I've always been in the NHS
but, on this occasion, the NHS let me down.
APPLAUSE
We clapped them and thanked them.
Now many health workers are struggling.
I want to be a part of the world that's moved on.
That thinks Covid is over.
For me, it's a living, breathing beast.
Thousands say they have long Covid.
The mobility scooter is a big adjustment for me
because I guess I never really thought I would need one.
Some are worried about money, others fear losing their jobs.
I'd clone what was asked of me.
I went into the front line, I clone my job,
and now I'm just collateral damage.
They cared for us, now they're asking who's going to care for them.
They're just in a no man's land.
We don't have the support for them.
And, actually, that genuinely makes me angry.
Yes, I was a power walker. I went everywhere as quickly as possible.
Sometimes people think I'm a patient...
You've been really good.
...rather than the doctor, until they see my badges and so on.
Shall we listen to your chest? Can you put it on your chest?
Dr Nathalie MacDermott has long Covid.
I thought, something's not quite right here,
but I just couldn't build up that strength.
Like, it didn't seem to matter how much I went for a walk,
I couldn't get beyond a certain point.
Nathalie says she caught Covid twice at the start of the pandemic.
The London trust where she used to work
disputes she was infected there.
The mobility scooter is a big adjustment for me
because I guess I never really thought I would need one,
or certainly not at the age of 40.
She's now working at a different hospital.
Sometimes now I find it very hard to read things.
Like, I just don't have that concentration
for very long any more, so I can read it, maybe a sentence,
but then I just lose track of where I am.
Long Covid is a new condition and there's no universal definition,
but the World Health Organization says if you're still ill
three months after infection and there's no other obvious cause,
it's long Covid.
There are two very broad categories of long Covid.
There's people who got really severe Covid.
The virus then affected their lungs, the virus affected
their blood vessels, so they had strokes or heart attacks.
Actually, a far more common version, though,
are people who often only had very mild disease.
They've been left with an overall system failure.
The body just doesn't work the way it should.
Coronavirus changed life dramatically.
An emergency the like of which most of us had never experienced before.
Our health correspondent, Catherine Burns, is here.
What have we learned, Catherine? So, shall we start with something
that shows us how much things have changed since the beginning...
I've been covering the pandemic from the start,
when millions of us were told, stay home, protect the NHS, save lives.
I want to say a huge thank you on behalf of the whole country
to everyone working in our NHS.
In return, the government promised to protect health workers.
Ancl I'll stop at nothing to make sure that front line staff
have the right equipment so that they're safe
and can have the confidence they need to do their jobs.
APPLAUSE
And every Thursday night across the UK,
people came out to show their appreciation.
Now some of those we applauded say they're being abandoned.
We've been in touch with more than 250 health workers
who say they now have long Covid.
I don't want to be like I am.
I want to be part of the normal working world.
I want to be a part of the world that's moved on.
That's part... You know, that thinks Covid is over.
For me, it's a living, breathing beast.
This past 14 months has broken me.
I have...
...had clays where I have felt like I can't carry on
and it would be easier to not be here,
which is terrifying because that's not who I am.
I look to the future and I think, is this going to be me forever?
I feel like I'm...
...a mere shell of the person I used to be.
The NHS across the UK doesn't have an overall figure
for how many staff have long Covid.
Figures aren't always recorded,
partly because of the wide range of symptoms.
We've analysed survey data from the Office for National Statistics
and estimate that in the UK around 90,000 health workers
would say they're still living with it.
Dr Nathalie MacDermott specialises in infectious diseases
and was worried early on about the risks of Covid.
Alarm bells rang for me because I thought,
but we're working with known Covid patients here
and yet we're still only allowed to wear the same PPE
that I'm wearing on any other ward.
So what PPE were you wearing?
A fluid-resistant surgical mask, a pair of gloves
and a plastic apron that covers your torso. Nothing else.
She wrote to the trust she was working for at the time,
raising her concerns about PPE.
It says it was following official guidance.
I said, why are we not wearing full PPE?
I'm concerned that there's inconsistencies
and that staff are, you know, being left unprotected.
Health unions were worried, too.
They repeatedly asked for more protection.
We're getting the push back that, firstly,
we don't have sufficient masks in order to keep the staff safe.
Second, that this would be generating fear
when it came to the virus.
Actually, it was appropriate that there should be a degree of fear
when it comes to a deadly virus.
Advice on PPE was based on the idea the virus was largely spread
through droplets from coughs and sneezes.
Some scientists were convinced there was another significant way
it was being transmitted - through aerosols -
infectious particles lingering in the air.
Not everyone agreed.
Very early on, we thought it was aerosols.
We were saying this since, I think, March, April.
So, let's say that my view was not popular, OK?
And I think that, without being too specific,
a lot of infection control people didn't want to hear this.
