2020 will forever be remembered as the year the Coronavirus pandemic changed life as we know it across the world. Economies crashed, livelihoods were eradicated, and thousands of lives were shortened or devastated by the effects of this novel virus. In the UK, the National Health Service was thrust into the limelight as the country watched our healthcare system respond to the consequences of this disease.
This book traces a timeline of the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting key events in how the UK and the NHS approached these unparalleled events. Comparisons are made with tactics used around the globe and the decisions of our leaders questioned.
Alongside the facts, are stories. Every one of us has a ‘Covid story’ to tell, and this book is a collection of some of these stories from our frontline staff. As the country went into rapid lockdown in March, the staff of the NHS donned their PPE and continued to go to work. They tell us what peak pandemic was like in the emergency departments, wards, ICUs, GP practices, care homes and the ambulances of the UK. We hear from a nurse who became a covid patient in her own ICU; staff from the rapidly constructed Nightingale hospital; a GP who returned from retirement to assist with the response; as well as stories from international healthcare professionals such a as a cruise ship nurse in the Caribbean, a public health consultant in Australia and ED doctors in South Africa.