A Scots nurse who emigrated to Australia has said he felt guilty about the Covid pressures his former NHS colleagues were experiencing while his hospital operated “normally”.
Darren Scott left his home town and Forth Valley Hospital job six years ago to go back-packing but the two-month trip led to him settling in Sydney.
The 32-year-old now manages a busy A&E unit at a state hospital and says Australia’s tough approach saved the country from the high case numbers that have been seen in the UK throughout the pandemic.
However the city is currently experiencing a spike in cases with 1200 being reported each day and his hospital, St Vincent’s, is for the first time, seeing young people in ICU units and rising deaths.
READ MORE: Air filters plea after nine children test positive for Covid in 24 hours at Glasgow school
There is a strict lockdown in place with all hospitality venues closed and a ban on home socialising and vaccinations have been ramped up.
“I think it’s taken this outbreak for people to realise it’s real,” said the nurse manager, who is originally from Denny, near Falkirk.
“Sydney is a very different city to what it was four months ago, when we could go to a nightclub and party with a few thousand people.
“But we are now in the midst of outbreaks, we are in strict lockdown, hospitalisations are increasing and we have had deaths.
“They have only yesterday (Monday) allowed you to meet up with other people who are vaccinated.”
READ MORE: Covid related deaths increase by 76 in Scotland in past two weeks
He said health authorities had been able to pinpoint the source of the outbreak.
“It initially spread because someone who had been working in hotel quarantine - a taxi driver - drove a pilot, who gave it to him and then he went to a supermarket and the virus has just taken over.
“There had been small pockets over the past 18 months but this latest outbreak has been huge.
“We are now vaccinating our way out of it. Rates have been very poor but the uptake over the past two months has been incredible.
"I know in the UK, a lot of restrictions have been dropped but you had a good vaccination rate to back that up.
He said the Australian government is aiming to have 80% of the public vaccinated by November.
“That’s huge considering in July there was virtually nothing,” said the nurse manager, who has three siblings who all work in the NHS. Vaccinations of children aged over 12 got underway two weeks ago, ahead of the UK roll-out.
He says Australia felt sheltered from the rest of the world after the government took the decision to close the borders but the strict measures “stopped the virus from going wild”.
“We saw what was happening in China last February and then they shut the borders straight off," he says.
"You couldn’t come in and then they brought in the hotel quarantining system. You would be swabbed and locked up. That saved Australia.
“Then the international arrivals completely dropped off. Even if you were returning to Australia, you couldn’t get back in.
READ MORE: Humza Yousaf urges Scots to "think twice" before calling an ambulance
“When other countries were battling the virus we were relatively normal here, with hardly any restrictions.
“I found it hard because I was speaking to former colleagues - my sister is a nurse, my other sister is a student nurse and my brother is a paramedic - and thinking my God it’s a real thing. We just didn’t have it here.”
After graduating from Stirling University, he worked at Forth Valley Royal hospital for five years. He says it was “never in his plan” to move to Australia but says the working conditions lured him back after doing agency shifts at St Vincent’s.
“The staff ratio was always better - you would have busy shifts but I never felt it was as stressful as working some of the shifts I did in the NHS.
“I often say that to the nurses here, they don’t how lucky they have got it here.
“Private healthcare is a big thing here, they might come in as a public patient but end up seeing a private specialist.
“When I was growing up I don’t think I knew anyone who had had private healthcare.”
He says it’s more common to see male nurses in Australia and says career progression is better.
“I was always a bit embarrassed about doing nursing at uni but I think male nursing has seen a big increase and I believe the UK is the same.”
He was approached two months ago to take part in a TV show, Nurses Down Under, which follows a group of UK nurse working in three of Sydney’s busiest hospitals.
“I thought it would be nice for my family. It’s been two years since I’ve seen them and I don’t think the borders will open anytime soon.”
The first episode of Nurses Down Under will be screened on W tomorrow night at 8.30pm.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here