trust when considering the forthcoming surge. The CNO approached the MAT with queries on several points requiring further refinement. A second question set was produced by the MAT and sent to the trusts with a response and turnaround of 24 hours back to the CNO. As a result of the MAT input, the Critical Care Network was mandated to work with the trusts on the surge plan and incorporate findings from the MAT report.
Lieutenant Colonel A Brice Major J Brice
Major K McFadden-Newman