Break the rules

In a time of emergency, things change.

Just as wartime often spurs innovation - so too with the Covid19 pandemic.

The government said in effect that ‘treatment trumps GDPR’. The data protection laws would be suspended and doctors should do what’s best for the public interest.

Patients with Covid19 were isolated in Intensive Care Units (ICU), often intubated and unconscious. They might be on the road to recovery, or too often it might prove terminal. For those that survived the average stay was around 4 weeks – with potentially no contact with friends or family – who waited, distraught, for daily updates.

The NHS team on the south coast decided this was inhumane. With IT support they repurposed 4 off-the-shelf iPads to provide a video link between the patient and the family gathered in a nearby room, or at home. Doctors would prepare the family for what they were going to see. It would be a highly emotional and stressful situation. It might be a last goodbye to an unconscious, intubated patient. Or in happier circumstances, the first conversation with a loved one on the road to recovery.

One of the medical team said ‘It’s more like cutting through bureaucracy and getting something done fast. I think we’ve done that many times recently. You’ve sometimes just got to crack on!’

Amidst the trauma and tragedy, this was a virtually-no-cost solution that brought invaluable solace and loving connection to many families. 

This innovation wouldn’t have happened in normal circumstances. Risk aversion, the restrictions of GDPR, central planning – not many people have the energy to jump all those hurdles and solve a problem they can see immediately in front of them.

Sometimes it's great to be able to change things.