Staff profile - Beda Andrews and Dr Andrew Brown

It was a Saturday afternoon and Beda Andrews was enjoying her day off from Hornsby Ku-ring-gai Hospital's Emergency Department, when the acting Nurse Unit Manger received a phone call to say there was an incident at work.

Beda immediately returned to work, where she joined Acting Director of ED, Dr Andrew (Andy) Brown, and together the pair swung into action to face one of the department's toughest challenges.

The incident was a staff member diagnosed with COVID-19 and the pair's immediate priority was the welfare of their colleagues.

They needed to quickly identify staff who had been in contact with the affected team member and have them isolate at home.

Immediately, the ED lost about 18 staff working that day as they quarantined at home. Andy and Beda sprung into action to find staff to cover their shifts.

What followed over the course of the next 24-48 hours, was hundreds of phone calls to affected staff, welfare checks and work with their ED colleagues to ensure the department continued to run smoothly and provide care to patients.

They worked tirelessly to identify patients who had been in contact with the COVID-19 positive staff member and assisted the Northern Sydney Local Health District (NSLHD) Public Health Unit to start contact tracing.

'It was a race against time because our priority was the welfare of our staff. We wanted to tell them first-hand about what had happened before it was made public,' Beda said.

An incident control centre was set up away from the main ED floor where the pair worked the phones, while they were supported on the floor by Clinical Nurse Manager Tristan Miller and Dr Stephen Kearney who managed the ED.

It was all hands on deck - Dr Felicia Kwok began to oversee the rostering logistics, ED Clerical Supervisor Justine McMahon supported the team, while COVID After Hours Nurse Manager Carolyn Opie and After Hours hospital executive Adrienne Stern assisted the ED in the crucial first few hours.

'My focus had always been on responding to a patient who had COVID-19 and the influx of patients, so it was a lot of a shock when it was a colleague,' Beda said.

'But it was so good to see all of our disaster training come into effect and the whole team just pulled together.'

Andy and Beda were overwhelmed by the support they received from their fellow ED colleagues, and other hospital and district staff, who threw up their hands to help.

Doctors and nurses volunteered to perform double shifts, nurses moved to 12 hour shifts, colleagues from other departments came to work in the ED and colleagues from other hospitals in the district such as Mona Vale from Royal North Shore and the Northern Beaches, volunteered to help cover the department's staffing needs.

'We are like one big family and everyone just pulled together,' Andy said.

'Everyone was doing it tough in different ways. We had those who were working really hard and worried about the quarantined staff, and those at home self-isolating concerned about their colleagues who were working.

'Initially, we needed to work out what was needed for the first 48 hours and then the next two weeks.

'Because of the unpredictability of COVID-19, we didn't know how many staff would have to isolate. We lost an entirety of three shifts of staff. A third of the medical workforce and about 40 per cent of the nursing staff.'

Immediate quarantining of affected staff, use of Protective Personal Equipment (PPE) and the following of strict hand hygiene and physical distancing protocols, ensured the spread of COVID-19 in the ED was managed.

Fortunately, all staff are now well and have returned to work. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​