‘Broken’ NHS staff in the North West ‘terrified’ of impact of reopening on June 21st

‘Broken’ NHS staff across the North West have been urging the government to be cautious in their reopening plans for June 21st.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been repeatedly warned that the lifting of the final lockdown measures in place on June 21st could be a ‘recipe for disaster’ by numerous healthcare professionals. 

Frontline workers have also been expressing their fears about the impact of reopening in the coming weeks, with some describing the health service as still ‘on its knees’ and at higher capacity than usual, despite half of all UK adults being estimated to having received their Covid vaccines.

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Dr Emily Ball, a general practitioner in the region, told ITV News that GPs were ‘pretty broken and close to burnout.’

She said: “The biggest frustration is this idea that GPs haven’t been open, or have been trying not to deal with patients, when actually general practice is a bit of a mess.

“In March, we dealt with more patients than we ever have since records began. So the stuff we are doing is greater than ever, and unfortunately so is the amount of abuse we are taking.

“The NHS is still in crisis and we cannot cope as it is. Unlocking poses a real threat to it just collapsing, and my biggest concern is patient safety.”

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Dr. Megan Smith, a campaigner from EveryDoctor, a group fighting for a better NHS for both doctors and patients, seconded this view and admitted that herself and her colleagues are ‘terrified’ over hospitals becoming overwhelmed again.

Dr. Smith said: “Everyone in the NHS at the moment is kind of terrified. Now patients have presented and a lot of them are presenting in a worse state.

“We’ve heard of hospitals effectively closing their waiting lists, which is unheard of. Without question, there should be a pause. And in my view, there should be a look at whether there needs to be backtracking and have more restrictions in place.”

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This comes just days after Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the government would be open to delaying the June 21st reopening date.

Hancock told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show: “We are absolutely open to doing that if that’s what needs to happen.

“We said in the road map that June 21st is the date by which we would not take Step 4 before that date and that we would look at the data.”