An army of volunteers has been working behind the scenes to sew gowns, caps and masks for Castlemaine doctors to ensure they are well protected and ready to tackle the coronavirus crisis.
A grateful Dr Richard Mayes and Dr Dominic Blanks of Castlemaine’s Lyttleton Street Clinic described it as a “massive effort”.
“We have had loads of Personal Protective Equipment donated to our clinics, including 100 head-to-toe gowns from a local forensic cleaner,” Dr Mayes said.
“Rewells Mower Service has made us fit-for-purpose protective face shields and our dedicated healthcare teams have been working around the clock to source extra equipment from local hardware stores.
“Friends of staff have also turned into ‘MacGyvers’ creating protective gear out of all sorts of creative resources. The response has been absolutely amazing.”
The clinic has also had washing machines donated to enable doctors to wash their PPE on site to protect their families and local dance studio Movement Zone offered the use of its space for their recent flu shot clinic so healthy patients 65+ wouldn’t need to visit the medical clinic.
Castlemaine Parkrun donated a defibrillator to have on hand at the flu clinic and local restaurants and cafes have been donating coffee and food to support their team.
Dr Blanks said the three local medical clinics were meeting twice weekly with Castlemaine Health via video conference to discuss their needs and to work on strategies.
“Castlemaine Health put out the call they were out of testing swabs and within half an hour Mostyn Street Clinic had 12 delivered,” Dr Blanks said.
“Botanical Gardens Health were running short on gowns and we had just had 50 delivered here so we sent them straight up to our colleagues at Botanical Gardens Health. We are working to support each other.”
Dr Mayes said all three medical clinics had set up separate testing facilities to enable them to see patients with respiratory, fever or COVID-19 symptoms away from fellow patients and staff.
The doctors have also adjusted their roster at Castlemaine Health to have a backup doctor on call and are aiming to have doctors working in dedicated areas such as aged care, urgent care and acute to minimise the movement of people and therefore the potential for any spread.
Dr Mayes said they felt incredibly fortunate to have had time to prepare.
“Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom didn’t have that time,” he said.
While the local doctors are prepared for a wave of cases they are hopeful that the current trend will continue and community members will heed the messages to stay home and stop the spread.
“One health worker commented that we are not the frontline, we are in fact the last line of defence. The community is on the frontline and we need you to take the messages seriously and do your bit to help us win this battle,” Dr Mayes said.
If you are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms the doctors urge you to phone your GP for advice.
“We are trying our best to keep the clinics and hospital ‘clean’, so it’s vital community members help us continue to do this by making contact first before presenting at a clinic or the hospital,” Dr Blanks said.
