now on bbc news, britain has one of the highest death toll from covid—19 in the world. this film follows staff at the royal hospital in london as they try to cope with a second way. and a warning, this programme contains content which some of may find it distressing. she's young. she's someone�*s relative. this is something precious that we're holding and we're trying to do. my wife lost her fight for life. nobody wants to go through this. i wouldn't wish this on anybody. the coronavirus pandemic has hit the united kingdom hard. i think the public want to do the right thing, but i don't feel they understand fully the scale of the problem. this is the story of one of the hospitals in the eye of the storm. so we're now going to run into a problem because we haven't got any beds. we've got patients on 12 floors in total. we've returned to the royal london, to witness for ten days the full force of the second wave of covid—19. staff are tired, and then we have to ask them to do more and more and more as the patients arrive. now, i know he is quite sick. he could die from this, by the way — i'm sorry to say that. i'm trapped in a cave - and the water is slowly rising. i'm barely keeping - my head above water. people just dying and dying and dying, you know? so although it's ourjob and we deal with dead people every day, this level, i think, has taken its toll. sorry. sobs. as london sleeps, the night shift begins at the royal london hospital, a key part of the uk's national health system. nursing sister carlene kelly makes her way to a job that's crushing her, in the middle of the covid nightmare. sleep isn't what it used to be. there's anxiety when you wake up and you remember what you have to go into. we're fragile and angry. phone rings. in the emergency department, consultant nick bunker is up to his neck in problems. so, he's got covid and he's had a stroke? a new covid patient has been admitted for every hour he's been on shift — by sam, eight. so, we're now going to run into a problem because we haven't got any beds. no beds? so i had five beds to start the night. got two patients next door who need to come in. and here's another. where will he go? just bring the back of the bed, see if that helps. and is he on 100% now? yeah. in pressurised rooms, the patients receive oxygen through masks, their condition monitored. but who may need more sustained help from a ventilator? stats below 96. one man's breathing badly falters. just do it, just do it, just do it. he must be intubated, fast. and we watch as medics put him to sleep and push a long plastic tube down his throat, hooking him up to his new breathing machine. when he'll wake up, no—one knows. soon, he'lljoin so many others here oblivious to night and day, cared for by strangers like carlene, who we spoke to in the first wave of the virus back in may. i've felt broken on many occasion, and i think a lot of my colleagues have. now, the intensity of the second wave is even more frightening. how i feel about this time, i'm trapped in a cave and the water is slowly rising. i'm barely keeping my head above water. it's scarier, it's bigger. i was so naive the first time. i wasn't convinced we were going to have a second wave at all, and the huge numbers that have just absolutely slammed us, it's just... we — i never thought it would be possible to have this many intensive care patients, not at all. nick bunker checks on carlene and all the staff as he helps monitor around 130 icu covid patients spread all over the hospital. there were little more than a0 intensive care beds before the pandemic. back in the emergency department, a brief time to pause, but there's still five hours of nick bunker�*s shift to go. it's not over. we've got another. our normal work continues, despite a lot of covid, so we've had two stabbings in — it's just gone three o'clock in the morning — so that normal work still happens. we've got two more covids have arrived in ed overnight, which we currently don't have space for, so that means another trip back up into the covid ward to go and assess where i can put them. and we'll have to see, yeah. there's a few more hours yet till the morning. yes, let me know if i need to. but where's he going to get more beds? a few minutes later, we find a porter with a priceless possession. we soon find out how he sadly came upon it. the man helping him is martin freeborn. he saw our cameras and said he wanted to publicly thank the nhs — they did all they could. what happened ? my wife lost her fight for life. it was a mixture of covid and an infection that finally finished her off. and this is literally in the last few minutes? yeah, yeah, yeah. yeah, in the last half hour, i've lost her. her name was helen and she was 64. what's your message to people watching this who perhaps feel that there is no covid, there is no battle that everyone is fighting? it makes me really angry. nobody wants to go through this. i wouldn't wish this on anybody. this really is horrible. it's real and people really do need to look after themselves and take care because you don't want this to happen. i wouldn't wish this on anybody. yeah, please wake up and please be over—careful. you can't do enough to keep yourself safe. don't end up like us, please. that's the three grandchildren and my three daughters and my wife in the background, looking on. she loved being a grandmother. here's letters from our daughter and — but