NHS alarm as 2 medics fight for life
FEARS for the safety of NHS staff were growing last night after two medics were left fighting for their lives after contracting coronavirus.
One is a 52-year-old ear, nose and throat specialist and the other a nurse.
They have now been placed on lifesupport after becoming infected during routine appointments with patients. Both work in the Midlands.
Areema Nasreen, a 36-yearold mother-of-three, tested positive after suffering a soaring temperature, aches and a cough.
The nurse, who has worked for the NHS for 16 years, was taken to Walsall Manor Hospital after her condition deteriorated.
Dangerous
Last night, she remained on a ventilator in intensive care.
Her sister Kazeema said: “My sister, who is an amazing nurse on the frontline and who always helps so many, has now caught this virus.
“She is critically ill on a ventilator and fighting for her life. I want everyone to know how dangerous this is. My sister is only 36 and is normally fit and healthy.
“People are not taking this seriously enough. She is young.
“It is not just the elderly at risk.”
An NHS source said no medics had yet died from the disease in Britain, but experts warned that many staff would fall ill, or worse, because of a shortage of protective equipment.
The crisis comes amid warnings the health service could break under the strain of the epidemic as hospitals face a shortage of ventilators and intensive care beds.
Medics have described being “deeply apprehensive” about the surge in cases and how hospital intensive care units will cope as a
result. Dr Rinesh Parmar, chair of the Doctors’ Association, has said frontline NHS staff dealing with the coronavirus outbreak are still not getting the equipment they need.
He said: “We have had doctors tell us they feel like lambs to the slaughter, that they feel like cannon fodder. GPs tell us they feel absolutely abandoned.
“We are all pleading with Boris Johnson that they really look into arranging the vital
personal protection equipment that all of us need on the NHS frontline.
“What our doctors are telling us is, although equipment is arriving, some of it is inadequate, some of it doesn’t meet the World Health Organisation guidance.
“That really doesn’t fill frontline healthcare staff with the confidence they need.” Dr Tom Dolphin,
spokesman for the British Medical Association, said: “We’re looking at Italy with a great deal of anxiety and trepidation because they’ve got a well-funded health service and they are really struggling.
“Hospitals have it slightly better than general practice, but the ambulance service are really struggling as well. People are catching coronavirus
from their patients, we already know they are, staff are going down with it around the country.”
In Italy, almost a 10th of patients in hospital with the virus have been healthcare workers.
Dr Dolphin said he had “advanced warning in the sense of what’s happened in Italy and China” and had been putting as many plans in place as
possible. Yesterday, Prime Minister Johnson said Britain had a “good supply” of ventilators but needed “far, far more”.
Mr Johnson also hinted the Government could implement more severe measures after millions of people yesterday ignored pleas to stay indoors, significantly raising the risk of the disease spreading.