A lead hospital nurse who is on the front line treating Covid patients says there has been “no let-up this year”, with many staff on sick leave and others feeling “tired”.
Rachel Thaxter works at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, where healthcare staff have been battling against the second wave of the virus.
The hospital currently has 37 coronavirus patients, but in the last three weeks numbers inside Cambridgeshire’s hospitals have trebled.
Speaking about how staff were coping during the pandemic, Ms Thaxter said: “I think they’re generally quite tired. Although people have been taking their annual leave we normally have a bit of respite in the summer, and we’ve had no let-up this year at all – straight back into Covid.”
Her colleague, senior sister Charlotte Foster, said: “It’s difficult to see the end of where we’re at at the moment, in terms of high levels of sickness, and staff shortages and bed shortages. All we can really do is go day-to-day and hope the next shift is going to be better than the last one.”
