INTERNATIONAL STORIES
COPING WITH CORONAVIRUS IN THE FALKLANDS By Martyn Barlow, Estates and Engineering manager at the Falkland Islands Government’s King Edward Memorial VII Hospital (KEMH)
Martyn Barlow, Estates and Engineering manager at the Falkland Islands Government’s King Edward Memorial VII Hospital (KEMH), describes some of the particular challenges for he and his team with the outbreak of the COVID 19 epidemic –including maintaining a sufficient oxygen supply for wards, and general clinical use, protecting elderly and especially vulnerable patients, and reconfiguring or isolating ventilation supply and extract systems as a new ‘zoning’ system was implemented to keep those with COVID-19 away from other patients.
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ocated in the Islands’ capital Stanley, the King Edward Memorial VII Hospital is used to dealing with whatever comes through the door, and usually has the ability to evacuate the seriously ill or patients who need specialist care. This all changed when the COVID-19 epidemic started, as international borders closed, and flying to other countries became more difficult. The staff at the KEMH are bracing themselves to
A ‘Cold’ ambulance with drive-in swabbing space.
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receive patients exceeding 300% of what the hospital is designed for, with limited support. There are 14 British Overseas Territories in various locations around the world, one of which is the Falkland Islands, located in the South Atlantic Ocean, and lying some 8,000 miles from the UK. The KEMH is a small 29-bedded hospital that serves a small civilian population of about 3,000 people, as well as a significant number of military UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) personnel who are based
