NHS workers with long covid should be given adequate sick pay and the support to work if they can
The covid-19 pandemic has thrown a spotlight on the treatment of NHS staff and their perceived value to their employers. As a recent episode of the BBC’s Panorama programme showed, many NHS staff now find themselves abandoned and in a precarious financial position after being infected with covid-19 most likely at work. The episode, “Forgotten Heroes of the Covid Front Line,” interviewed NHS staff struggling with the ongoing health effects of covid-19 infection, uncovering the stories of people who, despite being too sick to work, are facing reduced sick pay or losing their jobs. For some staff, this has already happened.
An estimated two million people in the UK have long covid,1 including many thousands of NHS workers, so why do we hear so little about it? As a doctor in the NHS who is one of those affected, I’m disappointed by the collective silence and the lack of protections
As many as 10,000 NHS staff could be off work with long Covid across the UK, according to estimates made in the BBC Panorama programme, as concerns about incoming changes to sick pay escalate.