‘I’m asking patients if they want to die in hospital or at home’: NHS junior A&E doctor, 32, gives stark glimpse from the frontline of coronavirus crisis and conversations ‘she never thought she would have’
- Dr Katie Sanderson pleaded with members of the public to ‘help prevent deaths’
- The Acute Medicine doctor said she’d been reduced to tears in hospital toilets
- Said: ‘I do not want to be overwhelmed by tears in a loo at work because somebody sends me a picture today of people queuing unsafely’
- Dr Sanderson is forced to ask patients, ‘if they want to die at home or in hospital’
- Coronavirus symptoms: what are they and should you see a doctor?
A junior doctor today issued a moving appeal to members of the public as she urged them to stay indoors and ‘prevent further avoidable deaths.’
Dr Katie Sanderson, a junior doctor in Acute Medicine at a London hospital, pleaded with listeners to ‘stop and think before leaving their house’ as she spoke to BBC Radio 4 this morning.
The 32-year-old told the show she had been ‘reduced to tears in the work loos’ after seeing pictures of people queuing ‘unsafely’ up and down the country
Dr Sanderson said she was now forced to ask coronavirus patients and their loved ones whether they ‘want to die in hospital or at home.’
Ambulances outside an NHS centre in London yesterday as hospitals anxiously await further coronavirus admissions
Dr Sanderson told Radio 4 the situation across the UK, ‘is involving incredibly rapidly.’
She added: ‘Last week our A&E completely transformed and is now seeing large numbers of patients coming in every day.
‘I’m having conversations with patients and families of patients asking if they want to die in hospital, where we’re not allowed to have visitors, or if they want to die at home.
‘They’re conversations that last week I cannot have imagined having.’
She also warned that while London may be the epicentre of coronavirus cases at present, the rest of the UK will soon be affected.
She said: ‘Even if this is not the situation in hospitals outside London yet, things are going to evolve incredibly rapidly there and what I would say is; don’t think about hospital bed numbers, intensive care, capacity today.
‘Think about where we will be tomorrow, the day after, next week.
‘I love my job and I want to spend the rest of my working life working in palliative care, looking after people who are dying. Healthcare workers have chosen to devote their working lives to looking after the sick and the dying.
‘We will look after your relatives with compassion, with care and love.
‘But I do not want to be overwhelmed by tears in a loo at work because somebody sends me a picture today of people queuing unsafely.
‘This is going to be hard enough as it is and what we need you to do is make sure that every person sits down this morning before they leave their house, reads the guidance, stops and thinks about it and how you will interpret it and behaves as safely as possible.
‘We have had preventable transmissions of this deadly infection over the weekend and yesterday.’
Nurses at Northwick Park Hospital
Dr Sanderson then issued a desperate plea to members of the public to stop and think about how they can help others.
‘What I want every single person in this country to think this morning – is how we can have not a single further preventable death or preventable transmission of this infection and that doesn’t involve waiting for further clarification of the guidance, somebody cannot tell you what to do every second of the day.’
Asked if the government has been strict enough, she added: ‘I don’t think it matters, it is not a time for recrimination or criticism of government policy, I am sure the time will come when our response to this problem will be dissected.
‘I want to join my voice with voice of Boris Johnson – which is not something I thought I would say – and say please don’t think about the mistakes we have made, please start the clock again.
‘It is the 24th of march. We can make sure that there is not a single further preventable death that could be your mother, it could be you.
‘There are healthcare professionals in intensive care now who are my age – I’m 32. Please, please, please don’t spend your time talking today about mistakes that may have been made just think about what you can do to save lives.’