A Muggle's Laboratory

Hi everyone I hope everyone is doing well and are enjoying the post lockdown feel. Here is another post, so grab a cuppa and happy reading!!

The immunology department in Manchester is one of the biggest and busiest immunology department in the North West.  During the first lockdown, the immunology workload dropped by 80%, which is considered a huge fall in workload.  The workload decreased as Manchester Royal Infirmary (MRI) stopped routine work and tried to prepare for the surge of Covid patients. The reason behind this was that the hospital were not sure of the number of patients that would require hospitalization. There was a lack of information regarding the virus itself which led to a lot of uncertainty. Eventually this led to routine clinics and outpatient appointments being cancelled so that resources and healthcare staff were available if needed.

I started in the immunology department on the second week of lockdown and I remember how surprised I was by the lack of samples for analysis.  When I previously worked in sample reception, the immunology workload was very heavy, peaking between 12 and 2 pm. Between ourselves myself and my colleagues probably booked over 150 samples in a day for immunological testing. From seeing approximately thousands of samples a day to seeing fewer than 150 samples for analysis was quite shocking. But, this was quite beneficial towards my development as I was able to have thorough one to one training on my first rotation.  However, I learned later that real skills and focus are required when the department is busy, as most of the day I am multi-tasking. 

Despite routine work being stopped, the department continued to get urgent request for samples that required testing for anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies, urgent cell markers for leukaemia’s, and stem cell CD34 counts for patients who are undergoing urgent transplant therapy. The rest of the workload came from the inpatient wards within the hospital.

As lockdown started to ease the workload went up slowly over the summer and recovered to 80% of normal. When the second and third lockdown occurred, the workload wasn’t quite as affected as the first lockdown. This was due to the NHS being much better prepared and knowing what to expect in terms of Covid admissions. There was also more research and information in regards to the virus.  Also, Public Health England had introduced methods to characterise the virus using genotyping and estimating the number of cases that were occurring across different regions of the country. This also included methods such as Covid testing facilities and the much criticised ‘Test and Trace’ smartphone app.

Across the Trust, some staff members were shielding and self-isolating. This led to some of my colleagues going to help in other departments that were understaffed, this included; New Born Screening and Biochemistry. A rota was also introduced in the department where staff could work from home as this reduced the number of people in the lab and face-to-face contact. The senior management team members also spread out more in the offices. The immunology registrar’s office was used and social distancing was introduced between the staff so that we weren’t too close to one another. Perspex screens were installed so that there were barriers between the workstations to reduce the opportunity of the virus spreading. This was followed by the introduction of mandatory face masks in the laboratory and hospital site in general. 

The immunology department took part in the development of the Covid antibody assay. This assay was introduced in the late summer and investigated the incidence of contact and infection with the virus. It was a success and is an assay that is still being used. The distribution of the lateral flow devices allowed staff to test themselves two times a week to see if we were infected with the virus before attending work. This was a great way of keeping family and patients safe. 

Working in the laboratory throughout the pandemic has been a very interesting experience and an experience of which I am very proud. I to the constant change and introduction of new assays, there were so many things happening which showed how dynamic the laboratory is, how quick and easily we can adapt to change and the importance of teamwork. It is nice seeing the workload return too normal as it means we are back to being busy in the laboratory.

All the laboratory staff should be very proud of themselves for working throughout the pandemic as it was a very tough point in many of our careers.

Thank you for taking your time in reading my posts. Please leave a comment below and let me know your thoughts of working throughout the pandemic.