No . 130
The Trusty Servant
The Plague Pit : a digital journal of a plague year
Dr Andrew Morley , Wykeham Fellow in Medicine , discusses his blog :
It ’ s been quite a year for doctors .
When I first met the Headmaster to discuss what a slightly jaded consultant anaesthetist might offer Winchester College and its pupils , COVID – 19 was known to only the best-connected infectiousdisease specialists . By the time I was appointed Wykeham Fellow in Medicine in January , the first emails were arriving in my NHS inbox headed : ‘ CLINICAL ALERT Novel Coronavirus ’. I only just had time to meet the aspiring VI Book medics and briefly enjoy the springtime beauty of the school before it closed . On that March lockdown day , the intensive-care team in my London hospital were tending 60 mechanically ventilated COVID – 19 cases - up from nine the previous week .
Things looked bleak for my new role . My potential value to Wykehamist medics was likely , I felt , to lie in the ‘ face-to-face with a real doctor ’ interactions . Much of my own job satisfaction , too . Now my future charges were scattered across the globe . Even my own family were suddenly , if understandably , reluctant to interact face-to-face with me too often .
‘ Disaster didn ’ t stymie Louis Pasteur ’, though – ( a name not unknown to virologists ). It dawned on me that the pandemic presented a major distancelearning opportunity . Anaesthesia and intensive care , a closely allied specialty , have long been popular with medical students . And now anaesthetists , intensivists and their patients were at the centre of the
biggest news story for decades . What better way to enthuse future brain surgeons in Beloe ’ s or cardiologists in Kenny ’ s ?!
So on 23 rd March , I published the first issue of The Plague Pit , an email newsletter and subsequently a website about COVID – 19 ( www . plaguepit . com ). The challenges were significant . Anaesthetists have a reputation as ‘ tech-heads ’. We have to understand and use lots of complicated equipment . IT skills , though , are a different matter entirely . I had only been involved in creating one website before – for a project of mine on genetics and musicians ( www . musicfromthegenome . org . uk ). For that , I used some of my grant money for a professional web designer . Money well spent , I found out this time round .
I was encouraged in my endeavours by the success of Adam Kay ’ s This is Going to Hurt . The book is cited by several of Winchester ’ s current medical-school applicants in their Personal Statements . Its popularity confirms the ongoing public fascination with the professional lives of doctors . I ’ ve also collaborated closely before with the Science Museum and with Science Gallery London ( target audience 16-25 yrs ), so I had some ideas about what content might appeal .
My initial ambition was to record my experiences working in a major COVID – 19 treatment centre in a manner simultaneously instructive , thought-provoking and entertaining . That is a delicate balancing act when dealing with a disease that , even then , was killing hundreds of people in the UK and infecting thousands more . It was also tricky to find the time . Most doctors were a bit busy back then .
I also wanted to use my pandemic work to provide more general insights into medical training , clinical practice and the basic sciences that my ambitious readers would likely encounter at medical school .
COVID – 19 experiences aside , I accumulated a decent war chest of material . I started medical school 40 years ago and have been in hospitals ever since , so plenty of anecdotes were unpacked and dusted down . Dons generously chipped in , with lively issues on statistical modelling in epidemics ( Dr John Cullerne : Undermaster ; Maths and Physics ) and on pandemics in literature ( Tom Quayle : Director of VI Book Progression ; English ). Old Wykehamists rallied to the cause , too . Issue 22 contained a splendid account of bygone lockdowns from eminent surgeon , Mr Harvey White ( G , 49-54 ) - reproduced below . I leant
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