It’s time for the NHS to get back to work

As a doctor working in the NHS, I’ll never forget the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. There was a tide of death rolling over Europe from northern Italy, inexorably getting closer and closer to us every day. The media was full of scenes of Italian panic; ventilators in corridors, people left to die and a health service on its knees. The mood was understandably sombre. This was a crisis like never before. Protocols were drawn up, of who to save and who to let die.

At crisis meetings, the general theme was that there was currently no capacity for dealing with the expected numbers of sick. The talk was of a situation where there would be dead and dying in every corridor, in our operating theatres and filling our wards. Doctors from every specialty were asked to stop their routine services to release as many staff members as possible to deal with this coming disaster.