DOCTOR Matthew Boulter is no stranger to battle.
As an Army Reservist medic he served on the Afghan frontline — and now the GP finds himself fighting a war on the home front at his surgery.
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The 53-year-old said: “The country is on a war footing and we are seeing people coming together in a fantastic way in the spirit of the Blitz.
“It has never gone away from the British psyche.
“Look at Thursday night as a great example of it.
“People are applauding the troops, and right now the troops are NHS workers on the frontline.”
Dr Boulter, Best Doctor at The Sun’s Who Cares Wins Health awards last year, is using his military expertise to convert an old wing at the St Clare Medical Centre, in Penzance, Cornwall, into a Covid-19 Assessment Hub for patients showing virus symptoms.
‘I saw a three-week-old baby with possible coronavirus’
He works at the centre’s Alverton Practice, having switched from orthopaedics to a General Practice job in 2007.
He is also the community’s RNLI lifeboat doctor and serves as a medic to the local rugby and youth boxing clubs.
He is a Lieutenant Colonel with The Army Reserves and has served all over the world after joining three decades ago.
Dr Boulter, who lives with his wife and their 16-year-old daughter, said his surgery had been inundated with calls from patients concerned they may have coronavirus.
He said: “We are conducting phone assessments whenever possible in a bid to reduce the risk of the spread of infection.
“We are estimating that about 80 per cent should just get a mild, flu-like illness and can manage their symptoms at home, with five per cent possibly being so critical that they will need to get an ambulance to hospital.
“The remaining 15 per cent are more difficult to assess.
“These are often children who cannot explain as well how they are feeling.
“I saw a three-week-old baby with possible coronavirus.
“This is why we have to see them face-to-face, to work out just how poorly they are.
“We needed a dedicated facility to assess them away from all our other patients as we are still dealing with regular medical needs.”
The hub opens on Monday and will serve patients from eight surgeries.
Dr Boulter said: “Our staff are under incredible strain, some are never far from tears.
“We are seeing patient after patient who are all potentially high risk.
“If you join the Army, you expect to go to war.
“But having once taken a sedate job in a rural GP practice, our staff now find themselves on the front line of a war.
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“For a military GP to be shown an old tumbledown building and told to go in there and make the best of what you can is business as usual.
“We have planned for the worst but are hoping for the best.
“You think how many people you might see in the worst-case scenario and work back from that point to plan for what you will need.”
In just a few days, Dr Boulter and his team have transformed the wing, clearing it out of any unnecessary furniture and medical equipment.
He said: “We have stripped the room so there is less to clean when the staff carry out their deep clean each night.”
Thick polythene curtains divide the assessment hub into “hot zones” and “cold zones”.
Dr Boulter explained: “This is to try to reduce the risk of the virus spreading. Similar methods were used during the Ebola outbreak.
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“The cold zone is where the risk is lower and the hot zone is where assessment and treatment takes place.”
Dr Boulter has been overwhelmed by the support from the community.
Builders have provided supplies to create partitions, supermarkets have donated bottles of water for staff and two schools have lent goggles from their science lab.
‘It’s a genius idea’
Another school has also agreed to supply the Hub with 100 full-face visors created using their 3D printers.
Dr Boulter said: “The crisis is bringing out incredible and humbling support.”
Staff at his practice are also quickly adapting to new ways of working.
Tracey Hembrough, Advanced Nurse Practitioner and Partner at the Alverton Practice, suggested they should use the drive-through of their local branch of Costa Coffee, which has been closed since the lockdown, to set up a blood-sampling clinic.
Patients who take the blood-thinning medication Warfarin need to be seen regularly for finger-prick sampling to ensure they are receiving the correct dose.
Dr Boulter explained: “This involves a huge footfall on to our site and risks further virus spread.
“Costa staff have volunteered to open up for our staff.
“Patients will pull up to the ordering screen and give their details and at the next screen they will stick their finger out so the staff can take a blood sample.
“We will get an instant reading, which is sent to the patient’s practice so they can adjust the medication dosage.
“It’s a genius idea.”
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