'We had to find a WWL way': Wigan doctors reflect on coronavirus pandemic five years on

Just over five years ago, the World Health Organization declared the Covid-19 outbreak a global pandemic, putting hospitals run by Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (WWL) under immense pressure.

A series of lockdowns were put in place to cope with the waves of the virus, with the first one being announced by then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson on March 23, 2020.

Doctors at WWL have spoken about their first memories of that time and how they had to adapt quickly to cope with the virus.

Medical director and consultant cardiologist Prof Sanjay Arya said: “I remember vividly that we had started to hear that there was a deadly virus coming to the UK. We were all watching the television and I remember it was the end of January when it came to the UK.

"Very soon we realised how overwhelmed the NHS system was, because it was a virus with no cure or vaccines identified at the time. It was a virus that needed intense monitoring. As soon as this dawned on us, that we are going to be facing it soon and it was declared a pandemic, we starting preparing for it.

"We got our first Covid case on March 17, 2020. A little bit of a warning of several weeks, in a pandemic like what we saw over the next two years, was a small amount of time for us to prepare.

"We had an emergency meeting where I was asked to be the lead. My first thoughts were, ‘How do we prepare our wards to make sure our patients were treated safely?’ We had to take a lot of beds out of wards to be able to manage them safely.

"We also knew that that not only was it a deadly virus for people that got it, but that there was a very high risk that our staff could contract the virus if we don’t do anything about protecting them.

"It became clear we had to find a WWL way. We came up with an acronym because we wanted to spread it to our nearly 7,000 staff that you needed to wash hands which was the first W, wear masks and leave distance. I’ve never seen such a cohesiveness among our staff and the willingness to do everything for our patients in my life.”

From the first admission until the end of 2022, WWL treated 3,800 Covid patients.

Dr Alison Quinn, who is the clinical director for intensive care, recalls how the trust began to prepare for the influx of patients.

She said: “We were looking at it thinking, ‘This is really scary’. I think the only blessing we have in that situation is it bought us a little bit of time to start planning.

"We went into overdrive. We didn’t know how many patients we’d get, how many ventilators we’d need. We didn’t know how much oxygen we would need to flow through the pipes of the hospital.

"I’ve got a vivid memory from an education point of view. We were trying to work out how we’d safely get a patient ventilated on the ward and bring them up to one of our intensive care units.

"We borrowed the sim-man from the education centre down the road and I remember trying to bundle this giant, electrical, man-sized dummy into a wheelchair and push him up Wigan Lane and run through how we’d deal with a patient on the ward and get him to intensive care safely.

"We went through skills drills, we looked at how we were going to protect staff to the point of getting safely dressed up in PPE, which there was a bit of panic of, have we got enough PPE? That’s when the local community really came into its own and we started to receive offers from the local college offering to make face shields and things like that.”

Dr Abdul Ashish, who is a respiratory physician, said: “I never thought this would come to us, but very quickly it unfolded and we got our first patient.

"The first thing I remember is the apprehension from my own family to say people are dying, are you really going to do this? The thought never crossed my mind that we’re putting ourselves in danger, it only sunk in when I saw colleagues fall ill very quickly.

"Within the first week we realised that ICU was overwhelmed and converted the respiratory ward to the CPAP ward, which went from caring for one or two patients to holding 28 patients on ventilators.

"I remember the collaboration, people from the community who had ICU experience coming forward to help. We had to have a treatment protocol, we were the first in Greater Manchester to realise we needed a large amount of ventilators on the ward.

"I remember the problems of oxygen or not enough supply. Seeing patients die of all ages was heart-breaking.

"We were the third in the country to take part in the recovery trial.”

Five years on the NHS is still feeling the effects of the pandemic – there are currently 7.5m people on NHS waiting lists, with thousands of those in the borough.

WWL is accelerating the process of seeing those patients, introducing virtual wards and remote consultations.

Prof Arya added: “The impact was severe but we’ve learnt from that.

"We are trying to treat people as rapidly as possible and requesting those waiting to live well and get concerns managed by the GP.

"I’d like to thank the people of Wigan. People made PPE for us and delivered it in truckloads.

"They were very understanding, trusting us with their loved ones and are now waiting patiently if they require a procedure.”