This month saw the beginning of the public hearings for Module 3 of the COVID-19 Inquiry, with the focus on the impact of the pandemic on health care systems across the UK. Yesterday, we heard the powerful testimony of Professor Kevin Fong – Former National Clinical Adviser in Emergency Preparedness Resilience and Response – who articulated how nursing staff were horrifyingly affected by system issues.
Professor Fong spoke at length about the daily reality of life on the frontline of the pandemic, highlighting the types of indignities and conditions that nursing staff and other health care workers were subjected to. He referenced ICU nurses having far too many patients – with individual nurses left caring for as many as six intubated patients – and spoke about how staff described it 'like a terrorist attack every day' and said the scale of death was 'astounding'.
Often the proceedings of any inquiry can seem too lengthy, legal and technical to bring home the human experiences of the events being analysed. Yet Professor Fong encapsulated the relentless devastation that nursing staff faced every day, something that Professor Sir Chris Whitty, Chief Medical Officer for England, also fully agreed with when he later gave evidence.
This testimony will bring back disturbing memories for many nursing staff. Despite the years passing, it can still feel too raw and painful to remember those days. Yet the inquiry is critical to identifying lessons for the future, and ensuring our profession never again has to suffer the way it did.
As a core participant in Module 3, the RCN has a more formal role and special rights in the process. We were able to make an opening submission when the module began and are playing an integral part throughout, including through putting questions to the witnesses who appear in front of the inquiry.
The evidence we heard yesterday adds to what the RCN has already raised during this module about the many failings and challenges that impacted our profession. We have highlighted how our warnings were ignored when we said the UK would not be prepared for a pandemic in the years prior to 2020, and that nursing workforce shortages were a serious threat to any pandemic response.
Last week, Dame Ruth May, the former Chief Nursing Officer for England, also spoke about how the removal of the nursing student bursary saw fewer people join the profession. She described it as a catastrophic decision and highlighted how it impacted staffing levels during the pandemic.
It is so important the inquiry hears this – not only from the RCN but from the many other individuals and organisations giving evidence, like Dame Ruth May and Professor Fong.
In our opening statement, the RCN also highlighted how nursing staff were shut out from key decision-making around the response and that our repeated warnings about the spread of the virus and opportunities to protect nursing staff were either ignored or dismissed.
For example, there was a lack of engagement by the UK government to consider the evidence around the airborne transmission of COVID-19, while inadequate provision of PPE meant nursing staff put their own lives – and potentially the lives of their families and patients – at risk.
We also drew clear attention to the impact of long COVID on nursing staff – something that has destroyed careers and caused serious financial hardship. The government must stop dragging its feet and classify COVID-19 as an occupational disease – like many countries around the world already do – so that those impacted can receive financial support.
Our core participant status is important in raising these many related issues. It is how we can ensure the voice of nursing – and the experiences of the hundreds of thousands of our members who were on the frontline of the pandemic, and the actions we took on behalf of our profession – is heard and learnt from.
During this module, and the rest of the inquiry, many more hours of questioning and evidence building will take place. All of this – alongside the closing statement that core participants like the RCN will make at the end of the module – will be crucial to influencing the inquiry’s report and recommendations, and ultimately to protecting nursing staff in the future.
For me, just like so many others, it’s not easy to keep reliving the pandemic like this – and I’d encourage our members to access our counselling service if they are in need – but I hope that by ensuring the voice of nursing is heard that we can make sure lessons are identified and implemented as quickly as possible.
Professor Fong spoke at length about the daily reality of life on the frontline of the pandemic, highlighting the types of indignities and conditions that nursing staff and other health care workers were subjected to. He referenced ICU nurses having far too many patients – with individual nurses left caring for as many as six intubated patients – and spoke about how staff described it 'like a terrorist attack every day' and said the scale of death was 'astounding'.
Often the proceedings of any inquiry can seem too lengthy, legal and technical to bring home the human experiences of the events being analysed. Yet Professor Fong encapsulated the relentless devastation that nursing staff faced every day, something that Professor Sir Chris Whitty, Chief Medical Officer for England, also fully agreed with when he later gave evidence.
This testimony will bring back disturbing memories for many nursing staff. Despite the years passing, it can still feel too raw and painful to remember those days. Yet the inquiry is critical to identifying lessons for the future, and ensuring our profession never again has to suffer the way it did.
As a core participant in Module 3, the RCN has a more formal role and special rights in the process. We were able to make an opening submission when the module began and are playing an integral part throughout, including through putting questions to the witnesses who appear in front of the inquiry.
The evidence we heard yesterday adds to what the RCN has already raised during this module about the many failings and challenges that impacted our profession. We have highlighted how our warnings were ignored when we said the UK would not be prepared for a pandemic in the years prior to 2020, and that nursing workforce shortages were a serious threat to any pandemic response.
Last week, Dame Ruth May, the former Chief Nursing Officer for England, also spoke about how the removal of the nursing student bursary saw fewer people join the profession. She described it as a catastrophic decision and highlighted how it impacted staffing levels during the pandemic.
It is so important the inquiry hears this – not only from the RCN but from the many other individuals and organisations giving evidence, like Dame Ruth May and Professor Fong.
In our opening statement, the RCN also highlighted how nursing staff were shut out from key decision-making around the response and that our repeated warnings about the spread of the virus and opportunities to protect nursing staff were either ignored or dismissed.
For example, there was a lack of engagement by the UK government to consider the evidence around the airborne transmission of COVID-19, while inadequate provision of PPE meant nursing staff put their own lives – and potentially the lives of their families and patients – at risk.
We also drew clear attention to the impact of long COVID on nursing staff – something that has destroyed careers and caused serious financial hardship. The government must stop dragging its feet and classify COVID-19 as an occupational disease – like many countries around the world already do – so that those impacted can receive financial support.
Our core participant status is important in raising these many related issues. It is how we can ensure the voice of nursing – and the experiences of the hundreds of thousands of our members who were on the frontline of the pandemic, and the actions we took on behalf of our profession – is heard and learnt from.
During this module, and the rest of the inquiry, many more hours of questioning and evidence building will take place. All of this – alongside the closing statement that core participants like the RCN will make at the end of the module – will be crucial to influencing the inquiry’s report and recommendations, and ultimately to protecting nursing staff in the future.
For me, just like so many others, it’s not easy to keep reliving the pandemic like this – and I’d encourage our members to access our counselling service if they are in need – but I hope that by ensuring the voice of nursing is heard that we can make sure lessons are identified and implemented as quickly as possible.
You can also share your experience of working during the COVID-19 pandemic directly with the inquiry through Every Story Matters. There’s a separate listening exercise in Scotland where there is a nation-specific inquiry taking place.
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