Second wave of Covid-19 if the public keep breaking lockdown restrictions

uptake” in people presenting to A&E departments with head injuries and broken bones over the weekend.

“With that there is potentially more exposure of doctors and nurses to the virus.

“When patients are coming into A&E drunk they don’t tend to observe social distancing.

“So you risk spreading the virus to other people in A&E, to people in your own community you may have been at the party with, and also actually giving it to the nurses and doctors.

“Obviously if we lose staff it affects our ability to deal with any surge in the virus.”

A widely circulated social media post from a female health worker in Swansea said her shift on Friday was “like New Year’s Eve”. “Worst I’ve seen in a long time,” she fumed.

“Lost count of the amount of CT heads that were needed. Intoxicated, assaults, head injuries.”

Another report on social media, believed to be from a Welsh nurse, described another emergency department in which “nearly every patient we had was in drunk with a head injury” on Friday night.

“We did 12 CT scans and plastered numerous limbs.

“All our staff were exposed to so many more people unnecessarily.”

Dr Hepburn said that while he knew most people were observing lockdown “there are always one or two idiots who don’t”.

“It is a community effort, and if people get bored of it then we’re going to be back to square one and people are going to suffer as a result.

“Not just me, but my whole clinical team are very worried about what the knock-on effects in a few weeks’ time will be.

“Are we going to have to open up new critical care areas again, like we did before?”

He added that a second wave of the virus would also delay the resumption of many routine hospital services such as cancer operations. “If we can keep this to a manageable level, it means the bowel cancer patient down the road who needs his operation, or whoever it may be, can have it done.

“People needing operations who are having to wait months.

“But every time we get stuck in another surge of coronavirus, all those services go out the window.

“You may not be catching coronavirus by going to a street party, but if you pass it on you could stop someone you love from getting an endoscopy for a cancer diagnosis or something like that.

“There is no point clapping the NHS and then going out and spreading the virus.

“I hope it’s just a blip and that people will start getting back to keeping their communities safe, because that’s what we need.”