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PLC i n P ri nt | Mar ch 2 0 2 2
Overseas Postings During COVID 19
OCA
OCA President’s Report As Victoria opens up, the OCA remains optimistic about holding our regular events back on PLC campus, so please save our 2022 dates in your diary. We hope you have enjoyed the new initiative of Principal Cheryl Penberthy to email all Old Collegians with video links of PLC concerts and highlights. I felt PLC was sending us all the most beautiful moments of a PLC education to guide us through a very difficult year. Rolling lockdowns have left few opportunities to gather at OCA events, so in this issue we will hear reports from some Old Collegians whose work and life changed due to COVID. From overseas postings in Shanghai and Bangkok, St Vincent’s Hospital, West Wimmera Health Service in Nhill, a dentist in McKinnon and a first baby born in Melbourne, Old Collegians have navigated challenges and unexpected situations. As with many of you, they have taken on extra challenges and had to adapt. We hope you enjoy reading their stories and feel proud and encouraged by how our PLC education and values have helped us all be a bit more resilient and adaptable on our own personal journey through the pandemic. There are many opportunities to join us and serve on the OCA Committee, so please contact us on plc.melb.oca@gmail.com and join us on our Facebook page: https://www.
facebook.com/groups/plcmelbourneoca Ailsa Wilson (Watson 1978) President Old Collegians’ Association
My COVID journey began in Shanghai in February 2020, right at the start of the pandemic. My husband, Colin, and I were on posting to Shanghai with the Department of Home Affairs and witnessed China’s early response to the outbreak in Wuhan in December 2019. When the virus began to spread, the Australian government became concerned about the welfare of all Australian diplomats posted to China and the dramatic reduction in outbound flights. In late January they acted quickly to bring most of us back home, leaving only a skeleton staff. Within a week we were evacuated, and around a dozen posted officers and their families were escorted to Shanghai airport with only a suitcase of clothes each, leaving most of their possessions locked in their apartments, and facing an uncertain future. After nine months of working from home in Melbourne, and no news of a return to Shanghai, I was unexpectedly offered a short-term opportunity at the Australian
The COVID- 19 Pandemic: My experiences and reflections of the past two years
Embassy in Bangkok, just as Melbourne went into lockdown. So Colin and I embarked on another COVID journey. This time we had to navigate the bureaucratic COVID travel procedures of the Thai government. We finally arrived at our quarantine hotel and survived our 14-day ‘prison sentence’ in a hotel room without sliding windows or a balcony. For the next eight months we experienced COVID ‘Thai-style’, with ever-changing government restrictions regarding shopping centres, restaurants, services and domestic travel. Embassy work was done in shifts and our expat life was mainly limited to our apartment complex, except for the national Songkran water festival in April. We then came home to another Melbourne lockdown in August 2021. Two years on, the pandemic continues, but we can all reflect on the challenges we’ve overcome and the lessons we’ve learnt during this unimaginable global event. Wendy Davenport (1976)
My COVID Experience as a Dentist Exactly two years ago, in February 2020 we heard about a novel corona virus. Here is Australia, dentists and other health care workers were becoming increasingly concerned that we would not be able to obtain surgical masks, gloves and other personal protective supplies and would not be able to work. The following month, Australia went into lockdown. I cancelled my patients, redirected my mail, changed the answering machine message and put a sign outside my practice stating that I was closed until further notice. Only patients with extreme pain, facial swellings or trauma from the teeth could be seen. In my field of dentistry (periodontics – gum specialist), I rarely see patients with true emergencies and stopped work. Jobkeeper was a life saver, paying my staff wages and covering my basic expenses. I had gone from being a busy dentist and practice owner to a stayat-home mum making hot lunches, baking, gardening, watching Netflix and cleaning the kitchen cupboards. As my husband was working in the study and my son was home-schooling in his bedroom, I did the Australian Institute of Company Director’s Governance course. Returning to work, there was a huge backlog of patients. Some were very eager to come back, others were nervous and postponed their appointments. Many patient’s oral health had deteriorated from not seeing their dentist or other dental practitioner and there was an increase in cracked teeth and gum disease. Dentists always have very strict infection control, wiping down the dental chair and equipment between patients and wearing gloves, surgical masks and safety glasses. However, there are new additions to the protocols including wearing N95 or P2 masks, patients having a pre-procedural mouth rinse, temperature tests for staff and patients and no magazines in the waiting rooms. Susan Wise (1989)
