Harrowing Covid-19 stories from patients and NHS workers published by inquiry
Harrowing stories from patients and NHS workers who experienced the Covid-19 pandemic have been published by the inquiry examining its impact.
Over 32,000 people have contributed to the Every Story Matters record, designed to assist UK Covid-19 Inquiry chairwoman Baroness Heather Hallett in reaching conclusions and making recommendations on how to handle future pandemics.
Monday marks the publication of the document, which is the result of the largest public engagement exercise ever undertaken by a UK public inquiry.
Every Story Matters is still open for submissions across a variety of topics.
The record covers the experiences of health professionals and patients across primary care and hospitals, as well as emergency and urgent care, end-of-life care, maternity, shielding, and long Covid.
It covers how patients found healthcare access difficult, how families faced significant challenges in supporting their loved ones at the end of life, and how health workers felt planning for the pandemic was poor and the speed of the response too slow.
The document also includes detail from 604 in-depth interviews carried out with those who were involved with healthcare.
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UK Covid-19 Inquiry secretary Ben Connah said: “It is a tough read in places - but it really brings to life how people experienced our healthcare systems during those pandemic years".
Some contributors to the record said senior medics made end-of-life decisions for patients, partly to spare their junior colleagues having to do it.
One said of young doctors: “They were surrounded by people dying, more than one patient in a day, and often uncomfortable and looking distressed when they died.
“If you don’t have that confidence, that certainty and it’s all a bit new to you and you’re surrounded by chaos and suffering and death then I think it’s much more stressful.”
End-of-life care also frequently involved hospital staff being with dying patients when their loved ones could not.
“Nobody wants anybody to die on their own, and as nurses you try really hard to make sure that that doesn’t happen,” one hospital nurse said.
“If family members can’t be there, you’re there. You just are. You just do it.”
The document also showed how some medics believed the Nightingale hospitals set up to treat patients was a misuse of resources.
One said: “We set up huge Nightingale hospitals with ICU (intensive care) capabilities which were under-used, likely due to lack of highly trained staff or ICU need.
“A bit of lateral thinking could have meant these being used for less intensive care such as care of the elderly, rehab beds or Covid+ intermediate care beds, freeing up hospital beds for patients that needed them.”
A public inquiry examining the impact of the Covid pandemic on NHS workers, patients and the delivery of healthcare began on Monday.
It is first public hearing of module three of the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, with leaders from the Health and Safety Executive and Unison expected to continue giving evidence this week.
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