COVID-19 Part One: Preparing an Emergency Department for a pandemic
In the first part of our COVID-19 series Consultant in Emergency Medicine Dr Andrew Lindsay joined the podcast via Zoom. This episode was recorded on Wednesday April 29th 2020.
Questions put to Andy included:
What were the priorities when facing COVID-19?
What was the process for responding to the virus and making changes to the department?
What pressures does a pandemic virus place on an Emergency Department?
What was the guidance? Was this based on influenza planning?
How has the PPE guidance changed and why?
There’s been a lot in the media about PPE supply, what have the issues been?
Has fake news been a challenge? How have you responded to it?
What is the escalation process for a patient with COVID-19?
The decision of escalation and palliation
With Andy’s pre-hospital hat on – how is intubation with COVID-19 different?
The role of NIV in COVID-19
What is an aerosol generating procedure? What is an aerosol?
How has CPR guidance changed and why?
What does COVID-19 do to lungs?
Why are patients being proned?
How useful is immunity testing?
Could this change how Emergency Departments are run in the future?
Will the hot vs cold division continue?
This podcast was recorded shortly after we received the sad news of the passing of Manjeet Riyat. As with everyone in the Emergency Medicine family our deepest sympathies are with his family, friends and colleagues.