Late last March, the Community Covid assessment centre (CAC) and hub was set up in response to the pandemic as a way of seeing patients with confirmed or potential Covid in a safe environment.
With two face to face centres; Douglas Street clinic in Hamilton and Airdrie Health Centre (where the main administrative, support and telephone triage service was also based) – the service was later termed Acute Respiratory Illness Centre (ARIC) to reflect the breadth of conditions seen due to the all-encompassing nature of the cardinal symptoms – particularly fever.
The 24/7 centre was created in just ten days, with a variety of staff redeployed. A year on, the team has seen well over 10,000 patients. Dr Mike Coates, clinical lead for the ARIC explains more about the service here.
Here we meet just some of the team who have come together to make the service a success in the fight against Covid-19.
Babs Gemmell, service manager
“My role is to operationally manage and develop the service. The last year has been challenging yet extremely rewarding. The pace at which the new Covid assessment pathway (CAP) required to be set up was significant. However, the camaraderie of all the staff involved in initiating, implementing and 
delivering the service over the last year is amazing.
“All staff involved were deployed at short notice and many of us had never worked together before. There was a mutual respect and resilience that helped bring the staff and service together to be fully functional by 23 March and continued its successful delivery over the last year.
“We had to quickly adapt and change service requirements as national guidance and information on Covid became available.
“The success of our service has greatly reduced pressures on other parts of the system through patients being redirected from the ‘routine’ GP pathway and our acute hospitals.
“I’m transitioning back to my post as service manager – primary care improvement plan over the next few weeks but I’m extremely proud to have been able to make a difference during an incredibly difficult and uncertain time. I’ll always be grateful to have been given the opportunity to work with an amazing team – an experience I’ll never forget and will look back with pride in all we achieved together.”
Ashley Irvine, dispatcher
“As a hub dispatcher my role is to receive and direct calls via the correct pathway. Calls are received from NHS24 or via a professional-to-professional telephone line.
“All cases are triaged by a clinician and once triaged, my role is to contact the patient to direct them to either a virtual waiting area for a video call, allocate and confirm a patient appointment time for face-to-face assessment, arrange home visits, fax prescriptions and arrange patient transport as and when required.
“I also carry out daily admin tasks, liaising with staff for rota cover, take part in daily safety briefs and contribute to service data collection.
“The hub team supports the overall flow of the service to ensure the best possible patient journey.
“Whilst there have been challenges, these have been overcome through excellent team work. I am proud to have been part of this service and have used the positive experiences gained as part of my own personal development and learning.”
Hazel Towers, senior information analyst
“I analyse the data for patients who go through the Covid-19 community assessment pathway, providing daily reports to show activity for calls triaged by the Covid hub, patients seen at the ARIC and Covid home visits carried out.
“I also identify how many of these patients are sent to hospital, attend A&E or are admitted to hospital.
“Many people think reports appear at the press of a button, but they don’t! At the beginning I had to submit daily returns to the Scottish Government every morning, capturing all the data of patients who entered the pathway.
“Prior to Covid I was doing the analysis and reporting of the flu vaccinations, serial prescribing analysis and other pieces of work within the primary care improvement team and evaluation team.
“It’s good to know that my daily reports are used to help determine ongoing needs of the service to benefit patients.”
Lorna Burnside, clinical support worker
“I’m one of five clinical support workers (CSW) who have been at the ARIC since it was set up a year ago.
“We all came to the ARIC from different roles. The ANPs have been fantastic supporting us, especially at the start when it was all new to us. We’ve all come together and just clicked and supported each other through the last year.
“We call ourselves the runners, as our role involves being there to support the GPs and ANPs. We have everything ready for them, from swabs forms and bags to getting medication for a patient or calling an ambulance.”
“Patients come in and they are frightened. I’ve had patients ask me if they are going to see their loved ones again and it’s hard as you can’t give them an answer.
“We feel proud to play our part and help keep patients out of hospital as well as supporting and reassuring patients and hopefully being able to send them home.
“I previously worked in treatment rooms where my role involved taking bloods, removing stitches and wound care. That role will have changed because of Covid and it will be like starting a new job again.”
Gabriela Maxwell, nurse consultant primary care
“My role involves clinically supporting the ARIC, contributing to evolution of the project alongside others and ensuring continuation of service. I was there at the beginning when we were setting up a brand new service at short notice and had to have everything in line with health and safety and other guidelines.
“I was also heavily involved in implementing the remote self-monitoring of patients pilot which has proved really successful.
“We had to ensure the clinical expertise is there to navigate patients through the correct diagnosis, treatment and care. Not everyone who comes through the ARIC has Covid, so that’s a challenge too.
“In my role I am a nurse consultant in primary care, providing leadership and strategic planning across all community services.
“We have had to evolve with the nature and demand of the service, continually striving for improvement and identifying how we can do things better, learning from our experiences over the past year.
“There has been so much kindness shown towards ARIC staff by the local community, from thank you cards to food and hand cream. This has helped us going through tough times. It has been a huge effort from dedicated staff who put themselves forward.”
