Adelina McLeod

Dr Adelina McLeod is a Collegiate Member of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. Dr McLeod's speciality is geriatrics and she will become a Consultant in summer 2021.

This interview took place on 13 May 2021.

Timestamps

00:00 Introduction

00:45 Changes to work patterns

02:32 Long-term impact of COVID on physical and mental health

04:29 Long term impact on NHS

06:09 Government response to pandemic

08:19 Public response to pandemic

09:25 Personal experiences of friends and colleagues contracting coronavirus

11:26 Effect of the pandemic and lockdown on home-life routines

13:00 Wellbeing and mental health support given to medical professionals

14:30 Misinformation on the pandemic

16:25 Closing comments

Transcription

Interviewer:

So could we please start by you just introducing yourself, telling me your name, your college membership status and your medical specialty, please?

Adelina McLeod:

Yeah, so hello, my name's Dr Addy MacLeod. I am an ST7 in geriatrics, actually acting up as a consultant now. And I am a collegiate Member at Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

Interviewer:

Thank you very much. So if we could start off by you explaining how the pandemic has affected your working hours and your practices. Obviously, we talked about this when we last spoke six months ago, but how have things changed in terms of your day-to-day work and the impact of it?

Adelina McLeod:

So I think I suppose how I would describe it is kind of getting back to normal as much as normal is. So I am no longer on a COVID rota, which is great. I'm doing much more kind of nine to five practice with some on calls. I am working less from home as well now and I don't know whether that's just an expectation I'm putting on myself or whether that's just kind of people wanting to get back to normal. But if I, for example, if I had a day full of meetings, I would during the COVID pandemic potentially just stay at home and do that. Now I'm coming in because it gives me the ability to just pop to the ward and check on things as well. So I quite like that flexibility a little bit. So I am working a bit less from home than what I was at times. We are still doing virtual clinics for some patients. So again, it's a bit of a hybrid model where, we're in a sense doing virtual clinics almost like as a triage model and then the stuff that can be dealt with virtually gets done that way. But if we do really feel that we need to see a patient, then we are bringing them up to physical clinics.

Interviewer:

Thank you. So one of the other things we talked about six months ago was what you thought the long term both physical and mental health impact of the pandemic would be on patients. So have you had any additional thoughts on that or has your opinion changed?

Adelina McLeod:

So I suppose what I am seeing now is the impact of lockdown and deconditioning. So I'm starting to see through my kind of emergency access clinic as a geriatrician, people referred by GPs because they have just become more frail over lockdown. They've deconditioned because they haven't been walking. They've been quite socially isolated as well. So the closure of day centres and those other services that were really supportive for people in the community, I am now seeing the impacts of the loss of that service and the loss of that activity on my particular patient group. And my hope is that as things, as things ease up in lockdown and access to those services improves and becomes better, I hope that some of the stuff that we've lost we haven't lost forever because I think especially in the patient group that I look after, social isolation is a huge factor that limits health and wellbeing and also the lack of ability to get out and about and to move and walk and be active also really impacting some of my patient group.

Interviewer:

Thank you. So something else that we talked about six months ago was what you thought the long term impact would be in terms of the way healthcare is delivered. So the way in which patients are treated and also the way in which the NHS is sort of structured and organised. So I don't know if you have any further thoughts on, are any of these changes going to stay and what are the changes?

Adelina McLeod:

So I think that virtual clinics will stay and I also think that the ability for secondary care doctors to just pick up a phone and phone a patient will stay. I'm really pleased that barrier has been broken down. I'm really pleased that I have periods allocated in my work schedule just to catch up with patients on the phone and that sort of thing. I don't have to book them into a clinic in order to have those conversations. For me, I feel that is a real step forward. I think, I believe that we should be further democratising health care and giving, as professionals, we're there to guide people's choices and give the information that people need to make choices. But ultimately, when you're thinking about your own care and what's right for you, the ball has to be in your court. And as a professional, I have to support you as best I can. And I think sometimes actually breaking down those barriers are good. And I think actually that telephone conversation, so they're not just seeing me in a clinic, I am in their living room on the end of a phone, I really welcome that and I'm really enjoying that now as part of my practice.

Interviewer:

Thank you. So following on from that, in our last conversation we talked about the government's response to the pandemic and again I'm interested to know if over the last six months you have any new sort of thoughts on anything that's taken place.

Adelina McLeod:

So again, I think I might have mentioned it last time, I think we're potentially still too close to the problem in order to really give huge opinions on what was the right, what was the wrong thing to do. I do feel that the investment that was made into vaccines was a good choice by the government. I think compared to our European colleagues, the vaccine rollout in this country supported by the NHS has been really successful, has been really rapid. And I'm also delighted that the vaccine rollout has had the participation and the uptake that it has. I think the British population are just absolutely fantastic for embracing that and getting vaccine and the positivity around the vaccine that we've had. So I do think that that's a real positive thing. And I suppose if you've got real choices to make about what you invest your time, effort and energy into doing, I think PPE and the vaccine had to be priorities. I'm aware that track and trace wasn't as good as people hoped or potentially expected it to be. And I know that there were some issues with it. But again, I'm not sure you can track and trace your way out of this, especially now we know more about the virus and we know more about the mutations and things that happen. I think that vaccinating your way out of this is kind of where we're going to have to go.