unfortunately, she went on the ventilator before she could see it. "dearest mum, helen, grandma, we love you so much. we miss you more than we can say. you are so strong and have been through so much..." "..you are our hero, our inspiration, our light in this darkness. "until we see you again, and we will..." "..you stay strong as always..." - "..all our love and forever." that would be laura, lindsay and megan. it's a sad story, innit? the night shift is drawing to a close. in this time of coronavirus, what will tomorrow bring for the staff of the royal london? well, the birth of the new day brings a familiar demon — more covid infections and more death. and it's others who must stare into the abyss to spare our eyes. like hannah, a senior mortician at the royal london hospital, part of a small team ofjust five that's handled hundreds of bodies in this pandemic. how do you ever prepare for people just dying and dying and dying, you know? so, although it's ourjob and we deal with dead people every day, this level, i think, has taken its toll. does it feel like a conveyor belt? it does. it does, in a way, yeah. and i hate to say that, because i hate to think of it like that, but yeah, yeah, it is, almost, yeah. that's what the pandemic�*s done, i mean... yeah. ..it�*s no—one�*s fault. no. sorry. sobs. i've done this for years, you know, i'mjust... when someone says to you, "how does it make you feel?", and you're saying how it makes you feel, yeah, this is how it makes me feel. the inner turbulence revealed. and yet, outer strength is what we crave — a brave face in those fighting the virus on our behalf. as every day, the hospitals fill up, including the royal london. how many floors are taken up by covid patients here? we've got patients on the third floor, fourth floor... this ward goes all the way around to the other side. it's 29 patients. ..sixth floor, seventh floor, eighth floor... another covid patient in here. ..ninth floor... another one in here. ..ioth, iith... again, round to the other side, there's another 29 patients. ..12th,13th... this is our third ward with 31 patients. ..and then, obviously, up here... so each four of these four—bedded bays contain covid patients. ..the14th and the 15th floor, so that's 12 floors in total. 12 out of 15 floors, more than 400 patients, and there aren't enough staff. it's madness. there's always a sense of chaos when you go in. it's a sensory overload when you walk into that unit. you know, you're wearing ppe, you're wearing goggles or a visor, you're — you know, everything is disorientating. there's noise, there's beeping, there's alarms, there's zoom calls with families crying, sadness all around you, people shouting for help, nurses crying more and more regularly. and curiously, despite all the drugs and fancy equipment, the simple technique of periodically turning over a covid patient — or proning — can help force oxygen into scarred lungs. but the manpower needed is immense, turning and turning and turning again, day after day. and in the middle of the storm, consultant marie healy, a commanding presence... still coming. go, go, go. ..and a friend to all. don't know what i would have done without you today. for those less scrupulous about social distancing and wearing masks, she gives the benefit of the doubt — despite the effect on the nhs. i think the public want to do the right thing, but i don't feel they understand fully the scale of the problem. so, i don't feel taken for granted — we don't. so you think the public don't get the pressure that is on everyone working in this hospital and up and down the country? no. i definitely don't think they do. cos i think if they did, they really wouldn't hesitate to do the right thing. i honestly believe that. and i feel it's because of mixed messaging, fatigue, perhaps not knowing people who've been ill, not really understanding when the government said "we have 500 extra beds," but you need staff for the beds. so, i don't think they really grasp that most of our hospitals are now taken over with just looking after patients with covid, so everything else is put on hold, bar the most extreme emergencies. cancer surgery's being deferred. we will try and restart it. the staff have been asked to look after more and more sick patients, and i don't really think the public understand that there is an end to what we can do. i mean, we're reaching our maximum response. and if it continues like this, people will be turned away, in my view, from hospital or from critical care. back on the ward, the oxygen levels plummet of a covid patient in their mid—20s. proning must be quick, but more specialist care may be necessary to oxygenate the blood through an artificial lung. consultant pj zolfaghari, who predicted there would be a second wave, calls a nearby medical centre, hoping they'll take the patient... her ventilation's become very difficult again just now. ..as kathy macgloin leads the team trying to keep her alive. but there's bad news. so, actually, you're full, is that right? now the pressure�*s really on, but quiet professionalism kicks not too good. breathing's not great. machines beep 0k. yeah, good. relief — enough oxygen is now finally reaching the patient�*s lungs. and yet, kathy isn't an intensive care doctor. she's a consultant anaesthetist, offering a helping hand, like the trauma surgeons, paediatricians, immunologists — all mucking in during this appalling covid crisis. i