By Ms Lynette Chairuka

I am a senior scientist at the Canberra Hospital who works in the Molecular Microbiology Department, which does diagnostic testing of infectious diseases including SARS-CoV-2 testing. I have worked in the diagnostic field for over thirteen years. My hobbies are running, water sports, hiking, gardening, and travelling. I am always keen to take on a challenge and always willing to learn new things.

Towards the end of last year, the department’s manager resigned, and I was asked to act in this position. I stepped up and acted in the managerial position during the busiest surge of the COVID pandemic. I learned a lot during this period. While it was a big challenge, I am glad I had the opportunity to take a leadership role and do my bit during a pandemic that affected so many people globally.

So, what led me to this position? In 2020 when the first COVID-19 case was detected in Australia. I worked up the validation of the SARS-CoV-2 in-house assay with support from managers, as at this stage there were no commercial assays. The department which had previously operated from 9 am to 5 pm, Monday to Friday, then became a 24/7 lab to provide service to the Canberra community and the surrounding areas.

New instrumentation was procured to increase efficiency and throughput in the lab. I trained all staff on this instrumentation. Later in 2021 the Cobas 6800 (a high throughput platform for running COVID tests) was purchased, which further increased our testing capacity. At that stage, based on guidelines, we were pooling samples - the pooling process was automated by purchasing the Hamilton Microlab star. These two platforms were a game changer for the department as the automation of pooling improved efficiency in the department.

When I became the acting manager of the department there was a large surge in numbers with positivity rates of more than 30 percent. This meant that we could no longer pool specimens, but instead had to test samples as singles. The department was processing about 3000 single specimens per day, this was only achieved by tremendous effort by the molecular team and all of the pathology staff from other departments that worked tirelessly to assist the molecular department during this very challenging time.

At the peak of the surge, we needed to be highly agile to manage the high volumes of specimens and minimise delays to consumers. To improve our turnaround times and get rid of the back log, the strategy we used was to maximise testing within the 24-hour period.  To throw a spanner in the works, there was a nationwide shortage of reagents, which meant for some of our platforms we had to test the minimum number of tests so that we would not completely run out. During this period our turnaround times went north from our usual time of <12hours, but in comparison to the rest of the country, ACT Pathology still had one of the best turnaround times in the country. ACT Pathology did not shut down services during this surge. As an organisation, we knew we had to provide a service to the Canberra community and the rest of the region and in doing so fully embraced one of our core values, which is that of being reliable.

There have been silver linings as the pandemic has personally taught me the importance of teamwork, resilience, forward planning and always being progressive. I took up a leadership position with little experience – but with lots of pride that I was playing my role to support the community. My message to other women in healthcare is that you should always have conviction and be confident in all the decisions and paths you decide to take...the work you do is so important to the community and the nation, hold that close to your heart!