Interviewer:

Thank you. So you've mostly answered this question already, but I'll just ask in case you have anything else to say. In terms of the public response, so again, how that's changed over the last six months. So thinking in terms of social distancing, wearing masks and of course, as you said, the vaccine uptake.

Adelina McLeod:

So I mean, I think the vaccine uptake in this country has been really good. I think, we're down to the sort of 35 to 40 bracket, I think now. I think that on the whole, I see people social distancing, I see people wearing masks and I see people following the rules and actually being socially responsible. And I think actually the British public, I think we've all done ourselves proud.

Interviewer:

Thank you very much. So the questions I'm going to ask now are a bit more about your personal experiences of the pandemic. So just to say, of course, that if there's anything that you're not comfortable answering, just say, and I won't press you. So without naming individuals, since we last spoke, has anyone in your family or your friends or colleagues contracted coronavirus? And if you're comfortable talking about it, could you do that?

Adelina McLeod:

So I've been incredibly lucky in that nobody in my family has contracted coronavirus. So that's kind of my family and my husband's family. So I absolutely feel that we've been really lucky in that and I haven't contracted it either. I know colleagues who have contracted it. Again, they were young and had a mild illness only. A friend of mine, her husband was significantly unwell in ITU and survived, came out of their ITU. But I think what she wasn't quite expecting was how long that recovery would take. So once this person got home, actually the fatigue and managing that fatigue and getting back to normal has taken significantly longer than what they were expecting. And I think for some extent, it's been harder, that recovery at home. And obviously in ITU, you're incredibly worried, but you have significant support from the medical team around. And then it's almost like you get home, you're on your own. Who do you speak to? Who do you check? Is this normal? Is this abnormal? What should I be expecting at what stage? I'm not sure that that support is necessarily there at the moment.

Interviewer:

Thank you. So another thing that I'm interested in is how your home life routine has been impacted by COVID. And obviously we talked about that six months ago, but is it still impacted and is it different from how it would be under non pandemic times?

Adelina McLeod:

Yeah, so I mean, during the first lockdown, I think my husband was much more effective than I was in that my daughter's nursery closed and for 12 weeks he was working from home and doing childcare. My daughter's nursery opened thereafter and has remained open and my husband again has done a bit of a hybrid model so he's worked from home some days and gone into work. He is starting to go into work a little bit more now. However, my husband's in the military and I think that the military have really embraced this concept of distance working. And he often gets posted away from home for years at a time. And I actually think moving forward, we're going to have some flexibility in that that really works for us, works better for us as a family. In that when he's down in, posted down to London, for example, he could do, you know, some days distance working or, I don't know, a week on week off scenario but I think that the military have really embraced that model and are encouraging it as well.

Interviewer:

Thank you. So this question you've touched on already, but I'm interested to know your thoughts on the mental health support for medical professionals. And again, particularly has the support that you receive increased over the last six months or changed in any significant way?

Adelina McLeod:

I mean, it's difficult to say, to answer that in detail because I haven't actually needed to access any specific mental health support. There were some providers that really generously gave medical staff free access to their kind of apps and networks and they look to be kind of quite useful. And I actually wonder whether, as well as, I mean, some trusts, give staff discounted gym memberships and things like that, which I think is a wonderful idea for physical health and as an employer you want your staff to be physically healthy. I also wonder whether it might be an idea for that offering to be made for apps or products that help improve your mental health and keep you healthy.

Interviewer:

Thank you. So this is my last question, but one of the things that we talked about when we spoke last time was around accessing information around the pandemic and the amount of misinformation that was available on social media and blogs and so on. And I wonder, do you feel like the amount of misinformation out there is increasing or has increased in the last six months? I was thinking particularly around the vaccine, but yeah, I'm interested in your opinion.

Adelina McLeod:

I mean, I think by the nature of time and the way things are shared, especially on social media, I think misinformation has increased because obviously something shared over time, multiple shares, it's that multiplier effect, isn't it? And so even though I have a fairly select network on Twitter, these things do still get through. I think it can be quite difficult because of the way social media works and because of the way human attention works we are drawn to things that are sensationalist and we are drawn to things, it's like people say, oh, I can't help but, when you're driving down a motorway and you see a car's crash, you can't help but kind of look. And the thing is, is that and the algorithms as well, those things perpetuate sensationalist news. And unfortunately, often the truth is pretty dull and can be, and also nuanced arguments as well. And it can be hard to shout through that traffic. And so I do think that the misinformation during the pandemic has caused harm and has caused significant harm to people. But we as professionals just need to keep making sure that we are sharing the correct content, that we are very careful what we say on public forums and that we also make sure that we take time to debunk these myths as well and especially kind of challenge people.

Interviewer:

Thank you. So that's the end of my questions. Before we wrap up, is there anything else that you would like to say that I haven't asked you about?

Adelina McLeod:

Not especially. I suppose one thing I do want to comment on is the real sense of community that I felt with my colleagues throughout this pandemic, not just my immediate colleagues that I work with, nursing staff, health carers and doctors, but also with the researchers that have been working on our vaccines, have been working on understanding the virus and the way in which the colleges have really helped provide guidance for us. I think that community and communal effort has been really, really remarkable and quite humbling to see.