
Nurses bore the brunt of the pandemic, with low staffing ranges and difficulties accessing protecting tools, in line with England’s former chief nurse.
Dame Ruth Might advised the Covid inquiry the NHS had been understaffed in 2020, partly due to the “catastrophic choice” to chop monetary assist for scholar nurses in 2015.
Sources had been “stretched”, significantly in intensive care, she mentioned, with a knock-on impact on the care some Covid sufferers obtained.
And she or he had been conscious of widespread experiences of issues supplying private protecting tools (PPE) in March 2020, together with a scarcity of plastic robes that had left front-line nurses residing “in worry”.
‘Quick-moving surroundings’
Dame Ruth, England’s chief nurse from 2019 till July 2024, was one of many senior figures who appeared at Downing Road information conferences through the pandemic.
She had additionally volunteered for nursing shifts throughout Covid, at instances working “beneath the radar” in hospital wards, the inquiry heard.
“We had been going through some terribly tough choices within the very early a part of pandemic,” she mentioned.
“It was a fast-moving surroundings – we had been seeing [a large] variety of circumstances coming in and deaths like we had by no means seen earlier than.”

The NHS had entered the pandemic with about 40,000 nursing and midwifery vacancies in England, Dame Ruth mentioned.
And she or he criticised a “catastrophic choice”, in 2015, to switch the grant or bursary paid to scholar midwives and nurses with loans.
It had led to discount of about 5,700 trainees in England by 2020, Dame Ruth mentioned, which “would have made a distinction” within the pandemic.
“There would have been much less burnout – there would have been much less psychological impression,” she mentioned.
Intensive-care items got here beneath such strain throughout Covid specialist critical-care nurses had been answerable for as much as six sufferers every as an alternative of the same old one-to-one ratio.
And Dame Ruth accepted that had affected the care sufferers obtained, saying: “It was not the place we wished to go… and I do know there have been penalties due to it.”
Blanket do-not-resuscitate orders had appeared to have been added to some sufferers’ data primarily based on both their age or a pre-existing situation reminiscent of autism or a studying incapacity, she advised the inquiry, which had been “utterly improper”.
On-line abuse
Dame Ruth additionally urged it had been a mistake for some hospitals to forestall pregnant ladies from being accompanied by their companions throughout scans or the early a part of labour.
The quicker rollout of Covid assessments would have allowed guests to return again into hospital earlier and been safer for workers and sufferers, she mentioned.
Dame Ruth additionally spoke concerning the “fairly horrible” on-line abuse she had confronted on the time.
“The one factor I realized about the entire of this [period], is the significance of integrity – and typically that comes at a price,” she mentioned.
“Meaning on social media particularly you’re vilified – [but] I wasn’t the one one.”
The Covid inquiry is at the moment taking proof concerning the impression on the NHS and healthcare methods throughout all 4 nations of the UK.
Greater than 50 witnesses are anticipated to look on this third part or “module”, which runs till the top of November.