DR DAVID COHEN

A&E DOCTOR/GP TRAINEE

East Surrey Hospital & Barnet General Hospital

I’m an OM who was in Murray House from 2004-2009. I also attended Belmont and Grimsdell before that (from the very first day it opened!). Although I have just changed jobs to pursue a career in General Practice in London, for the past year I had been working as an Accident and Emergency Doctor in Surrey. Since late January, I had been involved in treating patients suffering from Covid-19. We had quite a large number of patients with it due to our proximity to Gatwick Airport and also the high number of care homes in our catchment area. There have been many success stories, where I was delighted to learn that patients who I didn’t think would make it out of hospital actually did. The lowest point for me was the loss of very respected and well-liked colleague who tragically died on our Intensive Care Unit after a long battle with Covid-19.

What was the hardest or most frustrating part of your job?

I think that one of the most frustrating parts of the job over the past eight months has been the constantly changing and haphazard approach to PPE guidance nationally which I feel was largely down to supply chain issues rather than any true scientific evidence. In terms of the hardest part of the job; I would have to say that the past few months have forced me to have some of the most difficult conversations of my career with patients and their families. Some so difficult, I can recall them word for word.

How do you think the country coped with the Pandemic?

I think that I would rather comment on the remarkable response from the public, who have had to make huge sacrifices, than the Government’s response which has left a lot to be desired. I can’t imagine how hard it must have been to not be able to go to work every day or to have the uncertainty of not knowing how your income might be affected. They have demonstrated real courage in coming together and making sacrifices to help protect our front line services. I know that myself and all my colleagues have really appreciated that. The weekly Thursday claps often coincided with me walking to or from work and it was truly uplifting to witness, instilling such an enormous sense of pride in me.

Was there anything they could have done better or were you impressed by how they handled it? Again, I would prefer to comment on my local experience rather than the

Government’s sub-par handling of the Pandemic. I was very impressed with how my hospital handled the pandemic and put in place contingency plans to provide high quality care for patients presenting with any and all problems. Our A&E department was split into two areas; a ‘hot area’ for those with symptoms of Covid-19 and a ‘cold area’ for those without in order to reduce the transmission as much as we can. I don’t think they could have done any better truthfully!

Did you experience lockdown and if so, to what extent? How did that impact your work?

Around the start of April, I had Covid-19 myself and spent seven days in self isolation, which was a very frightening experience rife with uncertainty about how things might progress. It certainly gave me much more empathy when looking after these patients. My sense of smell has still not fully recovered almost five months on! Working in Accident and Emergency, my working day didn’t feel that different overall as I still remained on the same shift pattern. Having to make split second decisions on the door as to whether a patient may or may not have Covid-19 was certainly tricky and working in PPE of all levels was difficult to say the least. You’ll see a photo of me in full PPE about to start a ten hour night shift in ‘Hot Resus’ where the sickest patients come in off the ambulance and we work to stabilise them before admitting them. With no air conditioning, the temperatures in the room could reach 28 degrees in addition to the stifling nature of PPE, making for some really gruelling shifts.

What has been the biggest impact on your personal life and why?

The biggest impact for me has been the inability to visit my support network in person. Personally, being around family and friends is vital to keep my spirits up, and not being able to see people in person took its toll. Having said that, we all adapted to keep in touch regularly with Zoom calls for a catch up or an online pub quiz which was one of my most anticipated parts of the week.

When do you see things returning to ‘normal’? Or do you think they never will?

I think it’s impossible to say how things will pan out. We’ve all used the term ‘new normal’ in recent times and I think that sums it up very well. I definitely believe that we are witnessing massive cultural shifts in societies the world over, including social distancing and the widespread use of masks which I think will become a staple of our day to day, at least for the foreseeable future. For example, will we see a full crowd at Wembley stadium or Twickenham in the next few years? I’m not so sure. I’m hopeful that we will get back to life as it was but I think it’s a long way off.

Are you keen to return to life the way it was before the pandemic, or have you reconsidered a change in your lifestyle or even career as a result of it?

In many ways, I am keen to return to life as it was, with the ability to travel freely, visit new places and experience new cultures. The arts for one have been profoundly affected by the pandemic and I know this has sadly had a big effect on one of my closest friends. I hope the Government will do more to safeguard these industries so that we can all enjoy them once again when things start to normalise. Personally, and after much reflection, the pandemic has without doubt impacted the trajectory of my career. Although remaining in medicine, I have chosen to train as a General Practitioner rather than to pursue a career in Emergency Medicine.

Has anything positive come out of the Pandemic?

One positive has been that the adversity has encouraged many demonstrations of kindness between neighbours and complete strangers which has often been lacking in modern society and this has been wonderful to see. That is one thing I would love to see continue.

There have also been some really heartwarming stories of communities coming together, neighbours helping each other however they can. It would be nice to see this kind of community spirit continue beyond the pandemic. My parents both tested positive for coronavirus antibodies showing that they had indeed had the virus when they were unwell in March. I am very happy to say that they recovered fully and that I am very proud of my dad who has been donating his plasma every two weeks to be used to treat people critically ill with Covid-19.

What do you miss most about MHS?

This is a tough one. My time at Mill Hill School and the Foundation as a whole is filled with some of my fondest memories. What I miss most is probably having my close friends, who are all OMs, around regularly as we have been spread all over the country for the past few years.