NHS and healthcare staff have spoken of their anger after Boris Johnson and the chancellor were both fined for breaking Covid rules while in Downing Street. One nurse, whose petition calling for the Prime Minister's resignation has had 300,000 signatures, said: "While members of this Government were partying and drinking, we were at the coalface, saving people’s lives. It was a horrible time. We weren’t thinking about partying. We were just missing our families. It was so stressful and there was nothing we could do to make things better."
On Tuesday, Mr Johnson, his wife Carrie, and Chancellor Rishi Sunak were issued with fixed penalty notice fines by police investigating their actions in breaching the law. They have since faced numerous calls from opponents to resign, something both politicians are resisting, and you can see what our readers said here.
In the wake of news of the fines, Conservative MP Michael Fabricant attempted to defend the Prime Minister by suggesting that healthcare workers also broke the rules. He said: "Many teachers and nurses who after a very, very long shift would tend to go back to the staff room and have a quiet drink…which is more or less what he has done." Those comments have sparked huge anger.
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Healthcare staff are sharing their stories about their pandemic. Matthew Tovey, a nurse from Merthyr Tydfil started a petition on change.org calling on both politicians to quit. "I do not believe that anyone who breaks the law should be allowed to remain Prime Minister or Chancellor. At the same time that No. 10 were partying in the Downing Street gardens, I was working 12 hour shifts in the NHS - in full PPE - in the corridors of hospitals that had started to resemble battlefields.
"In May 2020, my colleagues and I were struggling to save lives. There were too many patients and nowhere near enough staff. Boris Johnson has said that Downing Street was full of “people working phenomenally hard under phenomenal strain”. I do not believe that in 2020 their jobs were more stressful than our jobs, on the front lines. I do not understand why this means they were allowed to break the rules whilst myself, and my colleagues, worked hard to keep people safe."
In a thread on Twitter, @poppyjuice said: "My strongest memory of COVID: I was sat in a respirator. They are horrible to wear. It made my nose stream and I'd gone deaf in one ear from pressure on my temperomandibular joint from the mask straps. I was tired. So, utterly, dog tired. I'd just reviewed a man, in his 50s.
"Very little in the way of comorbidity, he was being ventilated, COVID, face down, oxygen saturations terrible, lungs stiff like wood. The regional ECMO centre felt nothing they could offer that would help. There was nothing left I could try either. He was obviously dying. I sat down at the phone to call his next of kin. It's hard enough to have an end of life conversation face to face. Let alone on the phone. Let alone bellowing down the phone through a plastic helmet, unable to hear or talk properly. His sister answered. "I'm sorry, but it's not good news. He's dying, we can't stop it. Can we organise for you to visit?" She just sobbed. And sobbed. And sobbed. She was an Emergency Department sister herself. Working through the pandemic.
"Her mum had just died of COVID the morning previously. Her Dad was dying at home. Unable to come to hospital because there wasn't room for the dying. She would have to watch him die in her living room. Whilst she grieved her Mum and now her brother. She couldn't come I promised her he wouldn't die alone without caring hands touching. I hung up.
"And I moved on to look at the next person dying. Unable to stop it happening. It was unrelenting. I went home. I wanted the company of friends. The blissful ignorance of stupid drinks in a pub. But we couldn't. So we didn't. I slept, and came back to run the loop again.
"It was what we were asked to do. It was fucking horrible. But we did it. In the knowledge we were all in it together. No cake. No parties. No mutual soothing. No party hats and quizzes and cheese and wine. Just head down, keep moving, for the greater good. What a betrayal. What venal, dismissive, entitled, arrogance. All animals equal, but some laughing at their own special trough that wasn't available for us routine pigs.
"F**k them. I loathe them. I'm so utterly angry today I can't even begin. They do not deserve to even stand side by side with us who followed their rules. Let alone lead us. It's time for a swift, aggressively thorough, clean out of the sleaze that somehow hoodwinked us into tossing their crumbs from the table. I want a change. Now."
Caryl Wyn Jacob, 23, who is a nurse at Glangwili Hospital in Carmarthen said: "I qualified in February 2021, which was at the peak of the pandemic. The extra pressure of being a newly qualified nurse on top of Covid was quite stressful and having to do a 13 hour shift, with full PPE, while being short staffed was difficult.
"Working on a Covid ward was stressful. I wasn't able to do the things that I would normally be able to do to relax, like spending time with friends and family, so my physical and mental health wasn't great. But I had to overcome this and I had to prioritise my patients' needs. I'd go for long walks and talk with my colleagues and we supported each other through difficult times.
"I think as a Prime Minister you should obey the laws that you create. With Boris not complying with these laws, I find it's unprofessional and very selfish. Everyone in the NHS have been working tirelessly, working 50+ hours a week, to provide care for the ill and vulnerable. Whilst people in parliament have been drinking and dancing – it’s atrocious. I couldn't even see my own mother when she was in hospital with Covid. I personally think Boris should resign and we need a new leader that can appreciate the NHS staff and obey their own rules."
Dr Chaand Nagpaul, Chair of the Council of the British Medical Association, said: “Doctors and their colleagues will be incensed to hear their names being used to defend the rule-breaking of the Prime Minister and the Chancellor. Throughout the pandemic doctors, nurses and all healthcare staff, after exhausting days, many in full PPE and dealing with some of the most harrowing experiences of their careers, were doing all they could to protect themselves, their patients and their loved ones.
“Some stayed away from home, or kept themselves apart from their partners and children in their households, desperately putting their families’ safety ahead of their own wellbeing as they coped with the greatest professional challenge of their lives. Much like the vast majority of the public, they had no difficulty understanding and complying with the law, driven by their duty to keep everyone safe.
“It’s disgraceful and deeply out of touch with the reality in our health service for an MP to draw a parallel between flagrant rule-breaking and the diligence, compassion and professionalism of healthcare workers.”