If we understood better how the virus was being spread,
we could have implemented better PPE for health care workers.
From mid-March 2020, the guidance on caring for Covid patients
was for most health staff to wear these - surgical masks.
The kind many of us have become used to.
But in some areas, like intensive care units,
and for certain medical procedures,
the advice was to use these - FFP3 respirators.
If worn correctly, they form a seal around the face
with a filter blocking at least 99% of infectious particles.
There's still a debate about whether wider use of respirator masks
would have stopped so many health workers getting infected.
The government says it delivered over 25 billion items of PPE
and guidance was agreed by all four nations and public health bodies.
There are days when I honestly can't even get out of the house
but I tend to try and get out here at least a couple of times a day,
even if it's just a few minutes at a time.
Rachel Hext is a nurse in Devon.
She's been diagnosed with long Covid
and hasn't worked for more than two years.
Her husband, Gordon, has it, too.
They have two sons, Tommy and Greg.
They're three and four, you know,
most parents could pick them up and give them a piggyback
or put them up on their shoulders,
which is something Gord used to do all the time with the boys.
We can't do that now.
I just need to pop him in cos I'm just running out of breath.
Joint pain, muscle pain. Nerve pains, yeah.
My taste and smell have never gone back to what they were.
Like, a big wave of allergy problems.
I now carry an EpiPen.
I've never done that in my life before.
I've lost the hearing in my left ear, I wear a hearing aid.
Rachel was infected in October 2020.
There's only one ward in the small community hospital
where she was working.
Without any notice, I was just called one morning to say that
over the last few days it had been turned into a Covid contact ward
and that I should bring some spare clothes with me
because there wasn't enough scrubs to go around.
Patients who'd been exposed to Covid were being transferred
to Rachel's hospital and soon started to test positive.
How did you feel?
Rabbit in headlights, if I'm honest.
I'll never forget it.
I just walked into absolute chaos.
This was during the second wave of the pandemic
and before the first vaccines.
Rachel says she didn't feel safe.
My particular surgical mask,
by the time you'd wrapped the loops around your ears,
I had massive, gaping holes on my cheeks.
So, when you're in a bay of four people coughing and spluttering,
you know, it's not like the virus picks which direction to go,
is it, you know?
Within a couple of days, Rachel was really unwell.
Her husband and two young sons tested positive soon afterwards.
How do you feel about that?
Really cross because...
...the...
...the first wave should have taught a lot of lessons.
We couldn't isolate the patients.
We didn't have proper PPE.
We didn't have scrubs to fit us.
You know, it's just basics, isn't it?
Three years after the pandemic started,
we don't know exactly how many health workers caught Covid at work.
We need to understand the impact of Covid on the health care workforce
and, you know, lots of other front line workers.
Ancl the only way we're going to do that is if we have data.
Employers have a legal duty to report
to the Health and Safety Executive when someone gets ill,
injured or dies because of work.
It's called Riddor reporting.
David Osborne is a health and safety consultant
who believes more cases should have been reported.
It's important to have it recognised that that disease,
which could be with you for the rest of your life and affect your career,
it's important to have that recognised
as having been attributable to occupational exposure
through your work.
The trust employing Rachel did report her case.
For me, it actually does confirm that I contracted the virus at work,
which is vital because there is a lot of people with long Covid
who can't prove they got it at work.
This is documented evidence.
So, this could be the difference between me actually getting
some help towards me having this long-term condition and not.
But she's one of only around 13,000 health care workers
whose cases have been reported.
With more than 1.5 million people working in health care
that number seems low.
We wanted to find out more,
so we sent an FOI request to the Health and Safety Executive.
The HSE sent us this email exchange, dated the 8th of April 2020,
with an unnamed NHS Trust.
The trust says, "As things stand,
"all health care workers could be said to be exposed to Covid
"as a result of their work."
It adds that "staff would expect cases to be reported,
"which could be very detrimental
"to the already fragile morale in the workforce."
It doesn't give us a complete picture,
but does hint at why trusts in the middle of an emergency
may have been reluctant to report cases.
If trusts had Riddor reported all of their Covid cases with staff,
what difference would it have made?
A dramatic difference, I think, because looking at the trends,
looking at statistics,
it would've identified that that group of workers in health care
were being disproportionately affected by the disease.
That would've raised all sorts of red flags.
It would've been a signal that we need to investigate why,
why is this happening?
The HSE says its "priority is to keep people safe at work."
It accepts Riddor reporting for health care staff doesn't reflect
the accurate number of those infected at work and says
as community transmission increased,
it became difficult to be certain where people were infected.
Connie!
As the pandemic continued,
the stakes remained high for health care workers.
Shall we have a look in Jasmine's box?
Jasmine, look what's in there.
Look, we have Mummy's lanyards. Wow! One of Mummy's lanyards, look...