feel a lot better now. how worried were you? i'm sweating, and it's notjust the ppe. so, i mean, she's young, she's someone's relative. this is something precious that we're holding and we're trying to do. erm, yeah, it's quite frightening. i think, to be honest with you, staff are tired, and then we have to ask them to do more and more and more as the patients arrive. the summer hiatus between waves one and two did allow the hospital a bit of welcome breathing space. our main concern during this period of time was to try and get back to normal, to do all the other procedures, all the other patients that needed care as well that we didn't do in that first wave. so, the focus was to keep business as usual and try and do all of the elective surgery, all the cancer surgery, carry on doing that. and we tried to do that for as long as possible, but now we've gotten to a point where we've had to shut all those services down. we met martin griffiths, a trauma surgeon at the royal london, during the first wave of the virus. then, he was able to continue surgery dealing with gunshots and knife wounds. how times have changed. i trained to be a surgeon, like, propervascularsurgeon, and that practice disappeared because of capacity needs. the trauma hasn't gone anywhere. it's still there. and we've seen a slight change, in that we see less...but a lot more deliberate self—harm, a lot of suicide attempts, a lot of people who are psychologically at the end of their rope and a lot of older people who are falling because they're not supported as they would be normally. so that trauma practice is still going on, but for me, it's defining. it's a defining period of my life. it's about why i went into medicine. yes, i know i can't do the fancy—schmancy operations i used to do, i can't lord it around in a suit, but i can come to work every day. i can see patients — either virtually or physically. i can provide care, i can provide care to my colleagues, i can support all those people. i can still learn, i can still teach, i can still share my experience, and the programmes that are up and running are still running despite the challenges around there. so, this is a challenge that defines my practice, defines the nhs, defines our community. make no mistake, accident and emergency is still open — the public won't be turned away in a crisis — but the royal london is essentially a covid hospital, as marie healy checks on a young man with no underlying conditions but who's been on a ventilator for more than three weeks. obviously very distressing, and... this is a very serious complication at this stage. he's also got other family members in critical care as we speak. time to call his wife. now, i know that he is quite sick. he could die from this, by the way. i'm sorry to have to say that. i know, love. i know, i know. don't worry. we're doing everything we can for him. the patient�*s name is asif. he's 28. very difficult, because... it's very difficult because this poor family have been through a huge amount, and they're actually so nice. that makes it more difficult. the inner turbulence revealed. this is shamima, asif�*s wife, who took marie's call. she already knows loss in this pandemic. on your wedding day? her brother—in—law was buried last month, a victim of covid—19. and this week, her father—in—law died from the virus. now, her husband's life hangs precarious. it is a feature of the second wave that whole families have been blighted. we feel so empty. like, for me not to have my husband by my side... - life is too short and| you want to spend it with your loved ones. because i have to be strong. for my mother and i have to be strong for my sister—in—law. you know, they kind of rely| on me, and if i break down, then, you know, idon't know what's going to happen- to the family. asif lies limp, one of close to 4,000 people across the uk now breathing with the aid of a machine due to covid—19. that's more than 4,000 families praying for the best, fearing the worst, lives on hold. the nhs is a family, too, and it's mourned its own. more than 200 frontline staff have died in the pandemic. ..and see you because they didn't want to get you tired. senior charge nurse dom wood feared he wouldn't make it after contracting the virus over christmas. his wife andreia also works at the royal london. everyone was telling me, you know, "it's going to be fine, it's going to be fine," but on that day, i was like, "0k, he came to the hospital, he was supposed to stay a day," and then he went... he's now in itu. am i going to come to the unit and find him on a ventilator? and we've seen that. i was doing everything i could to try and deep breathe and everything that i tell everyone to do, and that was quite a scary moment. because... you see... the trouble is, in the first wave and the second wave, i've seen what can happen. it's scary. we're all scared... ..that the grave—diggers will keep working due to covid. this cemetery in north—east london has had to expand because of the pandemic dead. that's around 30,000 more than the number of civilians who died in our country in world war ii. we're all scared that things will get worse before they get better. we're all scared of the cruel ripples of the pandemic — lockdowns, mental health problems, economic shock — so where's the light? consultant trauma surgeon martin griffiths is now helping out giving people vaccine jabs. i wanted to do something