© Ydam, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
“You can never prepare for something like COVID and we were lucky that some of the contracts we were on were either classed as essential or main infrastructure”
meaning. The drive was to deliver something spectacular for NHS Tayside.”
A new mindset The Panacea workers at the Dundee hospital had to quickly get used to the demands of social distancing and PPE. But Billy admits that wasn’t the greatest challenge they faced. “The biggest thing we had to bring in
was the new thought process,” he said. “It was trying to drum into everyone that they had to travel to the site in separate vans, not work within 2m of each other and wear masks all the time. “We had to wear gloves under gloves and had supplies of sanitiser for everyone. “The guidance from our partners,
Taylor and Fraser, and the main contractor, Balfour Beatty, was excellent. The regulations they put in were fi rst class and made our job easier.”
Ninewells Hospital
Workers’ wellbeing As lockdown went on and the COVID death toll continued to rise, Billy made his sure team’s mental health was a priority. Working in a hospital added to the stress the engineers felt and they were also worried about the risk of passing COVID to their families. Regular check-ins with workers helped monitor how they were feeling and staff were encouraged to take time off if they needed it. Billy said: “We had someone come in on a regular basis and speak to them about their mental health – how they were feeling, not anything to do with the job but how their family was, if there was anything we could do to help. Only after that would we move on to the job. It was mental and physical health fi rst. “The biggest worry was that you were in an environment where you didn’t know how COVID was transmitted. You were in a hospital and while the area you were in might not have COVID, we knew that there were people dying of it in that hospital. All of that placed an extra strain on the engineers. We made sure we spoke to them on a regular basis to fi nd out how they were feeling and address their concerns. “As well as dealing with it in work, when you left you went into a world that had totally changed. That’s where the psychological element comes in to it because there’s no escape. When they got home, the engineers were double- bagging their work clothes at the front door and putting them straight into the washing machine so there was no contamination within the house. “They were more concerned about transference to families rather than getting it themselves.
“Mentally it was very hard for them and there were a couple of times when we lessened the amount of work we were doing, just to take the pressure off . We also made sure we gave them extra uniform and extra time for all the cleaning and other precautions.”
Pride and emotion Despite the pressures of COVID, the neonatal ward installation was completed on time and on budget. It was an emotional moment when
the Panacea team fi nished their work there just before Christmas. Billy said: “There was a lot of pride and a few tears. It’s fantastic to see it fi nished. When families are in that terrible position in that terrible time in their lives, they have world-class facilities to give them a little bit of comfort. It was worth all the lockdown stresses.”
As well as working on the neonatal
ward, Billy’s engineers are also carrying Continued on page 21 >>>
With Barry Young, Senior Estimator
CABLEtalk JUNE/JULY 2021 19
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