It has been a very opportune time to reflect on the past two rather tumultuous years of COVID in Melbourne. Life for us all has changed irrevocably – and although we have all lived through the same pandemic, we have all had very different experiences during these COVID times. My personal experience has been very much focused on my role as Manager, Allied Health and Pharmacy at St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne − a large public tertiary hospital located on the edge of the CBD. As part of our Mission at St Vincent’s, we have a strong commitment to supporting people who are particularly vulnerable, including people who are homeless. I am responsible for leading a team of wonderful Allied Health and Pharmacy Managers and supporting our 300+ allied health and pharmacy staff. It would be an understatement to say that it has been an extraordinarily tough and challenging time working in health care during the COVID pandemic. It has also been an incredibly inspiring time. It has been tough on all clinical and non-clinical staff, who have been concerned about the care and safety of their patients, and the safety of themselves and their families. Our world changed in March 2020, and I am privileged to share some reflections from that time. From the outset, our executive leadership team at St Vincent’s ensured that we had an excellent communication system in place, with comprehensive, clear and timely information. Our COVID ‘waves’ were coming after the Northern Hemisphere, and we were able to learn from their experiences, particularly through our UK colleagues working in the NHS. With this information, we were as prepared as we could be for this new and highly infectious disease, implementing extensive staff training, establishing wards for COVID patients, and developing clear processes to ensure the safety of our staff and patients. Staff caring for patients with COVID were required to wear full Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) − masks, gowns, face shields, caps, gloves and booties, with careful ‘donning and doffing’ to avoid any contamination of exposed skin or airways. ‘COVID-Safe’ principles were rapidly implemented; elective surgery was put on hold; there was an exponential growth in Telehealth consultations and staff were working from home where feasible. We provided mobile community services to reach our vulnerable communities. We became adept at contract tracing, deep cleaning and
managing exposure sites and reviewing the data modelling to predict our likely patient admissions. We worked as a very collaborative and supportive team in both clinical and nonclinical roles. We were so fortunate to have wonderful executive and clinical leadership, and outstanding expertise across our Infectious Diseases Team. Our on-call roster was comprehensive and always busy and demanding − but never with the good news stories! Our staff were managing their home lives, juggling home-schooling commitments, and care of their families and elderly parents with their work commitments. It was an extraordinary professional and personal load. We braced ourselves coming to work each day. The wellbeing of staff was a constant focus − we needed to care for our precious staff, as well as our patients. The introduction of COVID vaccinations in the first half of 2021 was a great milestone for the community − and indeed for medical science! At St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne, we take great pride in our vaccination hubs at the Royal Exhibition Building and Campbellfield − and it took such a wonderful team effort to get these hubs up and running so quickly. We have now provided over 500,000 vaccinations to the Melbourne community! I have been inspired by our wonderful team at St Vincent’s − our staff providing clinical care, our cleaners, our food services staff, our Communications team, our Vaccination and Fever Testing staff. Everyone has played a vital role in this pandemic, providing compassionate and expert care in extraordinary circumstances. There has been strong camaraderie across all areas of the hospital, and a great sense that ‘we were all in this together’. These past two years have been amongst the most challenging of my 40-plus(!)-year career. They have also been the most rewarding and satisfying. I have been privileged to see the amazing spirit, resilience, expertise, compassion and innovation demonstrated by a most wonderful team, and to be part of the fabulous wider team across St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne. Fiona McKinnon (1975) General Manager, Allied Health and Pharmacy, St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne
COVID Negative but Positively Pregnant As a housebound, newly-wedded couple for 112 days (without Netflix, might I add) we were either going to end up pulling each other’s hair out or having a baby. I discovered I was pregnant the day Dan Andrews announced Melbourne was finally getting out of its longest lockdown (at the time). I was elated, even though the prospect of wining and dining nauseated me and the only thing I could eat was sour cream and onion chips. Thankfully, Victoria was out of its COVID crisis for the remainder of my pregnancy, and my husband was able to attend all our doctor’s appointments and scans, we were able to go on our babymoon, and we even had hopes that my in-laws who live abroad could come to visit when bub was due to arrive in July 2021. Little did we know that another COVID wave was to ensue and a few weeks before the birth, we were told that lockdown-level hospital rules were being reintroduced. The rules were quite reasonable, but the worst part was the fact that they kept changing weekly leading up to the birth! As a result, midwives and hospital staff were often giving us conflicting information. During our hospital stay, we weren’t allowed any visitors (which turned out to be a blessing in disguise and something maternity wards should think about doing permanently). We were allowed one support person to stay with us, but they were only allowed to leave the hospital once per day. When we came home with our little EJ (short for Emilia Jane), Melbourne had gone back into lockdown, and we were all housebound yet again. Since I was doing the Chinese confinement month (a tradition whereby new mothers are confined to their homes for 30 days postpartum to allow for optimum recovery), this lockdown had absolutely no impact on me whatsoever! Most of our friends and extended family first met EJ in video calls or through the window that faced our front porch. My parents were able to visit frequently under caretaking rules, but my in-laws are still yet to meet their first grandchild! Lucy Munanto (2008)
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