A nurse who lost her job after developing long Covid has said nurses were treated as “disposable” during the pandemic.
Patricia Temple, who has been a nurse in various countries since 1972, told the UK Covid-19 Inquiry this week that nurses with long Covid had been “let down” by the health service.
“You can’t be clapped for one minute and declared disposable the next”
Patricia Temple
At the start of the pandemic, Ms Temple was working as a band five nurse in a cardiac care unit of an NHS trust.
However, in November 2020, she contracted Covid-19, and she told the inquiry that she believed she caught it from a patient at work due to a lack of appropriate personal protective equipment and risk assessments.
She became seriously ill from the virus and ended up spending 11 days in hospital.
In January 2021, Ms Temple attempted to return to work but then had to go back on sick leave in March 2021 because her long Covid symptoms made it difficult for her to do her job.
“It was six very difficult weeks; I tried my best to manage and not let my team down, because that’s really important to me, that one doesn’t let one’s colleagues down,” she told the inquiry.
By September 2023, Ms Temple had to take ill-health dismissal.
However, she told the inquiry that she felt there “could have been far more support” and “far more adjustments made” to try and keep her in work.
She said she was aware of other nurses facing the prospect of losing their jobs due to long Covid.
The fact that nurses were being placed in this position was one of the reasons why Ms Temple thought they had been “let down” by their managers and the health service during the pandemic.
“There are a lot of nurses out there who are beginning their careers and have had to take dismissal due to ill health,” she said.
“And that makes me feel that they consider nurses disposable, and I think that’s where they let us down particularly.”
While Ms Temple has been unable to return to “bedside nursing”, she said she remained a nurse and “always will be a nurse”.
She was now using her experience to support nursing students online one-to-one with their academic work.
In addition, she said she was developing an online programme for nurses with compassion fatigue, which she felt was prominent in the aftermath of the pandemic.
“I don’t hear conversations around long Covid in the context of healthcare-acquired infections”
Rose Gallagher
Looking ahead, she said she hoped that leaders would “learn lessons” from the pandemic and better support nurses in any future one.
She also called for more reasonable adjustments to be put in place to allow nurses with long Covid to continue to work if they feel able to.
Many nurses with long Covid “are still willing to nurse, and they still could nurse in many, many different capacities”, said Ms Temple.
“I have a lot of nurses who I know who are trying very, very hard to stay in the workplace and are unable to do so,” she said.
“And that’s something that I think should be seriously looked at and learned from.”
She said nurses needed to be treated like the “valuable resource” that they are, rather than as “disposable”.
“You can’t be clapped for one minute and declared disposable the next,” warned Ms Temple.
Following Ms Temple in the witness seat at the Covid inquiry on Monday was Rose Gallagher, professional lead for infection prevention and control (IPC) at the Royal College of Nursing.
Ms Gallagher was questioned about support for nurses with long Covid by lawyer Shanthi Sivakumaran, representing several long Covid support and advocacy groups.
During the session, Ms Gallagher admitted that she had “limited knowledge” about long Covid.
However, she agreed that data collection around healthcare workers with long Covid, and recognition of long Covid in IPC work, were all lacking.
Ms Gallagher added: “I don’t hear conversations around long Covid in the context of healthcare-acquired infections, whether that is in terms of the impact on patients or on staff.
“It’s something that we should certainly look at and look to embed within our education of our healthcare workers, both in terms of patients and staff.”
She acknowledged that, four years on from the start of the pandemic, “there’s still a lot more work that we need to do on long Covid”.
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