positive that would really help end the pandemic. what do you think of anti—vaxxers? they have my thoughts and prayers. they're wrong. they're so wrong. and either by a lack of knowledge, a lack of understanding, an unwillingness to accept reality of what we're seeing, they're actively contributing to the detriment of our society. i want to talk to them. i want to listen to what they have to say. i want to show them what i see, to see the lives that are lost, to see the devastation that this wreaks on our community, to see the wards and wards of people struggling to breathe, and to show them what vaccination looks like and show them what we can offer our community. there's no way out of this with lockdowns and hiding. we've got to use the science, 0k, to help us out of this? and we've got this fantastic effort that's given us an opportunity to curtail this pandemic, and we need to accept it. we need to lean into it. next, please. salvation, then, perhaps at the end of a needle. and maybe soon, we'll all be able to smile. but the pandemic has revealed some harsh truths about the ways millions of people live their lives around the world and the inadequacies of different healthcare systems. we need to totally rethink the health of the nation, because you think a lot of resources spent on dealing with things that are preventable, so maybe the focus should come on "why have we got into this situation in the first place?" surely we need to completely rethink primary healthcare, motivating, understanding why people aren't leading healthy lives, because we can see now that it is people who are poorer and come from certain backgrounds and socially deprived areas that have the highest incidence of this disease and all the effects it brings. the nhs is supposed to care for people from cradle to grave — part of the origin myth of post—war modern britain — but coronavirus has given the country a glimpse into a dark future, a time when the men and women of the service can't help everyone as they would like. is that the true lesson of this pandemic — that to see the national health service crumble means britain losing a part of its soul? hello. cold and snow on the way. for now, for many of us, it's just yet more rain with an ongoing risk of flooding. but as you know, in northern scotland, the snow has arrived. heavy snow, at that, where the met office has an amber warning in force throughout friday. still snowing here, and even into the weekend within that amber zone — so significant disruption as a result, as those snow totals mount. now all the wet weather, snow or rain, is from this area of low pressure only very slowly moving away over the weekend. as it does so, rain turns to snow as an increasingly strong and bitterly cold easterly wind sets in across the uk. and as that continues into next week, we will continue to see some snow coming in, particularly but not exclusively to eastern parts of the uk. this is how we start off on friday morning — most of us are above freezing. most of us seeing rain rather than snow, but the snow very much still there across northern scotland. wet, too, in northern ireland, especially to the eastern parts of northeast england — both areas with the risk of flooding from the persistent rain. showers moving into wales, southwest england, the west midlands as we go through the afternoon. east midlands, east anglia, southeast england, and parts of northern england away from that rain towards the far northeast. drier and brighterfor a time, a few sunny spells, and still that big range of temperatures from north to south across the uk. now the overall pattern doesn't change very much as we go through friday night into saturday morning. still the showers or bands of rain circulating around an area of low pressure, and still very wet for some of us in north—east england, along the east coast of scotland with that snow further inland, and especially into the hills — still snowing, perhaps for some of us, even into the start of the weekend. for all this weekend, it turns much colder and that snow becomes more widespread. plenty of cloud around on saturday, showers or spells of rain especially in the east with the wind starting to pick up, as well. i think deeper on into saturday, more of that rain turning into snow in northern england initially on the hills. looks to be a drier day though in northern ireland. 0vernight and into sunday, the cold air really starts to dig in. rain turning to snow across eastern parts, could be a prolonged spell of snow across parts of east anglia and south—east england, then further snow showers in the east — some may push further west. regardless, though, for all of us, it is much colder by then. welcome to bbc news. i'm rich preston. our top stories: president biden promises that america will reengage with the world and step up efforts to end the war in yemen. i have asked my middle east team to ensure our support for the united nations led initiative to impose a ceasefire, open humanitarian channels and restore long dormant peace talks. the us and britain vowed to take action after a bbc investigation revealed harrowing accounts of uighur women in chinese camps being tortured and raped. the us congresswoman marjorie taylor greene is stripped of her high—profile posts following several controversial remarks. and we visit the british street were having a baby is becoming

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