Amnesty International raises concern over UK nurse deaths from Covid-19

Analysis from the global human rights organisation found that the UK had recorded the second-highest number of deaths among this workforce in the world.

“We must learn lessons from this current crisis if we want to prevent future unnecessary deaths”

Kate Allen

The 61-page report - Exposed, Silenced, Attacked: Failures to protect health and essential workers during the pandemic – stated that more than 3,000 health workers have died after contracting Covid-19 across 79 countries.

Russia was found to have recorded the most health worker deaths at 545, while England and Wales had the second highest with 540 deaths across the health and social care sectors.

However, Amnesty International said the comparison was unlikely to be truly accurate due to differences in reporting and under-reporting from some countries.

For example, unlike the other countries that recorded high death numbers, the UK factored in deaths among social care professionals in its overall figures as opposed to health workers only.

Nevertheless, Amnesty International is calling for an "urgent public inquiry" to be held to scrutinise the UK government's approach to the crisis.

The data on deaths in England and Wales used in the report were sourced from the Office of National Statistics (ONS).

These figures showed that, as of 26 June 2020, 268 deaths involving Covid-19 had been registered among social care workers across the two countries, and 272 deaths among health workers.

As previously reported by Nursing Times, the same ONS figures had revealed that more than 100 nurses had died with Covid-19 across England and Wales this year.

The Amnesty International report also flagged that staff from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds were “significantly over-represented” in the total number of Covid-19-related health worker deaths in the UK.

Meanwhile, other countries found to have high staff death rates included the USA with 507, Brazil with 351 and Italy with 188.

In addition, Egypt had reported 111 health and care worker deaths from Covid-19, Iran had 91, Ecuador had 82 and Spain had 63.

The document also explored reports of a lack of adequate personal protective equipment (PPE), workload and mental health concerns, and issues around stigma, discrimination and violence.

The provision and supply of PPE has been an ongoing concern for nurses in the UK, particularly at the peak of the crisis.

One nurse told Amnesty International that “questions about supply of PPE dominate most days” at their place of work and that there was “no guarantee of ongoing supply”.

“Currently ICU [intensive care unit] is prioritised, but we know that other areas of our hospital are going without adequate supplies,” the nurse added.

“It feels very much like our trust was ill-prepared: this crisis started in January, and we only ramped up orders in March.”

The report also acknowledged the toll the coronavirus pandemic was having on “the levels of tiredness, stress and anxiety” of health and care workers during this time.

One intensive care nurse from the UK, quoted in the document, described their everyday life at work as like “running on a treadmill with the speed set on high and you trying to keep pace”, adding that “everyone is tired and anxious”.

They added: “We've got amazing colleagues from other parts of the hospital coming to help us, but they're anxious being in this environment and need a lot of support and guidance that we can't give.

“It's emotionally exhausting; I've heard a son say goodbye to his mother over the phone, admitted a nurse from one of the wards and held her hand as she was put to sleep to be put on the ventilator and comforted a woman who lost her husband at the age of 40 leaving her to bring up two kids alone. I've cried a lot.”

Nursing Times recently launched a new campaign – Covid-19: Are You Ok? – to highlight the mental health pressures and needs of nurses during and after the coronavirus pandemic.

In an exclusive Nursing Times survey, as part of the campaign, it was revealed that almost all nursing staff are feeling more stressed and anxious than usual, with a third describing the state of their mental health as "bad" during the Covid-19 crisis.

Based on the findings from its report, Amnesty International has made a series of recommendations to “ensure that health and essential workers are adequately protected during the Covid-19 pandemic”.

As part of this, the report called on states to “collect and publish data by occupation, including categories of health and other essential workers who have been infected by Covid-19, and how many have died as a result, in order to ensure effective protection in the future”.

“This is in no way an accurate comparison"

DHSC spokesperson

In addition, those behind the report wanted states to ensure that employers “provide all health and essential workers with adequate PPE to protect themselves during the Covid-19 pandemic, in line with international standards”.

The report also made a series of suggestions to help states take “active steps to protect the mental health” of staff such as by the implementation of occupational health strategies that recognised the need for psychological support for health and care workers.

Commenting on the report, Amnesty International UK’s director Kate Allen said: “It is tragic that we’ve seen so many of our dedicated health and social care workers in England and Wales die from Covid-19.

“We have to understand whether these deaths were avoidable, and what led to this terrible outcome.”

She added: “There appears to have been a catastrophic failure to provide proper PPE and a failure to grapple with the alarmingly high death rates among BAME health workers.”

Ms Allen said an independent inquiry into the government’s handling of the pandemic was “urgently needed”.

“We must learn lessons from this current crisis if we want to prevent future unnecessary deaths,” she said.

Sanhita Ambast, Amnesty International’s economic, social and cultural rights researcher, added: “We call on all states affected by Covid-19 to carry out independent public reviews into their preparedness for and responses to the pandemic, with a view to better protecting human rights and lives in the event of a future mass disease outbreak.”

In response a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said: “This is in no way an accurate comparison - by Amnesty’s own admission, this data is distorted by the fact the UK is one of the few countries to count social care worker deaths.

“We have continuously supplied PPE to the frontline throughout this unprecedented global pandemic, with over 2 billion items delivered and almost 28 billion items ordered to meet future demand, and we have prioritised testing for health and care workers from the outset.”

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