In January 2021, health care assistant Becky Regan
was working at the North Tyneside Hospital.
She had three daughters and was around seven months pregnant
with her fourth.
Ancl Mummy used to put it around her neck like that
when she went into work, didn't she? Wow! That's Mummy's phone.
There were patients with Covid on her ward.
There's Mummy.
Who's that? Mama, jazzy. Yeah.
I miss Mummy. I know. Where is she?
Up the sky. Up the sky, yeah.
Right, right...
Becky had a history of difficult pregnancies.
This is a teddy bear and it's got "My mummy is an NHS hero" on.
How did she feel about being pregnant during a pandemic
and working in a hospital?
Really anxious.
She did have a lot of time off sick because of anxiety levels.
From the start of the pandemic,
pregnant women were thought to be at greater risk from the virus.
We're talking the NHS had a vulnerable, high-risk pregnancy
girl at 29-year-old.
She should never have been there.
Not for one shift, two shift or any shifts at all.
She should've been sent home.
Becky got sick with Covid.
She was admitted to hospital and later treated in intensive care.
Becky phoned me up at quarter to three in the morning
and she did say to us, "I'm going to die."
She said, "I'm going to die. Will you look after me girls?"
It's awful.
I just said, "No, you're not going to die. You're stronger than this."
Then they came on the phone and they said, "She's got to go.
"We've got to take her down."
Ancl they said, "Will you just tell her you'll look after her girls?"
So, that's...
Becky had an emergency caesarean.
She died a week later.
Her baby, jasmine, survived.
Nurses caring for her kept a diary.
"We're so sorry for your loss. You're having lots of cuddles.
"You're active and alert, kicking around your incubator.
"You love your milk, we give it to you every two hours."
Oh...
jasmine, who's two, now lives with her grandma Tracey.
Angel cakes, girls.
Becky's daughters are among almost 800 families across the UK
who got a one-off payment of £60,000
under a government scheme for health and social care workers who died.
It's only paid if it's more likely than not
the individual got the virus at work.
An inquest later this year
will consider the circumstances of Becky's death.
Northumbria Health Care Trust says it's "deeply saddened" by her loss
and says it's always followed national Covid guidance.
From the start of the pandemic,
there was concern about the number of doctors, nurses
and other staff who were dying.
In 2020, a review was ordered into the deaths of health
and social care workers.
The aim to ensure lessons were learned
to help protect front line staff,
something the then Health Secretary Matt Hancock said in this letter
was owed to those who'd given their lives in duty and in service.
The review has never been published.
We've talked to some people involved in it,
they don't want to speak out publicly
but say they're unhappy that it's not seen the light of day.
The review needs to be in the public and we need to learn from it.
The biggest tragedy would be if and when the next pandemic happens,
if we have those same failings again.
We need to know what we did wrong, so next time this happens
we can do better.
We asked the government about the review.
It didn't respond.
Well, this is exciting, isn't it?
Mind your head.
It's a bit like flying, it'll pressurise you, just like a plane.
OK. OK?
Rachel and Gordon are so desperate to feel better
they're paying for experimental oxygen therapy
in a pressure chamber, similar to those used by divers.
I honestly think if we don't gain much from this oxygen therapy,
it'll set our moods back massively
because it's the only thing we've got at the moment.
That's time up now, folks.
How was it? Yeah, it was all right.
Yeah, it's the nicest date we've been on for a long time.
First time in ages.
Rachel's still off work
and is trying to take a case against her trust.
Even though her infection was reported to the HSE,
she's worried that if the trust says it followed PPE guidance,
that may affect her chances.
I'm absolutely devastated.
But I might not have a case against them now.
Ancl I just feel so angry.
I don't know if I can ever do my job again.
Rachel continues to worry about her health, but until recently,
she hasn't had to worry about money.
When the pandemic first started,
new sick pay rules came in for many NHS staff.
If they got coronavirus or long Covid
they could be paid in full until they got better.
But that has changed.
Now they're being treated like anyone else
and some face going onto half pay in March.
Are you still on full pay?
I am initially and then pay will start dropping off.
So, how worried are you about money?
Really worried. Really worried.
I do appreciate the NHS can't pay us forever,
but there's hope we can actually bring something back
to the NHS again, you know?
The Torbay and South Devon Trust says it's "grateful" to staff
"who worked tirelessly during the pandemic."
It says it disputes Rachael's allegations
which are being "robustly defended"
and is "unable to comment further."
Do you want to get ready for school? Sure.
Dr Ekta Sahu also has long Covid
and is trying to get back to work.
So, I realise I can't do any burst of activities.
It has to be slow pace.
Fatigue is the most prominent symptom, which is most disabling.
Today, she's hoping to get through a four-hour shift.
Bit nervous because first clay back to work
after five and a half months, so don't know how it would go.
