Dear Editor,
Having read the correspondence and articles on vaccines, and knowing that some Christians are inclined to believe this pandemic is perhaps planned and not as bad as people might think, I thought you’d be interested in this. It was from a nurse friend working in a large hospital in the UK.
‘The past year has been one of the most challenging in my career. I say this not for pity, but to explain the reality of the situation in hospitals. Supporting staff off sick, supporting staff with multiple family member bereavements due to Covid, and not just elderly relatives either. Supporting staff who are more high risk and worried due to our high-risk job. Working permanently short staffed and in uncomfortable PPE. Seeing staff broken by redeployment into areas far from their comfort zones. Seeing scenes in adult A&E that are just so distressing and awful. Seeing a second temporary morgue being erected because the first overflow one is not enough. At one point, I had one third of a team off sick with Covid. I currently have two of my staff off with Covid for five weeks and who are still not well enough to come back.
‘I have just finished the third of four 12.5-hour shifts. Then one day off, and back again to cover staff sickness. I am constantly swapping shifts to ensure the department is covered as best we can. I have never seen a sickness rate like it.
‘I have transferred an unwell Covid husband and wife to different wards and seen them have to say goodbye to each other, not knowing if they will see each other again. I have had a six-year-old boy admitted to the children’s ward and both his parents are in intensive care (ICU).
‘One of the doctors I work with has a husband who is an ICU consultant. There are currently two pregnant women ventilated there who have had emergency C-sections to ensure their babies survive, and many patients younger than 50 in ICU.
‘We have lost colleagues. It is not the flu. It is horrible. I’m sitting here crying thinking about the enormity of the situation and full of dread for how we can all continue.’
Yours sincerely,
Anon By email
