Georgina Ferry interviews Andrew Brent, Consultant in Infectious Diseases & General Internal Medicine and Deputy Chief Medical Officer (Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust), 17 March 2023.
Topics discussed include (00:00:18) early interest in medicine, degree studies at Cambridge, clinical studies at Oxford, interest in working in the developing world and tropics, Fellowship working at the Wellcome Trust Oxford Centre with the Kenya Medical Research Institute, return to Oxford and clinical roles in infectious diseases and general medicine; (00:04:48) infectious diseases in a western context; (00:08:50) protocols for treating patients coming from endemic areas, PPE for healthcare workers; (00:10:32) first awareness of COVID-19, including management of suspected cases, communications with Public Health England, collaboration with the ambulance service and academic colleagues, departmental planning; (00:21:14) testing, including drive-by swab tests at the John Radcliffe Hospital, set-up of separate testing hub at the Churchill Hospital, testing in the community; (00:30:21) national teleconferences led by Keith Willett (Director for Acute Care to NHS England and is the Professor of Orthopaedic Trauma Surgery at the University of Oxford); (00:31:15) first case of COVID-19, preparation for the first peak of cases in March 2020, including teleconferences with doctors in Wuhan and Lombardy, COVID incident management group (set up by Katie Jeffery, Director of Infection Prevention and Control); (00:34:07) systems set up to detect transmission within the hospital, including COVID steering group; (00:37:08) reorganisation of the hospital, impact on elective work and staff; (00:40:06) work in infectious diseases, intensive care ward rounds, reorganisation of intensive care units into COVID and non-COVID, mortality in ICU; (00:51:27) autumn peak, including impact of the RECOVERY trial and treatment of patients with steroids, COVID Care at Home service; (00:57:10) long COVID clinic; (00:58:31) rollout of the vaccination programme and clinical presentation of patients thereafter, including those who had not been vaccinated; (01:01:52) testing of healthcare workers, including testing regime set up by Derrick Crook; (01:04:22) service pressures and impact of the pandemic on the healthcare workforce; (01:07:16) development of role and move into leadership positions in addition to clinical work; (01:10:22) quality improvement; (01:12:50) lessons from the pandemic, including role of Oxford and Oxford University Hospitals.
