'Worrying Event': Deaths of NHS Doctors From Covid-19 Stark Reminder of Pandemic

About 2,660 doctors have come out of retirement to fight pandemic, but more are holding out for death-in-service compensation


The deputy chief medical officer for England, Jenny Harries has admitted that the coronavirus lockdown could last a ‘significant’ time.

The deaths of the first British doctors from Covid-19 have intensified pressure on ministers to accelerate the supply of protective equipment and address growing fears among frontline staff that they risk catching and spreading coronavirus.

As the UK’s death toll from the virus rose to 1,228 over the weekend, two surgeons were confirmed to have died in what the NHS medical director described as “a stark reminder to the whole country that we all must take this crisis seriously”.

Amged El-Hawrani, a 55-year-old ear, nose and throat consultant, died on Saturday at Leicester Royal Infirmary, while Adil El Tayar, 63, an organ transplant specialist, died on Wednesday at West Middlesex University Hospital in London, it emerged. Both had contracted Covid-19.

As they mourned the death of their colleagues, doctors’ and nurses’ groups attacked continuing shortages of protective equipment – from masks to gowns – and complained there was still confusion despite fresh official guidance about their proper use. There were further calls to ramp up testing of NHS workers.

Jenny Harries, deputy chief medical officer, said fatalities are expected to increase. With Britain beginning its second full week under effective lockdown, she indicated that normal life was not likely to resume for three to six months – and “it is plausible it could go further than that”, she cautioned.

On Monday, the public was asked to stop all non-essential travel, work from home if possible and limit exercise to once a day, with a ban of gatherings of more than two people. All pubs, restaurants, cafes, cinemas and gyms have been told to close.

Harries said: “Over time – probably over the next six months – we will have a three-week review, we will see where we’re going. We need to keep that lid on and then gradually we will be able to hopefully adjust some of the social distancing measures and gradually get us all back to normal.

“So I think three weeks for review. Two or three months to see whether we’ve really squashed it, with about three to six months ideally, and lots of uncertainty in that, but then to see at which point we can actually get back to normal. It is plausible that it could go further than that.”

Harries described El-Hawrani’s death as “a worrying event”, adding: “It is in no-one’s interests that we lose our colleagues.”

Stephen Powis, NHS national medical director, said death was “not just an individual human tragedy but a stark reminder to the whole country that we all must take this crisis seriously”. Pradeep Kumar, a surgeon, said he was angry at the loss of his friend. “Did it have to be this way?” he said. “Such a waste of precious life.”

Tayar had spent his final days volunteering to stem the outbreak in an A&E department in the Midlands. “He wanted to be deployed where he would be most useful in the crisis,” his cousin, British-Sudanese journalist Zeinab Badawi, said in tribute.

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