A senior physician repeatedly broke down in tears as he described how the Covid disaster for NHS workers was like having to answer a “terrorist assault each day”, with contaminated sufferers “raining from the sky”.
Prof Kevin Fong, a former medical adviser in emergency preparedness, resilience and response at NHS England who was on shift throughout the 7/7 London bombings, stated the size of loss of life in hospitals on the peak of the pandemic was “surprising” and “really astounding”.
Some intensive care models in England have been so overwhelmed that workers needed to put lifeless our bodies in 3-metre clear plastic refuse sacks after operating out of physique luggage, after which instantly put one other Covid affected person in that individual’s mattress, he stated.
Giving proof to the Covid-19 public inquiry, Fong, a guide anaesthetist, stated he made greater than 40 visits to intensive care models on behalf of NHS England to report again from the frontline and provide assist to the workers working there.
The information that officers in London relied upon to know how hospitals have been faring didn’t seize the truth of the disaster on the frontline, he stated, with some hospitals “bursting on the seams” and near “a state of collapse”.
Describing his first go to in April 2020, Fong stated: “It was very memorable. I used to be greeted on the entrance by one of many intensive care registrars. I requested him instantly what issues had been like. I’ll always remember … He replied: ‘It’s been like a terrorist assault each day since this began, and we don’t know when the assaults are going to cease.’
“The dimensions of loss of life skilled by the intensive care groups throughout Covid was not like something they’d ever seen earlier than. They’re no strangers to loss of life – they’re the intensive care unit. They appear after a few of the sickest sufferers within the hospital, however the scale of loss of life was really, really astounding.”
He added: “We had nurses speaking about sufferers raining from the sky, the place one of many nurses advised me they only acquired bored with placing folks in physique luggage.
“[One hospital] stated that typically they have been so overwhelmed that they have been placing sufferers in physique luggage, lifting them from the mattress, placing them on the ground, and placing one other affected person in that mattress right away as a result of there wasn’t time.
“We went to a different hospital the place issues acquired so unhealthy, they have been so wanting useful resource, that they ran out of physique luggage, they usually have been as a substitute issued with 9ft clear plastic sacks and cable ties. And people nurses discuss being actually traumatised by that, as a result of they’d recurring nightmares about feeling like they have been simply throwing our bodies away.
“These persons are used to seeing loss of life, however not on that scale, and never like that, and regardless of the figures present you, the expertise for them was indescribable … It actually was like nothing else I’ve ever seen, and positively not like nothing else these groups have ever seen of their expertise.”
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Fong stated listening to from workers throughout his visits to hospitals in 2020 and 2021 was “very, very distressing” as he noticed first-hand how they have been “drowning in sufferers” in scenes “from hell”. He repeatedly broke down in tears whereas giving proof to the inquiry in London on Thursday.
In a single hospital, Fong stated, “a few of the nurses had chosen to put on grownup diapers as a result of there was actually nobody to present them a rest room break and take over their nursing duties”. Others had purchased visors from Screwfix as a result of they’d not been supplied with private protecting tools.
He stated: “It’s simple for us to suppose that we knew what’s occurring … However you don’t know until you’re the folks going into that store flooring. You don’t know until [you are] the folks looking for physique luggage and placing folks in plastic sacks. You don’t know, in case you are not the individuals who held on to iPads whereas relations have been screaming down the cellphone.”
