Red tape blamed for only 5,000 of the 40,000 retired NHS workers who volunteered to return to fight Covid being given jobs
GP Claire Barker said she did not have the required 21 forms to work despite owning her practice for 30 years
Dr Brian Cooper, 73, one of 47,000 retired medics to sign up to the NHS s call for volunteers in April
They were supposed to be deployed to hospitals to get normal care up and running during Covid crisis
But Dr Cooper claims he was left in lurch for seven months then asked to do contact tracing work
Nightingale hospitals stand empty despite surging Covid cases as medics warn of staff shortages
Majority of Nightingale facilities have yet to start treating virus patients despite number of people in hospital passing April peak
Signs directing ambulances lie on the ground at the Nightingale Hospital in London
Credit: Heathcliff O Malley
The flagship Nightingale hospital is being dismantled as medics warn that there are not enough staff to run the facilities despite the NHS being at risk of being overwhelmed by coronavirus.
Amid surging virus case numbers, elective surgery is being cancelled as the number of patients in hospitals in England passes the peak of the first wave in April.
A hospital trust in Devon has shifted to the highest alert level after claiming it is being overwhelmed by an influx of Covid-19 patients and staff absences.
Bosses at the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Trust activated OPEL yesterday, also known as a black alert . These are declared when a hospital is under such significant pressure it cannot deliver comprehensive care and patient care is at risk.
Its deputy chief executive Dr Adrian Harris said that whole wards had been forced to close because of coronavirus, which limited the number of beds they had available.
Bosses blamed high levels of Covid-19 and staff absences, which hospital officials claimed is more than double what would normally be expected at this time of year.