PERSPECTIVE : PROFESSOR PAUL ELKINGTON
‘ My first attitude was : “ That doesn ’ t sound very good ”. The Wykehamical education would say , “ Are we sure about that ?” It would not take anything for granted . You ’ ve got a problem ; let ’ s look at it in a slightly different way .’
Professor Paul Elkington was on shift on 15 March , 2020 , when the first COVID-19 patient was diagnosed at University Hospital , Southampton . He recalls : ‘ I was asked to go and see the patient , and not only was there no personal protective equipment ( PPE ), but the patient had popped up in the wrong ward , in completely the wrong part of the hospital and had been there several days . So , lots of people who ’ d been in contact had to be sent home .’
It was a seminal moment . An Old Wykehamist , Professor Elkington has spent much of his life researching and treating patients with tuberculosis ( TB ), some of that time in Africa . He is also an academic clinician , well known on the wards at Southampton :
‘ I had worked a lot with airborne pathogens and safety controls and filtration systems , and my Africa experience meant I knew exactly what it was like when you had no PPE and the State did not provide .’
He was also very aware of television reports which showed parts of Northern Italy overwhelmed by COVID-19 : ‘ There was a very febrile atmosphere in the NHS , because we ’ d seen doctors and nurses dying in Italy because they ’ d run out of PPE and kept on seeing patients , and we knew what was going on in Italy was coming here .’ Professor Elkington believed that the blue , disposable face covering he ’ d been issued with that day , the sort widely used by the public , was inadequate : ‘ 40 per cent of the air circulates in and out ,’ he explained .
‘ My first attitude was : “ That doesn ’ t sound very good ”. The Wykehamical education would say , “ Are we sure about that ?” It would not take anything for granted . You ’ ve got a problem ; let ’ s look at it in a slightly different way .’
The very next day he sketched a prototype for a new respirator hood , similar to one he had used in TB research . He enlisted the help of Hywel Morgan , Professor of Bioelectronics at Southampton , and they put together a team of ‘ eight of the best in the University ’.
They called in favours from industry , including a Formula 1 racing team : ‘ McLaren were designing different head tops and head fasteners because of their knowledge of helmets and they gave some really useful design insights . They were great guys to work with and they were sending emails at three o ’ clock in the morning . It was in the early stages of development and we really felt that we were having to develop something which was going to be needed imminently to stop people getting Coronavirus .’
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