Medics to stage vigil on Tuesday for staff who have died of Covid-19 at hospital which saved Boris Johnson’s life
By Lottie Kilraine
A memorial rally is to be held by St Thomas’ and Guy’s NHS workers for staff members who have died from Covid-19.
At 11am on April 28, Workers Memorial Day, health workers across the country will hold a minute’s silence to remember their dead colleagues.
Mark Boothroyd, branch secretary for Unite union at St Thomas’ hospital, said: “The number of deaths of NHS and social care staff are over 100 in the space of a month so we are holding a memorial rally at St Thomas’s hospital for them.
“April 28 is National Workers Memorial Day, a day started by the trade unions to remember the people who died at work.
“Usually this is a union organised event but this year they have said that anyone can attend as long as the work inside the hospital is covered.
“This has come about because of the pressure they are being put under.
“I imagine this will have a lot of traction with staff because a lot of people feel very strongly about this.
“Things are calming down and we are getting less Covid-19 patients into intensive care so we have a bit more breathing space to do something like this.”
NHS workers will be released from work to attend the rally but Unite has stressed that patients will not be abandoned as a result of this and will continue to receive care.
The decision comes after many frontline health care workers have been left feeling overwhelmed by the work they are undertaking to fight the virus.
Dave Carr, an intensive care unit nurse at St Thomas’ hospital, said: “We are looking after the sickest patients who are suffering from Covid-19.
“In my hospital we started with 50 critical care beds, where you can look after patients on ventilators, and we have now moved up to 300 beds.
“For us a daily experience is 12 hours in PPE and a daily experience is death.
“Our nurses are seeing people die without their families or their loved ones near them and it’s harrowing – it’s heart-breaking.
“But I will tell you what is really heart-breaking for health workers at the moment – since this pandemic started 105 health workers are dead.
“We want people out of their work places on the April 28 to remember our dead.”
Please, content editors, sort out the soft returns that make this important piece barely readable. It’s one of the most basic skills required in being able to upload copy to a website, surely? WFH does not excuse poor journalistic standards. I’m a fellow journo. I’m managing it.