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offices and got stuck into the work strands presented to us. Initially, the modelling
data showed that despite the hospitals having increased their capacity as much
as possible, the South East still needed significant additional bed capacity; therefore, further Nightingale sites were proposed
in the South East. Commander JMC SE was working closely with NHS SE Chief Executives to refine the exact need for the region. Military teams from 35 Engineer Regt recce’d potential sites for other hospitals, and our team, working closely with Price Waterhouse Cooper, had to work on the paperwork ready for the national submission deadline.
It became rapidly apparent that the team had different strengths which helped at different points: Pedro and Tom had recent planning experience and their ICSC(L) WhatsApp groups rapidly morphed into comms networks that could find anyone and anything quickly. Eliot had previous Brigade Med Planning experience and being a gregarious pair, he and Pedro rapidly won over the NHS SE staff in Wellington House and ensured our team embedded quickly and successfully into the workforce. WO2
Jackson, as RQ, had the knowledge of
the deployment and construction of field hospitals and the G4 element. He seemed to have an endless supply of contacts that assisted and advised with the Nightingale proposals whilst at the same time he whipped the NHS SE offices into shape to ensure they complied with social distancing and COVID-19 protection measures. Despite initially feeling I was going to be out of my depth as a PQO, it turned out that as the only one with any clinical knowledge, albeit Dental, it made me a bridge between JMC SE (an infantry brigade full of non-medical planners) and the NHS. Ironically, I ended
up as the Brigadier’s clinical translator
when he admitted as he found the medical terminology confusing when speaking to his NHS counterparts!
The NHS SE’s multiple proposed Nightingale sites eventually led up to a planning cycle at Aldershot, which we attended to present the planning team with what NHS SE had so far. It was my first experience of a Brigade estimate and I had the chance to get involved and learn without being thrown in at the deep end as it was an estimate that was heavily ‘civilianised’
which made it easier to follow. Although finally walking through my front door at 2300 knowing I was to do it all again the next day was marginally less fun.
It wasn’t all hard work though, and as the routine settled into something that resembled a normal working day, we began to set ourselves evening sports activities
to get us out of the hotel. We ran miles around London and met up for socially- distanced circuits in some of the parks, sometimes timing our exercise to clap for the NHS and see London lit up blue in support of our Key Workers. We decided to plan a series of challenges, the first being
a half-marathon to see the sights of central London, which started at the UJC, over Westminster Bridge, and through Green
Running around London in lockdown
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