Doctors with long Covid vow to sue NHS over lack of pandemic PPE
Doctors with long Covid have pledged to take legal action against the NHS over PPE requirements during the pandemic.
Long Covid Doctors for Action (LCD4A) is claiming the NHS decided to downgrade guidance on face masks in March 2020, requiring staff to wear blue surgical face masks, plastic aprons, and gloves when dealing with suspected or confirmed virus cases.
The group, which is being represented by legal firm Bond Turner, is planning to sue the health service for negligent workplace exposure to the virus resulting in injury and financial loss, Sky News reported.
However, NHS guidance on face masks for doctors falls in line with that of the World Health Organisation (WHO), which advises that more restrictive masks such as FFP3s, FFP2s, and N95s only need to be worn for “aerosol-generating procedures” and not the general care of Covid patients.
Dr Kelly Fearnley, a co-founder of LCD4A, says she has not been able to return to work since she caught the virus while working on a Covid ward at the Bradford Royal Infirmary in November 2020.
“I walked onto the Covid ward and there was just a small box with blue masks,” she told Sky News.
“I asked where the other masks were and was told: ‘We’re using these now, don’t worry they’ll protect you.’
“The sudden downgrading of PPE was not based on the known science.
“I didn’t have time to think about it. But I spent 12 hours a day, for five consecutive days, surrounded by Covid-positive patients in the absence of adequate respiratory protection.”
Dr Fearnley, 37, says she contracted long Covid and was diagnosed with limbic encephalitis, which involves inflammation of parts of the brain, after episodes of violent shakes, hallucinations, and a resting heart rate more than double the average.
Hundreds of doctors have signed up to LCD4A, and the campaign group is calling for other healthcare workers in England and Wales who suffered similar circumstances to come forward.
But amid the threat of legal action, experts have said there are no guarantees that healthcare workers who suffer with long Covid contracted the virus at their workplace.
Dr Simon Clarke, an associate professor in cellular microbiology at Reading University, told Sky News there is a “greater than 50 per cent chance” healthcare workers who were infected in early 2020 contracted the virus at work, as lockdown meant other contact was significantly reduced, but conceded there were no guarantees.
He added: “We have to remember that there was a shortage nationally of PPE. So the supplies of better, more effective masks might have been somewhat restricted.”
A spokesman for the Department for Health and Social Care said: “Throughout the pandemic, the government acted to save lives and livelihoods, prevent the NHS being overwhelmed and deliver a world-leading vaccine rollout which protected millions of lives across the nation.
“We have always said there are lessons to be learnt from the pandemic and we are committed to learning from the Covid Inquiry’s findings, which will play a key role in informing the government’s planning and preparations for the future. We will consider all recommendations made to the department in full.”
It is not known how many NHS doctors currently claim to have long Covid.
However, estimates by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) from May 2021 suggested that approximately 122,000 healthcare workers were self-reporting symptoms of long Covid.
An NHS spokesperson said: “The NHS acted in line with infection prevention control guidance developed by a group of organisations including the Public Health Agencies across the four nations, the Department of Health and Social Care and the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group, which was in line with guidance set out by the World Health Organisation.”
