3,300 retired medical staff step up to ease health crisis

MORE than 3,000 former health workers have responded to an appeal for them to step in and help tackle coronavirus.

Last week, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and the Chief Nursing Officer for Scotland, Professor Fiona McQueen, asked medics who had retired in the past three years to re-register.

Yesterday, Health Secretary Jeane Freeman told MSPs: ‘There has been a tremendous response to the call made by the Chief Nursing Officer for nurses and other health professionals to return to help in the present emergency.

‘By yesterday there were nearly 3,300 individual queries. People are contacting our national recruitment hub on 0141 78 719.’

Meanwhile, all final-year nursing and midwifery students will be given paid work placements on wards during the final six months of their degree programmes. Miss Freeman said: ‘We will ensure that all of these volunteers are deployed in the safest and most appropriate way. I’m sure every one of us is truly grateful to all of them for stepping forward to serve us at this time.’

The First Minister said other people who wish to help can visit the Ready Scotland website, which has advice on how to volunteer safely.

Scots who are well and not at risk can provide essential support for family, friends and neighbours who cannot leave the house – either because they are self-isolating with symptoms of Covid-19, or because they are over 70 or have underlying health conditions.

A spokesman for Miss Sturgeon said: ‘We would certainly welcome and encourage any volunteering, whether recently retired NHS staff coming back to help or in the more general sense, from people who have something to offer in the days and weeks ahead.’

People should volunteer only if they are well and have no symptoms of coronavirus and if no one else in their household has shown symptoms. They must be under 70 and not be over 8 weeks pregnant or have underlying health conditions.

Practical help volunteers can provide includes helping neighbours by shopping for food, picking up prescriptions, posting mail or putting out their bins.

But they must continue to observe social distancing by not entering houses or sharing car trips, keeping a distance of two metres and leaving shopping on the doorstep. Online chats and phone calls can also help support others.

The Royal Voluntary Service’s teams in Scotland continue to provide such services to the community.