I am a midwife who still feels extreme anger about the way the pandemic was handled (Johnson government wasted £10bn on PPE, Covid inquiry finds, 14 July).
I remember being fitted for a FFP3 mask and then being told there weren’t enough to go around and given a basic paper mask instead. I remember being told that the hospital where I worked couldn’t keep providing clean scrubs, so I had to take my potentially infected scrubs home to wash instead. I remember management shutting computers down to enforce social distancing, then reopening them when they realised we needed those computers to do our jobs.
I remember being sent into homes where people had Covid to see new mums and babies, and wondering if I was going to die as a result. I remember Tory MPs joking that surely all workplaces were having social drinks after work. We weren’t: we had a staffroom about 2 metres by 1 metre for 20 members of staff, and had to supply our own washing-up liquid. We rushed home as fast as we could after our shifts to scrub off the infection so as not to endanger our families.
My huge anger remains. And I did not get a bonus. I didn’t even get paid particularly well. Hearing about the staggering sums squandered by Boris Johnson’s government, I feel as angry as ever. It is not unexpected, but it makes me reluctant to trust any government ever again. I hope Johnson is rightly ashamed of his legacy, although I doubt he is.
Laura Matthews
West Wickham, London
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