A doctor in London said the public’s applause for the NHS on Thursday night was a welcome boost “as we head into the storm”.
Up and down the country, members of the public put their hands together for NHS workers and others who have been battling the coronavirus pandemic.
Tom, 42, a consultant anaesthetist, heard the applause on his way home from work at a London hospital.
“It was really touching to hear the applause,” he told the PA news agency.
“We’re all so worried about whether we’re going to be able to be there for all the patients who are going to need us over the coming weeks and months, and knowing that the public have got our backs was much needed.
“Hearing the clapping told us that people out there know how hard everyone has been working to get ahead of the coming surge as much as we can, and that has given us a boost – a reminder that there’s a world outside the frantic bubble of Covid-related work we’ve all been living in for weeks now.”
He said: “We’ve all been daunted by what we’ve seen happening in Italy, and in China before that, and knowing that it is heading this way.
“In a few weeks, we’ve completely changed some things in the NHS which previously would have taken months or years to get sorted out, and the sense of can-do and expediency from all the staff has been heartening to see.
“It’s really felt like a huge collective endeavour – all hands on deck as we head into the storm.”
But while NHS workers welcomed the applause, many pointed out that:
Let me drive home a few facts, so far we do not have sufficient protective equipment for front line workers, we are worrying about capacity, we worry about ventilators, those are issues that need to be solved, clapping is nice but it doesn’t give us any of this!
— Dr Adrian Heald (@DrAdrianHeald) March 26, 2020
And as Francesca Martinez highlighted:
Now we've done our #clapforNHS:
Let's stop voting in the party who are destroying it.
Don't believe me?
Watch Dominic Cummings tell you how little the Tories care about the NHS in his own words…pic.twitter.com/OQpiqYa2Gl— Francesca Martinez (@chessmartinez) March 26, 2020
The applause for NHS workers across the country was moving, deserved and important. But this has to be combined with demands to ensure they have the resources they need to do for their job. And we must never forget the Conservative Party cheers when MPs voted against a pay rise for nurses and everything it has done to undermine and destroy the NHS.