Ekta's moved hospitals since she got long Covid.
She says the new trust in Warwickshire
took her on while she was ill and are very supportive.
I am someone who are fighting to come to a normal life.
I don't want a benefit.
I want to progress in my career.
I want to become a consultant paediatrician.
She's glad to be back at work, but it's tough.
Normally, this is my place.
I relax here, sit here.
I didn't see any patients, so that part I missed.
But I felt good at least I could do some of the work.
It's just a bit emotional.
It's a big clay.
Definitely a big clay.
No certainty about the future,
but you still try to be positive.
It's hard, but I will get there.
She wants the impact of Covid on health care workers
to be formally acknowledged.
I think the long Covid should be recognised
as occupationally acquired industrial illness
because other people had the choice to protect themselves from it,
health worker didn't have.
They were exposed to it.
I've come to meet an MP who agrees.
Layla Moran chairs a cross-party group
looking at the UK's handling of the pandemic.
I think there are certain professions,
health and social care staff,
it's transport workers,
it's teachers who are far more likely to be getting Covid
and long Covid.
We need to recognise long Covid as an occupational disease,
so that if they find themselves not able to work
they are able to get the support that they so richly deserve.
They want health care workers to be compensated
like they are in some other countries.
We are falling behind our peers in our recognition of this
as a real disease that needs proper recognition and compensation.
So, all those front line workers that we clapped for on a Thursday,
especially the ones who have lost their job, don't have any money now,
have something that they can fall back on.
What would the financial implications be
of the compensation scheme you're asking for?
That's a lot of money to be paying out when there's not a lot
of money coming in.
I would also point out that we can't afford not to.
If they're well supported back into work
then that would help the other crises
that we are dealing with right now.
Last year, scientists confirmed what many health care workers
have suspected all along about the risks they were exposed to.
They had more than double the risk of, first of all,
being infected clue to the proximity to patients and clients
and more than double the risk of dying from Covid.
Her council's now advising the government
that health and social care workers with complications
following Covid, like lung scarring or heart attacks,
should be eligible for industrial injuries benefits.
But no recommendation's been made about long Covid itself.
The trouble with long Covid is that
there isn't a, really, an agreed definition.
There are lots and lots of different symptoms reported.
Most of it is self-reported
because there aren't agreed diagnostic tests.
So, at this stage, we don't really have enough data.
Do you think you'll ever have that information? I'm not sure we will.
But we won't give up, we'll keep looking.
So, how many NHS staff are off work with long Covid?
These numbers aren't recorded in England and Wales,
but they are in Northern Ireland and Scotland - with 0.6% and 0.3%
of their workforce absent.
If these rates were reflected across the UK,
it could mean between 5,000 and 10,000 NHS staff off sick.
We have this group of people, they're just in a no-man's-land,
we don't have the support for them.
And, actually, that genuinely makes me angry
that we've got a group of people
that have put themselves forward to look after the population.
It's just not acceptable.
I haven't been able to work for two years.
In fact, I'm now on statutory sick pay
and I'm facing the loss
of my job and income.
And it's just not fair for us to put our necks on the line
and to be treated this way.
We've had to sell the family home because we know
that I won't have any income shortly,
as many NHS staff now are losing their income.
When Brenda Eadie got Covid,
she was working as an NHS nurse in a prison.
She accepts she isn't going to be well enough to return to her job.
How do you feel right now?
Angry, it's angry and scared that the NHS workers
and myself put my life at risk
and ended up disabled.
She's only 45 but had hoped to take early retirement on the grounds
of ill health because of long Covid.
Things didn't go the way she'd hoped.
Got a phone call from a manager to let me know that a letter
was coming in the post, not to panic when I seen it.
Ancl it was my termination of employment.
Ancl I was just like, "Oh, OK. What do I do now, then?"
Ancl I was told, "Well, I don't know.
"I guess you just take that letter to the benefits agency."
She's now unemployed.
I clone what was asked of me, I went into the front line,
I clone my job, and now I'm just collateral damage.
Her employers say it would be inappropriate to comment on
an individual case,
but say they do "not recognise a number of points" raised by Brenda.
They say they ensure "all HR policies set at a national level
"are followed at all times."
The government accepts that long Covid is having an impact on the NHS
and says its guidelines encourage managers
to "test all options" to support staff to get back to work.
It says it "will respond openly" to the Covid-19 public inquiry.
The inquiry will start taking evidence in May.
It's expected to be one of the largest in UK history.
Scotland's holding its own inquiry.
We need to learn from our mistakes, but to learn from them,
we have to own them and acknowledge them
and that's not happening at the moment.
But it may be years before health workers get answers.
Many say they can't afford to wait.
We're back in the open world now where Covid doesn't exist any more
and life's not really like that for the rest of us left behind.