Together... heroes of NHS who helped city’s bombing victims

A HOSPITAL team who treated a dozen people injured in the Manchester Arena bombing have praised the city for its spirit of “togetherness”.

They told how patients waiting for treatment in A&E on the night of the May 22 attack selflessly went home – while off-duty staff rushed in to help. By 3am some units had more workers in action than in the middle of the day.

Crucially, just three weeks earlier the NHS workers at Salford Royal had taken part in training for exactly such a mass emergency.

Lead A&E consultant Scott Beattie, who had just finished his shift when news of the attack first broke, said: “Initially we didn’t know how serious it was – but we knew we had to respond.“

Fellow A&E consultant Matthew Davenport – specially commended for his actions – said: “I was on my break, halfway through a curry, when someone told me what had gone on. There were people in A&E, including one man with a broken shoulder, who just said, ‘It’s okay, I’ll come back tomorrow’. You felt so proud to be British.”

Advanced practitioner Dave Clark, who was called in, added: “The staff were fantastic.”