“From a GP’s perspective, the waits now for hospital treatment, for elective care and for investigations are becoming unacceptable, and we’re having to support all our patients who are waiting for that treatment, who need that really to help them move on with their lives – and we’re trying to support them. It’s one of the big reasons we’re seeing such a rise in demand.”

‘As the government faces mounting criticism that well-connected people made millions out of Britain’s PPE crisis, Panorama investigates who won out.’

‘More than £12 billion was spent in the first six months of the pandemic on contracts to provide personal protective equipment.’

‘Reporter Richard Bilton meets one man who made £40 million on a deal and speaks to others who felt ignored in favour of less experienced suppliers. As the government refuses to reveal the full details of all its so-called VIP deals, the programme reveals the high-profile connections to one lucrative contract.’

Watch the full programme here

DAUK’s Chair Dr Jenny Vaughan interviewed on Sky News in March regarding the government’s handling of the pandemic. She highlights that the government should have acted sooner during the first wave and gives her summary of where we’ve been and where we’re possibly heading.

“I’m very worried that there’s a lot of blame shifting going on here and political posturing and point scoring, bottom line is that colleagues of mine have, across the country have given their lives on the front line to save as many lives as possible.”

“And what we should be doing now is to try and actually fix the issues that led to the avoidable deaths. “

Dr Jenny Vaughan

Dr Samantha Batt-Rawden appeared on This Morning where she reacted to Conservative MP Desmond Swayne, who encouraged anti-vaxxers and said the NHS were “exaggerating”

Shaking her head, Dr Samantha replied: “I just can’t even, when you’re a member of the NHS and you are giving your all and spending 16 hours in PPE and working seven days a week, working yourself into the ground to keep patients safe.

“To hear that from somebody representing the government is really upsetting and it’s not acceptable, the pictures that you see of ambulances, queues down the road, they are real, and they have sick patients inside.

“And if the Tory MP wants to see that they are very welcome to volunteer in my ICU, where we are short-staffed, to help turn patients on to their fronts, so that they can fight for their lives.”

“And if the Tory MP wants to see that they are very welcome to volunteer in my ICU, where we are short-staffed, to help turn patients on to their fronts, so that they can fight for their lives.”

Read the report in The Mirror here: https://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/doctor-begs-covid-sceptical-tory-23400306

The NHS is an international health service that relies on some 170,000 foreign born staff from more than 200 countries.

Many non-British members of NHS staff have visas to allow them to live and work in the UK which can be extended by a year – but that is nowhere near enough to plan a future around.

Now there are calls for frontline staff from overseas to have the right to stay in the UK indefinitely in recognition for their service during the most challenging of years.

Nurse Eva Omondi is one of those dedicated professionals who came to the UK to work for the NHS and joined the fight against coronavirus.

“Seeing how [patients] die, it’s been very emotionally draining,” she said. 

Added to the stress however, was the anxiety over her right to remain in the country she would like to make her permanent home.She said: “The risk and the stress of working in the pandemic is enough price to pay to just ask for indefinite leave to remain.”The government brought in visas to make it easier for health workers to come to the UK and – after pressure from Ms Omondi and other nurses – abolished the fees they used to pay to use the health service. 

But campaigners say none of that goes far enough to reward their sacrifice in our service.

Within months of starting work in the UK, Bangladeshi doctor Pushpo Hossein contracted Covid-19.

“I got high fevers, body ache,” she said. 

“I also developed shortness of breath and that was very scary.”

Dr Pushpo Hossain

If she had died, her husband would have been granted the right to stay in the UK. But she said that is hardly an incentive to continue working for the NHS. 

“So that make me think, so okay, I have to die to prove my loyalty,” she said. 

“I feel betrayed sometimes. I feel very heartbroken.”

Last month, a private members bill that would offer indefinite leave to remain to NHS workers was halted under Common’s Covid safety rules. But the campaign continues.Liberal Democrat MP Christine Jardine, who brought the bill to Parliament, said: “We hear every-day about NHS staff who are contracting Covid-19. 

“People who are doing that shouldn’t’ have to live with any possibility that they might be deported. That’s just not good enough.”

Dr Katie Sanderson of DAUK spoke to CNN this morning regarding the growing trend of Covid deniers. She explained:

“The reason it is so upsetting people saying covid is a hoax is because you know that it will cause some people to behave in a way where they take risks they wouldn’t otherwise have taken. They get COVID and they potentially become very, very unwell. And that’s preventable.”

“And you just sometimes wonder, what do these people want? Do they want people to be dying in hospital car parks, dying in the streets, dying in corridors before they will accept that this is this is serious? It sort of beggars belief.”

She explained that: “I have had abuse on social media, I am lucky, unlike my colleagues, this has not happened in person. But this is a small but vocal minority, and we so appreciate the vast majority of the public who support us and those staying at home.”

She went on to speak about the video which recently emerged of members of the public obstructing patient care based on misinformation, adding that “They put themselves at risk. They put the staff at risk. And ultimately, what we really care about as doctors; they put the patients at risk.”

In response to a senior Tory MP saying that figures are being manipulated to exaggerate the scale of Coronavirus, Dr Samantha Batt-Rawden spoke about her dismay, and challenged the MP to volunteer in her local ITU.

Dr Rosie Shire from DAUK spoke to Sky News about concerns regarding the government’s decision to delay the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine for 12 weeks.

She explained that “three quarters of over 80 year-olds have had their first dose but ARE NOT fully vaccinated until they receive their second dose”

She added that “we don’t know if they will be fully vaccinated when they receive the second dose because that schedule was not studied and was not licensed”.

She explained that “It’s unknown how effective the vaccination is going to be with this delay of the second dose, and that’s really concerning.”

Watch the full clip here.

“Vaccines are safe. And it’s really important that if people get a message to be vaccinated, go for it.”

DAUK’s Dr David Nicholl speaking to CNN about covid-19 vaccinations.

“Particularly because the BAME community have been hit so severely by covid, it’s really, really important there’s targeted messaging, particularly for at risk groups.”