A YORK Hospital doctor has revealed how her hands were shaking the first time she anxiously put on high level PPE to treat a patient at the start of the pandemic.

Dr Amanda Vipond, a consultant anaesthetist, reflected on the first coronavirus cases in York a year ago and the challenges that have followed.

She said the reality of the pandemic dawned upon her when she saw the situation her colleagues in hospitals in northern Italy were facing.

But there have been “joyous” moments too. She highlighted the feeling of happiness when vulnerable people receive their vaccine and the way healthcare workers have gone “above and beyond” for their patients and their colleagues.

“Back to a year ago when those first two cases were confirmed, we didn’t think much of it,” she said.

“In my career there’s been talk of pandemic flu being a big risk throughout and I’ve been a specialist for 20 years.

“I don’t think we really realised it was going to be a big issue until we heard the reports coming out of Italy. Staff in surgery, theatres and ITU knew from the start that we were going to be on the frontline if things went the way they did in Italy.”

The hospital started preparing staff - with training sessions on putting on and taking off PPE, intensive care skills and lectures about coronavirus.

Dr Vipond said: “In retrospect, we hardly knew anything about [coronavirus].

“Learning how to put on and remove PPE was really important. We used to do it in pairs and I remember the first time I put on PPE 3 to do a case and being really anxious. I could barely open the packets because my hands were shaking. People didn’t like to admit it, but when we saw all those reports from elsewhere in the world, it looked like it was the frontline staff who were getting unwell.”

York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has now given more than 14,000 vaccinations to healthcare staff and Dr Vipond said the organisation is managing the pandemic even better than she had hoped.

But staff have been working hard in PPE for a long time now and she said they are tired and missing out on relaxing with colleagues after difficult shifts.

“What has become the real difficulty is that it has gone on for so long,” Dr Vipond said.

“One of the things that is most difficult for staff is that it is tiring and your downtime is very different between cases. It’s very difficult to have any fun at work.

“In our jobs, there are always days and nights on call when bad things happen. After those experiences, you would maybe go down to the canteen and have breakfast together with your team, to pause.People have really missed that, having a bit of a laugh or a debrief.

“We are all tired and we have to get on with our usual work as well. People are still breaking bones and having appendicitis.

“Trying to maintain business as usual has been the really difficult thing. We just can’t do things as quickly as we used to – we can’t have as many operating lists, we need to socially distance in the recovery room and on wards, we need more space for staff.”

“It’s very difficult because we have had to prioritise cases in ways we have never had to before.”

Dr Vipond said hospital buildings of the future may need to be completely different in order to manage an infectious disease.

She added that the slow response to the pandemic from Government nationally has also caused frustration.

“One of the things we are aware of now is how inadequate infrastructure has been,” she said.

“Both York and Scarborough hospitals have buildings dating back to around the 1970s.

“ITU is completely inadequate for an infectious disease, we had only three isolation rooms in York. A year ago, we didn’t think that was a problem. Now any future hospital buildings will be completely different.”

“The most frustrating thing nationally is that Government have been relatively slow to respond to things.”

“It’s going to take a long time before we go back to standing in crowded bars or crowds with strangers. At work we will be very happy to not have to wear high level PPE. I can see that happening, but you can imagine we will be wearing masks for a long time."

But she said hospital staff have been able to share moments of joy over the past year too: “A lot of us know that although it’s very difficult, there are positives from working in the hospital.

“We all know we have an income because we are so needed at the moment. We have really appreciated the social contact we get at work, although it is not as good as normal.

“We have had the vaccine. There is a real joyous feeling in the vaccination clinic. There has been really good teamwork and a positive has been seeing all our teams step up – many have gone above and beyond.”