Were doctors left ill-equipped to face the COVID pandemic?

Notwithstanding some of these positive developments in our understanding of Long COVID, a one size fits all treatment for the various ways it manifests in people is therefore unlikely to materialise. And it’s a problem that could be with us for many years to come. In the meantime, some of those living with Long COVID feel forgotten, among them medical professionals who were on the front line of the pandemic response. Doctors like Nathalie MacDermott feel they were offered insufficient protection for the danger they were exposed to, and some, like Nathalie, are now living with debilitating long term health problems that impact on their ability to do the job they were trained for…

Chris - Can you do your job still? Because you were on the wards looking after little kids. Can you still do that?

Nathalie - Not really, or not in the way I did before. I would like to keep doing that, but even just to complete my training, which I've just finished, has really cost me from a health perspective. So I might be able to do the research side of my job provided I can get more funding. But the actual full-time clinical component is very difficult for me. I'm looking at maybe moderated job plans, but I can't be the doctor I was hoping to be. And I also am very passionate about disaster and epidemic response and well, I'm just not convinced that many organisations would want to send me out to a disaster zone right now.

Chris - If you can't do your job that you've been training to do, you're aspiring to do and you were good at, does this mean that, you basically can't practise, how is the NHS or your employer looking after you because you were effectively being exposed to a threat. You've ended up with this problem almost certainly because of that threat and succumbed to damage because of it. What do they say?

Nathalie - Well, unfortunately not a lot really. The problem is that because I've come to the end of my training whilst I was in training, obviously there was some degree of protection to help me get to the end of my training. But as with any doctor, when they finish their training, they then need to apply for consultant posts. And it's very difficult for me to apply for a consultant post because I need modifications in place to do that. So essentially I'm applying for a job that I know I can't do without adaptations and modifications to the job plan. And that's a very difficult thing to do. Otherwise I can continue in research and I can apply for research funding. But so far I haven't been very successful at that either.

Chris - But is there nothing occupationally that you can do because if I succumb to an injury at work, then I have a reasonable expectation that someone will make good on that.

Nathalie - Well, I think that the problem is that at the moment there's a lot of to-ing and fro-ing between who made the decisions about the personal protective equipment we were provided with. I think a lot of people don't realise that many of us were working on covid wards with nothing but a surgical mask. I found it ironic that there would be people on the underground who had better PPE on than we were given working with known cases of covid. But no one will quite acknowledge the decision making chain that brought about the blanket policy on PPE. And I believe that our employer had a duty of care to protect us as best they could. I mean, nothing is 100%, but as best they could and that they failed in that regard. But unfortunately, until we get a clear understanding of the pathway of decision making and why those decisions were made, it's very difficult to challenge. But we are now trying to take legal action on behalf of all healthcare workers who may have been very negatively affected by this virus to try and get those answers. As well as for some of my colleagues who are unable to work at all, to find some kind of compensation for them because they've lost their careers and their livelihoods.

An NHS spokesperson said: “Long COVID remains a new and complex condition and it’s important we continue to build an evidence base of proven interventions that can support people to manage their symptoms and aid recovery.

“The NHS has established over 100 specialist post COVID services across England which offer a range of specialist, multidisciplinary support in managing and treating the physical and psychological impacts of long COVID – if you are concerned about ongoing symptoms following COVID-19, please speak to your GP team.