CAFRE in caring offer of campus beds to frontline Covid-19 staff

Some are heading back to their own homes and families, but others are – through either choice or circumstance – not seeing their loved ones after their time at work, and are laying down their heads in varying places of accommodation.

Just a few miles down the road from the busy Antrim Area Hospital (pictured below), the College of Agriculture, Food & Rural Enterprise (CAFRE), Greenmount Campus is one of those such places.

They have offered up their accommodation – rooms usually occupied by their students – for the use of healthcare workers, and some 85 miles away in Fermanagh, the Enniskillen campus is performing the same role for NHS staff coming off shift at the nearby South West Acute Hospital.

Martin McKendry, CAFRE College Director, revealed that currently the Greenmount campus has around 70 healthcare staff and 60 healthcare staff at the Enniskillen campus.

“We’ve had a mixture of all kinds of healthcare workers availaing of the student accommodation which is available to them to use as they so decide,” he tells me, speaking from his own home, where, like many of the CAFRE staff he is based for the meantime as lockdown prevails.

“It saves them having to make long journeys home in the evenings and between shifts, and we were only too happy to provide it. I suppose really, we were as keen as everyone else to help support the healthcare workers in any way we could.

“The campus accommodation in Antrim is next to Antrim Hospital and likewise in Enniskillen the campus is next to the South West Acute Hospital. The campus locations make them ideal places to provide accommodation for nurses and doctors - places where they could put their head down between shifts.”

Martin added: “I think that what happened was that any accommodation on the hospitals sites that the healthcare workers would have previously used had been freed up as an overflow for Covid patients, and and therefore the workers were looking for alternative accommodation close by.

“At CAFRE we have a range of residential accommodation, normally occupied by students. We have single study bedrooms, and a range of lodges and cottages, on site catering facilities and caterers, so all those things came together, and we had an agreement with the respective Health Trusts – the Northern and the Western.

“We have en suite rooms as well, and on site food, so all those things came together, and we had an agreement with the respective Health Trusts – the Northern and the Western.

“The healthcare workers have been using the Greenmount and Enniskillen facilities since before Easter and it has worked really well – they’re very happy with it.”

The college also helped with the delivery of food parcels to vulnerable people and offered up their own vehicles in order to see that come to fruition. These were driven by CAFRE staff members to local areas where there were people had been identified as being in need by the Department of Health.

“Staff who have the relevant training or certificates to drive minibuses have been happy to help out.

“Again, the vehicles are there and anything we were able to do on a local basis we were quite happy to.”

And whilst most of the staff and students at the college are now working and studying remotely, Martin says there are still animals to be cared for on site, and this work has to be carried out by the staff.

“We had been at the peak of the lambing season when this kicked off, and had 1,100 ewes on hill farms that had to be lambed,” he reveals.“We have to ensure social distancing procedures are in place to protect staff as well as ensure they can get the job done. We also broke the staff up into smaller teams and did some shift working. All the staff have been very, very accommodating. There are still a number of staff who continue to deliver services to students at home, and have had to adapt and change, and are working to continue delivering what they have always delivered on site.”

Like many people at the helm of various organisations right now, it’s a case of playing it by ear when it comes to guessing when business can return to normal, and Martin says his team are simply “planning for all eventualities.” He adds:“The important bit at the moment is keeping in contact with students who are currently on courses, and keeping in contact will all the applicants who will be coming here in September.

“Work placement opportunities are available on many of the CAFRE courses. Many work placement students are currently working as key workers in the agri-food industry. We are very proud of these inspirational young people, who are working hard helping feed the nation. We also have students who are on work placement in countries throughout the world, including 13 in New Zealand currently working on farms, so we’ve been keeping in contact with them as well.”

Healthcare accommodation arrangements are being managed by the respective trusts:

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