Spotlight on the Swab team

Throughout the pandemic, the Swab team have worked across the Trust to ensure patients coming into the hospital have been correctly swabbed and provide negative Covid-19 tests.

Angie Honnor, Swab Team Co-ordinator, has been in the role since the pandemic began and ensures the site is set up in the morning, liaises with staff to deliver and get the swabs and communicates with the team to make sure the day runs smoothly.

“I saw a post about returning to help out when the pandemic began and so signed up. I’ve come across people who I would never have met before – it’s been great,” said Angie.

“During the pandemic I found it quite scary to begin with. We were thrown in the deep end during a scary time for everyone. But we were given all of the PPE we needed and the team felt like a real unit. People are so grateful. Everybody says thank you – we’ve even been given chocolates!

“Marshalls, admin, delivery drivers, those higher up, those in the Centrum. It is all one big team. Everybody deserves the same praise.”

Zara Court, Swab Team Administrator, has also been part of the team since the beginning of the pandemic and performs swabs, provides admin support and helps with marshalling patients and cars.

“I got signed up as a medical student during the first lockdown to become part of the swab team. I agree with Angela, it was scary at first as none of us really knew how dangerous the virus could be. At the start there were a lot of key workers who were unwell and people had seen the stories online where it has to go right up your nose so came to the site very nervous,” said Zara.

“We’ve got such a lovely team. It’s lovely to work with people who aren’t just your colleagues but also your friends. Because we were all in it from the beginning, we’ve grown as a team together.”

The team has since been redeployed to swab people coming in for procedures and other urgent medical care.

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