Staff ‘just as scared now as in March’ on front line

FRONT-LINE health and care staff say they are feeling ‘exhausted and frightened’ as they face up to the second wave of coronavirus.

One doctor admitted to ‘ feeling no safer’ this time around as the number of Covid-19 patients being treated at his hospital steadily increases.

He said supplies of personal protective equipment, such as surgical face masks, were insufficient.

‘Even though we have PPE, it’s the same level of PPE we were wearing last time,’ said the doctor at a north London A&E department.

‘I try not to think about whether I am safe, I just focus on my patients.’

Simon Walls, a clinical lead at Saint Cecilia’s Nursing Home in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, said the second wave ‘is scary because we know it is going to come’. His home lost ten residents in just two weeks during the first spike earlier this year.

One major concern for staff is a lack of reliable Covid testing.

Those cared for at the home are tested every 28 days, with staff checked weekly.

But a backlog at laboratories means Mr Walls has only had one test result returned, three weeks after he sent it off.

He said: ‘It feels like it is only going to be a matter of time until we get our own problems in our own nursing home and within the group. ‘The government has given mixed messages to care homes and that is difficult to follow.’

Mr Walls added he dreads the day Covid finds a way back into the home. ‘I know I am just as apprehensive and scared as I was in March. It will come to care homes and nursing homes, and I know some homes have been decimated by it.’

Layla McCay, a director at the NHS Confederation, insisted staff should be safer this time.

With systems now in place to manage infections, she said: ‘Partly that is because there is a much greater understanding of what types of infection control are needed. ‘The NHS has learned from experience, it’s a bit more prepared this time around. The whole infrastructure had to change to keep staff safe.’