Occupational Therapy News OTnews May 2020 | Page 6

NEWS COVID-19
Life inside Cardiff’s field hospital
Occupational therapists in Cardiff are among staff across the UK
starting to work in the new COVID-19 field hospitals.
The 2,000-bed Dragon’s Heart Hospital, set up by Cardiff and
Vale University Health Board inside the city’s Principality Stadium,
will serve as a step down facility to support patients out of their
acute phase and before they return home.
Suzanne Bryant, the occupational therapy lead for the hospital,
says that means there is a vital role for allied health professionals:
‘We have occupational therapists, physiotherapists, speech
and language therapists and dieticians supporting the patients,’
she says. ‘The ethos is very much that we have our individual
contributions to make but we’re there as an AHP team as well.’
OTnews spoke with Suzanne the day after the first patients
were admitted. ‘It’s a vast site,’ she says. ‘We’re in level five
in the hospitality suite, but it’s feeling more and more like a
hospital setting – we have lots of facilities that are very familiar.
It’s a challenging environment, but we’re getting over those
challenges.’
There are six occupational therapists in the hospital this week,
but Suzanne says that a significant number of staff have put
themselves forward to support the effort. ‘I have a list of people I
haven’t even used yet at all grades of staff,’ she says.
‘That is so useful as we don’t know what the future holds, but
they have really stepped up to the mark and been amazing.
‘The team we have been able to build so far for occupational
therapy includes people with backgrounds in medicine, surgery,
neurology, intensive care, mental health and more.
‘Hopefully we will be able to demonstrate the breadth of
what occupational therapy is able to contribute, not just during
the COVID-19 period, but more broadly around the existing
conditions people are experiencing.’
Despite the novel working environment, Suzanne emphasises
that the setting doesn’t change the need to work in a person-
centred way. She says: ’There are a range of impacts that people
experience – for us, particularly fatigue and breathlessness are
obvious symptoms, and people are anxious too.
6 OTnews May 2020
Quote of the month
We’re all new to doing this, and we’re
finding our way through it together
Suzanne Bryant, NHS Dragon’s
Heart Hospital occupational therapy lead
‘But we’re very keen that we don’t just look at the impact of
COVID-19. People have pre-existing conditions and difficulties
with their occupational performance, and that’s one of the things
that we can really contribute to in this new setting.’
There is a keen focus on maintaining standard pathways
regardless of where they are being treated, to try and make sure
everyone gets equitable treatment and that staff are working in
systems they are already familiar with.
Suzanne is also the lead for the community resources team,
and there is a clear route on for patients to colleagues in the
community to support their needs. ‘It’s a full pathway we have
from their very acute needs, through the Dragon’s Heart and on to
community services,’ she says.
It has been a rapid development at the stadium, but Suzanne
was pleased to find out that others are in the same position as
her. She says: ‘I spoke with Dr Jenny Preston, who is setting up
the team at the [NHS Louisa Jordan] hospital in Glasgow, and
it’s been amazing how close our thoughts have been in terms of
service development, even down to the rotas we have developed
and the staff we put on it.’
While it has been a rapid process to get the new service up and
running, Suzanne says it has been a real team effort to do the best
for the new hospital’s patients. ’There’s been a real can-do attitude
from the occupational therapy service, AHPs and the wider
multidisciplinary team,’ she says. ‘We’re all new to doing this, and
we’re finding our way through it together.’