NHS nurse: 'I used to go into work happy – not anymore'
This A&E nurse moved LBC listeners with her first-hand account of the chaos in UK hospitals as Omicron cases skyrocket.
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Karen phoned in from Sheffield to share her experience on the front line with Eddie Mair, as a number of hospitals nationwide declare crisis situations.
"Every day I go into work you start your shift with a fear of dread and doom" she began.
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She revealed that 12 hour waits at A&E are "not unusual now", adding that "government targets have gone out the window."
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Listening to Karen (an A&E Nurse) on @LBC @eddiemair show.
— Mr B 🙋♂️ (@MrB_online) January 4, 2022
Jaw dropping and heart breaking recall of her work in A&E.
She and everyone like her are heroes and we owe them so much!
@LBC "Karen" speaks much more sense than Johnson.
— Sunrise in Suffolk. (@SunriseSuffolk) January 4, 2022
"I come home I cry. This morning I didn’t want to go, I cried before I went, but I went. We are desperately short of staff.
"We were already depleted and now because of Omicron…we've been down, instead of ten qualified nurses on shift – two!"
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Reacting to the Health Secretary Sajid Javid's insistence that there won't be any further restrictions, the caller said he "needs to come to work with me for a shift" to see the issues firsthand.
"I’ve gone through shifts where I haven’t even had a wee all day".
Such an incredibly powerful call on with @eddiemair on @lbc right now, huge thanks and support to Karen the @NHS nurse. This is what over a decade of @Conservatives underfunding the @NHS has done. @NHSMillion 💙 #ProtectTheNHS #FundTheNHSProperly #ToryCovidCatastrophe #COVID19
— Chris Read 💙 (@CJRead82) January 4, 2022
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"I’ve been in emergency nursing for 30 years and I can honestly say I’ve never seen anything like this. It’s totally unsustainable", the caller said.
"I used to go into work happy – not anymore."