TV star Ross condemned by families over ICU film
BROADCASTER Ross Kemp came under fire last night after filming in an intensive care unit where worried relatives are being refused permission to visit their loved ones.
The presenter went inside Milton Keynes University Hospital last Friday for an ITV show to be broadcast this week. He announced online: ‘We’ve been filming on the front line with NHS staff as they deal with the coronavirus pandemic, and we’ve been following the patients fighting Covid-19.’
But the former EastEnders star, 55, faced an angry response from people who have been stopped from visiting family members in the same hospital, where 45 patients have so far died with the virus.
One man asked on Twitter: ‘Please tell me why I was denied access to see my sick sister at your hospital two weeks ago, yet Ross Kemp and a film crew are allowed to walk around the wards.’
And an NHS nurse called Eric told Kemp: ‘Stay out of our way and let us get on with our job. No need to have you getting in the way.’
Others criticised Mr Kemp’s ‘ghoulish behaviour’, and a man called Ellis said in a tweet shared more than 5,000 times: ‘My wife is in intensive care in an induced coma.
‘I am not allowed to go and see her, but Grant Mitchell [Kemp’s character in EastEnders] is able to go and invade the ward. How on earth is this fair?’
Former Labour MP Kate Hoey described the decision as ‘shocking’, adding: ‘This is just so wrong. One rule for so-called celebrities and one for relatives of very ill family members.’
The Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust said: ‘This access has been risk-assessed and agreed in discussion with NHS England.
‘We believe it’s in the public interest to show them how hospitals are preparing. For clarity, we are still allowing partners to attend for certain maternity patients and some visiting for patients at the end of their life.’