Healthcare workers have been treating coronavirus patients in the Borders General Hospital (BGH) every day. Editor Andrew McQuarrie spoke to Dr Lynn McCallum, one of the hospital’s frontline clinicians, to find out more about the challenges she and her colleagues face.

As we talk over the phone, Dr McCallum is midway through her 11th shift on the trot - and she’ll be at the coalface again tomorrow, she says.

These are unprecedented times for everyone, of course, but it’s health and social care staff who are shouldering one of the greatest burdens.

“I don’t think we’re at the height of the hours we’ll need to work, but we’re definitely seeing an increase in the requirement for longer hours,” says Dr McCallum, a 41-year-old mum of two, originally from Penicuik but now residing in Peebles.

Since starting at the BGH in 2015, Dr McCallum has seen patients with a broad range of issues - from confused elderly people reeling from a fall, to heart attack sufferers, people with pneumonia and those with organ failure.

Such non-coronavirus patients continue to be treated, says Dr McCallum during our conversation on April 2, but their visits are becoming less frequent as COVID-19 spreads further.

“Over the last week to 10 days we’ve seen an increasing number of people who have what appear to be COVID-related symptoms,” says Dr McCallum.

“In the vast majority of cases, that’s respiratory problems, shortness of breath and fever,” she says.

Older people have been identified by national researchers and politicians alike as being among the most vulnerable to the worst of the virus’s effects.

But it’s not only grandmothers and grandfathers presenting at the BGH, says Dr McCallum, when asked whether there’s a ‘typical’ patient.

“There’s a whole range, from younger people right through to frail elderly people,” she says, before adding a word of warning to anyone who remains complacent.

“I think it’s really important that everybody follows the national advice,” she says, “because nobody’s immune to this virus.”

Experts have predicted many more people across the UK will become infected in the coming weeks, despite Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s imposition of lockdown measures on March 23.

As health boards worldwide ponder ways of boosting ward capacities, the Borders has put itself in a strong position, Dr McCallum argues.

“We’ve known what’s coming for some time. We’ve watched it coming across the globe and we knew it was coming to us and from a psychological perspective we’ve had the benefit of having time to plan.”

Major changes within the BGH have been successfully introduced in the space of days and weeks, says Dr McCallum, when such overhauls might previously have taken months.

At the time of writing, the hospital has three coronavirus wards - including the former Margaret Kerr Unit for palliative care, now dubbed COVID 1, which acts as a waiting area for suspected carriers.

Reflecting on the scale of the achievement so far, Dr McCallum expresses gratitude towards her colleagues for their commitment.

“I’ve been absolutely bowled over with the way the BGH community have come together to deliver a response to keep our patients safe,” she says.

“We’re quite literally as ready as we can possibly be for this pandemic and for expected cases to rise.”

Yet Dr McCallum is not afraid to admit that the prevailing challenges dwarf any she has previously dealt with.

“I don’t think you’ll find a clinician in the world who has experienced this - or certainly in the UK,” she says.

Some healthcare staff are having to don personal protective equipment (PPE) for the first time in their careers.

The amount of gear needing to be worn depends on the task at hand, Dr McCallum explains.

For instance, the assessment of suspected virus patients requires an apron, mask and visor.

But when a known virus patient is being treated on a ventilator in intensive care, staff clothing will include a special gown, high-grade mask, two sets of gloves, visor and hair cover.

Ventilators are expected to become increasingly crucial as the virus spreads, Dr McCallum says, because respiratory problems represent the “primary issue” for some patients.

The gravity of the pandemic has already hit home in the Borders, with deaths having reached double figures on April 2.

On the local death rate, Dr McCallum says: “In terms of if this is more than we might have expected, it’s very difficult to say, because we’re in the very early stages of this outbreak - but it will become more apparent as we progress.”

Dr McCallum believes many people are scared by what they read, so one of her priorities is to soothe patients’ anxieties.

“The vast majority of people who get this condition will get better,” she says, noting that this is one of the key messages she passes on to hospital attendees.

Once Dr McCallum’s working day is finished, sometimes as late as 10pm, she enjoys spending time with family and reading.

But she concedes it can be difficult to ‘switch off’ from her job at the moment.

“I just try to just take some time away from it, but it’s very difficult as a frontline clinician not to be anxious about what’s happening when you’re not at work,” she says.

Such devotion to Borderers’ health is clearly appreciated by readers of this newspaper, many of whom have been posting words of thanks to NHS staff on our Facebook page in recent weeks.