The NHS continues to be stretched as the Coronavirus epidemic continues, but what effect is COVID-19 having on the people who work in the NHS? From junior staff and volunteers to senior nurse and doctors, every member of staff in the NHS has felt the impact of a system under strain.
Recently I got the chance to talk to Caroline Turner, a Staff Nurse at the University Hospital of North Midlands, about what the NHS is doing to help frontline staff cope during the pandemic and how much of an impact dealing with COVID-19 is having on staff mentality.
“It’s a matter of all of us working as a group and dealing with all of the stresses with a lot of talking and a lot of tears. Obviously, management are trying to support us, but it’s down to the team workers who I work with.”
I asked if Caroline felt prepared to go to work knowing the risks both to herself and the patients under her care, though her attitude towards current conditions was very much to deal with it as it comes, there was still doubt over safety in the hospital, “We keep hearing stories that we’ve got equipment coming in and that we’re gonna run out over the weekend, which is a bit frightening. I’m on call tonight, and if we have a COVID patient what do we do, you know, if we haven’t got the equipment?”
It is currently unclear as to what approach the government will take towards lockdown. Be it extension or relaxation, the evidence is clear; the NHS needs more support than ever before.

See the full interview here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tD0sHC4PWk0&t=1s