3 Apr 2020
Vet sets up Facebook group for vets and nurses keen to help on the front line as NHS trusts start reaching out to animal health colleagues for assistance.
James Westgate
Job Title
VETS and veterinary nurses are now being enlisted for frontline duty in hospitals battling against the coronavirus pandemic.
Vet Times can confirm that at least two NHS trusts have issued direct requests for vets and VNs to help on wards in hospitals reeling under the onslaught of COVID-19.
Earlier this week, Hampshire Hospital NHS Foundation Trust reached out to animal health colleagues for assistance with clinical care for critical care and acute medical patients.
It has also issued a job description for “bedside support workers” to vets and VNs who are being encouraged to apply for voluntary or paid work.
The role includes tasks such as monitoring temperature, pulse and respiration; blood pressure and oxygen saturation; as well as venepuncture and venous cannulation “if trained and assessed as competent to do so”.
Full training and indemnity will also be provided, with some positions expected to go live on 6 April.
Efforts to coordinate the initiative are being led by veterinary surgeon Jo Hillard, who has been liaising with the head of the Hampshire trust’s chief medical officer’s service.
She said: “My friend works for the trust and this was something we began talking about two weeks ago, as I knew a lot of people who wanted to help.
“Now the situation has got worse, and the NHS has realised there is a bank of highly skilled professionals who are desperate to get involved and help fight this on the front line.”
Having been with her husband when he died from respiratory failure, Dr Hillard feels driven to do what she can for others facing the same fate.
Dr Hillard added: “I have been with someone as they died of respiratory failure. That is part of the reason why I am so passionate about this and want to do my bit to help, like hundreds of my colleagues across the country.
“These are unprecedented times and we know, as veterinary professionals, we can help. We can turn our hand to any species, and are trained to think outside the box and think on our feet in different situations.
“As this develops I think vets and vet nurses will have an increasingly important role working alongside doctors and nurses in the NHS.”
The trust’s Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital plans to increase its number of critical care beds from 18 to 300 by 10 April amid the crisis.
Hospital trusts across the UK are doing the same – and as support for the initiative has begun to snowball, other hospital trusts have been contacting Dr Hillard.
She said: “I am speaking to other hospital trusts now, too.
“We are going to get the ball rolling across the UK to help get as many vets and nurses up to the front line as soon as we can.
“I have set up a Facebook group for vets and nurses to sign up, and to find out if there are any trusts near them that need help from this amazing profession.”
