A group of health workers with long Covid who believe they caught the virus at work are taking their claim for compensation to the High Court today (6 March).
The workers, spread across England and Wales, are suing the NHS and the individual health trusts they were employed by, claiming they were not properly protected from Covid-19 at the height of the pandemic.
Some say they have been left with life-changing disabilities and are likely to lose income, after they were not provided with adequate PPE such as gloves, eye protection gowns or aprons.
Long Covid
Covid-related illnesses still not recognised as occupational diseases
They were given face masks in line with national guidance, but claim they should have been given masks that block droplets from patients’ coughs and sneezes.
The Office for National Statistics has estimated 1.9 million people are suffering with long Covid.
Organisations including the TUC, the British Medical Association and the Royal College of Nursing have called for it to be recognised as an occupational disease for health and social care workers.
One nurse, Rachel Hext, who worked at a small community hospital in Devon, told the BBC she now suffers from persistent symptoms including brain fog, extreme fatigue, nerve damage and deafness in one ear after catching Covid-19 at work.
She said: “It’s devastating. I live an existence rather than a life. It prevents me doing so much of what I want to do. And it’s been four years.
“I had 30 years of working life ahead of me. And now I don’t…I’m really sad that it’s come to this.”
Another health worker, Peter Easton who worked in emergency theatres in Cardiff, said: “Now, I get up, take the kids to school. I come home and I sit on the chair with a heated blanket because that helps my legs. Another thing is, I can’t deal with the cold.
“That’s it. That is my life. I’ve tried going back to work. I just can’t.”
Personal injury solicitor Kevin Digby from QA Solicitors, who is representing around 60 claimants in the case, said the health workers had been “abandoned”.
“Now, they can take it to court and hope that they can get some compensation for the injuries that they’ve suffered,” he told the BBC.
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A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We have always said there are lessons to be learnt from the pandemic. We will consider all recommendations made to the department in full.”
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