Stark choice of Covid mourners is revealed

Some families faced a stark choice between saying goodbye to a loved one or attending their funeral during the pandemic if PPE was not available, an inquiry has heard.

Drbarbaramiles,president ofthescottishintensivecare Society, said that if a patient was being treated in a unit where full personal protective equipment (PPE) had to be worn, a family member would be deemed a close contact if they went in to say a final farewell without it.

They would then have to isolate and risk missing the funeral if it fell within the isolation period.

Dr Barbara Miles, herself an intensive care doctor in Glasgow, was giving evidencetothescottishcovid-19 Inquiry yesterday.

Addressing the impact of the pandemic on intensive care, Dr Miles said there was an increase in staff turnover which had an impact on the level of experience in intensive care units.

Dr Miles told the inquiry: “There was stress and burnout, I think people felt overwhelmed at times by what they had gone through. There is always some turnover of staff base, there was an increase in that and, as a result, a lot of critical care unitslostalotofexperience.”

The inquiry also heard there was a complete lack of adequate PPE for doctors working in general practice during the pandemic.

Dr Iain Kennedy, chairman of BMA Scotland, said thefluid-resistantpapersurgical masks GPS were given were “relatively useless” in protectingworkersfromairborne Covid-19.

He said that even in hospitals the respiratory protective equipment such as FFP3 masks “that we probably all should have had” were reserved for those in intensive care units and doing so-called aerosol-generating procedures. Dr Kennedy said: “There was a lack of recognition that Covid was an airborne disease.”

The inquiry, before Lord Brailsford, continues.