A screen split in half, one side white and one side blue, displays white text on the blue side and blue text on the white side. Dramatic instrumental music plays.
ON SCREEN TEXT: Supporting the Oil, Gas and
Seismic Industry During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Dr. Alex Rowe shares insights,
challenges and lessons learned.
Alex Rowe sits in a room and speaks to the camera. A blue banner containing white text displays in the lower left corner of the screen.
ALEX: My name's Alex Rowe, and I'm a doctor working for UnitedHealthcare Global Solutions.
ON SCREEN TEXT: Dr. Alex Rowe
UnitedHealthcare Global
ALEX: I'm an associate medical director, and I'm also part of a virtual health service doctor team, which is based in the UK. This team was set up in 2017 to provide enhanced topside cover, which is senior medical support to medics who are working around the world, so they might be on seismic vessels, oil rigs, drilling sites, or anywhere on land that's just too remote.
The camera slowly zooms in on a photo of a person wearing gloves holding a dropper and a vial.
ALEX: In March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic was declared, we were suddenly faced with a whole load of new challenges.
The camera slowly zooms in on a photo of a gloved hand holding a vial marked positive for coronavirus.
A screen split in half, one side white and one side blue, displays white text on the blue side and blue text on the white side.
ON SCREEN TEXT: What were the biggest
challenges you initially faced?
The camera zooms in slowly, first on a photo of a person wearing full body PPE holding a clipboard outside of a car window, then on a photo of a person in full body PPE using an ear thermometer on a patient in a triage bay.
ALEX: If you imagine we've not got access to the rapid testing, we've not got access to diagnosis or the medical care that's needed for these patients.
Alex speaks to the camera.
ALEX: Imagine being a medic on an oil rig 50 or 60 miles offshore in rough weather.
The camera slowly zooms in on a photo of various watercraft in open water around an offshore platform.
ALEX: How do we deal with that group of patients? The other issue that arises from these groups of workers is that, very often, they're working in quite confined spaces...
The camera slowly zooms in on a photo of workers working on an oil rig in the rain.
Alex speaks to the camera.
ALEX: And living in quite confined spaces, as well, so when we're trying to think about isolation and quarantine and trying to prevent outbreaks and spread of COVID-19, this presents additional challenges.
A screen split in half, one side white and one side blue, displays white text on the blue side and blue text on the white side.
ON SCREEN TEXT: How has COVID-19 restrictions
impacted these offshore workers?
The camera slowly zooms in on a photo of an empty seating area in an airport, then on a photo of a nearly empty airport terminal.
ALEX: As countries gradually locked down and travel became more and more restricted, it became really quite difficult to get people in and out of countries, and one of the massive impacts on these workers was the crew changes.
Alex speaks to the camera.
ALEX: Normally, crews will rotate over about four to eight weeks and then get exchanged with another crew, but because of all the lockdowns and the travel restrictions, we had a maritime crew, we had offshore crews, that were present for months and months, way beyond their normal working pattern.
The camera zooms in slowly on a photo of an offshore platform.
Alex speaks to the camera.
A screen split in half, one side white and one side blue, displays white text on the blue side and blue text on the white side.
ON SCREEN TEXT: How would you approach future
infection prevention and control procedures?
The camera slowly zooms in on a photo of person in full body PPE surrounded by medical equipment, then on a photo of a person using a forehead thermometer to take a person's temperature.
ALEX: The actual things we need to do to prevent spread and to prevent outbreaks is good infection prevention and control. The majority of these pandemics have been airborne, so the measures we apply to that are pretty much the same for whichever airborne pathogen we may be looking at.
Alex speaks to the camera.
ALEX: So how do we, you know, translate that into the future? Should we continue higher levels of PPE when people are in enclosed or confined spaces or highly populated spaces? What does that look like for society? I think the big thing here is that we need to recognize that we might need to put measures in earlier if we suspect a pandemic in the future.
The camera slowly zooms in on a photo of a virus.
A screen split in half, one side white and one side blue, displays white text on the blue side and blue text on the white side.
ON SCREEN TEXT: How did you see communication
evolve during the pandemic?
Alex speaks to the camera.
ALEX: The biggest thing that I think we've found is that collaboration and information sharing is everything. Organizations that have been competitors for years have come together. Governments have worked together developing vaccines.
The camera slowly zooms in on a photo of a person in PPE holding up a small vial of liquid.
ALEX: Collaboration and shared information is the heart of all this.
Blue text and the UnitedHealthcare logo display over a white background.
ON SCREEN TEXT: United
Healthcare
Global