By Emma Batha
London: Nearly 300 British doctors, nurses and other health workers with long COVID are suing the health service for compensation, saying they were not given proper protection during the pandemic.
They say their lives have been devastated by a host of severe health complications. Most cannot return to work and many are housebound.
“This is life changing. People are really suffering financially. Some are living in poverty,” said nurse Rachel Hext, one of the claimants.
“We’re suing because this is the only way of providing for our futures.”
Health staff with long COVID told the Thomson Reuters Foundation they felt betrayed by the government after risking their lives to work on the frontline during the pandemic.
They contrasted the weekly public displays of appreciation for National Health Service (NHS) workers at the height of the crisis with the lack of support they had received since becoming ill.
“It’s been like hero to zero,” said Hext. “We were clapped on doorsteps one moment, and abandoned the next.”
The claimants include consultants, doctors, nurses and hospital porters. Many are in debt or using up savings to survive.
They say they were not given adequate personal protective equipment (PPE), including high grade masks, and often had to rely on flimsy surgical masks.
“I think we’ve got a very good chance of winning,” said solicitor Kevin Digby, who is representing many of them.
More than 200 symptoms have been linked to long COVID, including cognitive impairment or “brain fog”, extreme fatigue, shortness of breath and chronic pain.
The lawsuit is unlikely to be heard by the High Court before 2026 at the earliest because of Britain’s ongoing public inquiry into the handling of the COVID crisis in which more than 230,000 people died.
The defendants, who include NHS bodies covering most of England and Wales, have denied negligence and breach of duty.
LOST INCOME
Hext, 37, said she caught COVID in 2020 while working 13-hour shifts at a hospital in southwest England. She was only given a plastic apron and basic mask which gaped at the sides.
She is now deaf, has blurred vision, joint and mobility problems, severe allergies and a condition which causes her heart to race and leaves her feeling ill.
A mother of two young boys, Hext used to enjoy beach trips and swimming with her sons, but a simple outing can now knock her out for days.
“I’ve lost my health, my career, very much my identity – and that’s before you even start on the financial implications,” she said.
An official study in April estimated 2 million people had long COVID in England and Scotland, with nearly 20% of participants reporting it seriously impacted daily life.
Experts believe thousands of health workers are affected.
A 2023 survey of about 600 doctors with long COVID showed nearly one in five were no longer working, and less than a third were working full-time.
About half had lost income because of long COVID, according to the study published by the British Medical Association (BMA) doctors’ union. Only a minority had had access to high-grade masks.
‘BITTER AND BETRAYED’
Doctors and nurses are separately calling for the government to recognise long COVID as an occupational disease for health and social care workers, opening the door to compensation.
One hospital porter, who joined the NHS following a military career, said he felt better protected serving in Iraq than working during the pandemic.
He said the availability of PPE was very variable and that porters and cleaners working on COVID wards often struggled to access the same protection as doctors and nurses.
Health workers with long COVID – some of whom requested anonymity to talk more freely – spoke of grieving for their past lives, their deep social isolation, and their sadness at seeing their children forced to become their carers.
One general practitioner (GP), who can no longer work, estimated long COVID would cost her 2.5 million pounds ($3.18 million) in lost earnings over her lifetime. Her pension has also been decimated.
A nurse said she was left homeless after severe COVID-related complications forced her to quit work. She has moved house 16 times while ill, compromising her recovery.
Some young doctors with hefty student loans have had to move back to their parents after long COVID derailed their careers.
Amy Small, 44, a GP who lost her job six months after becoming sick in April 2020, has spearheaded calls for long COVID to be recognised as an occupational illness.
“I feel very bitter and absolutely betrayed. We said very early on that COVID was airborne and no one would listen to us,” she said.
The mother-of-two feared at one point they would lose their family home after her husband also got long COVID.
“We went to work on the frontline, got sick and have had zero backup,” she added. “The NHS chews you up and spits you out the other side.”
Small said another pandemic was possible, but feared the country was no better prepared than it was before COVID.
“It’s terrifying. Doctors still don’t have access to adequate PPE,” she said.
Two years ago, the government’s advisory body on industrial injuries recommended certain long COVID conditions be recognised as an occupational disease for health and social care workers. It recently made a similar recommendation for some transport workers.
Formal recognition would provide access to industrial injuries benefits, ranging from 44.30 to 221.50 pounds a week, depending on the disability level.
But the government has yet to respond.
The BMA and the Royal College of Nursing, a nurses’ union, wrote to Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Liz Kendall in November, criticising the long delay and urging action.
They said more than 50 other countries had recognised COVID as an occupational disease.
A spokesperson for the government’s Department for Work and Pensions said it was still assessing the recommendations.
Raymond Agius, a COVID lead with the BMA, said the delays were inexcusable.
“It’s not much money for someone who has lost their livelihood as a result of COVID contracted from work,” he said.
“The government had a moral duty to look after people who put their lives at risk for us all, and I think time may prove it had a legal duty as well.”
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