I caught Ebola … and was back in time for lunch
Marion Whiter enjoys minor celebrity status in clinical circles although she wouldn’t recognise her admirers.
The administrative assistant takes part in an emergency planning exercise twice a year at Northwick Park Hospital where she role plays a healthcare worker recently returned from Africa showing symptoms of Ebola.
“It’s an interesting experience because I get to see what clinical staff do,” says Marion who has survived six encounters with one of the world’s deadliest viruses ... and lived to tell the tale.
“People often stop me in the corridor the next day to say hello but I never recognise them because they were all wearing PPE.”
The exercise has a serious point helping the infectious diseases team practice their response in anticipation of a real life event which did happen several years ago when a suspected Ebola patient was temporarily brought to the hospital from Heathrow Airport.
Colin McDonnell, Head of Emergency Preparedness, Resilience and Response at the trust, said: “Northwick Park is one of seven specialist regional infectious diseases’ centres so we would, in all likelihood, have to handle this type of situation. We saw during the pandemic just how quickly things can escalate so practice really does make perfect.”
The exercise also gives security, patient transport service and waste management the opportunity to run through their involvement in an incident including clearing corridors and lifts for an incoming patient as well as disposing of contaminated material.