Paramedics and ambulances outside the Excel Centre while it is being prepared to become the NHS Nightingale Hospital (Picture: Reuters)

An A&E nurse has described the ‘devastation’ she and her collagues are witnessing every day during the coronavirus crisis in a desperate plea for people to stay at home.

The nurse – who gave her name only as Emma – works on an urgent care ward in the north of England and warned that if people don’t take the lockdown seriously ‘it could be you in hospital next week fighting for your life’.

In an interview with Emma Barnett on BBC Radio 5 Live, the nurse said: ‘I don’t expect people to understand the devastation because they’re not seeing it firsthand. We are.



‘I just think that we as healthcare workers in the NHS are in a different universe to the public. Please believe me when I say this virus is a silent killer. And it will continue to destroy lives if we don’t all pull together and prevent the spread.’


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Emma said healthcare staff are struggling to deal with the numbers of patients coming in ill with coronavirus, telling listeners the only protection NHS staff have is if the public stay inside their homes.

She warned: ‘None of us is invincible. The only protection we have from this virus is to protect each other and keep our distance and stay at home.

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‘So for those of you who are not taking it seriously just take it from me it could be you in hospital next week fighting for your life.’

Emma has sent her own children to her parents’ home to be cared for and protected from infection while she continues to take on extra hospital shifts.

She said there are ‘very real’ worries among frontline workers around a lack of protective clothing and equipment to prevent them falling ill.

‘These are unprecedented circumstances that nobody could have predicted or prepared for,’ she said.

Nurses have been taking coronavirus tests at a drive-through station for NHS staff in Chessington (Picture: Getty)

‘There is a worry that we are going to run out of protective equipment especially when the virus is at peak. We have been getting through masks and gowns like you wouldn’t believe but we have been reassured by our matron that we will have enough.

‘But honestly will we ever feel fully protected? No. Like you know, it’s not just droplets. It hangs around in the air for a few hours – we don’t wear our masks for the entirety of our shift – we don’t want to, it’s so hot and sweaty in our gear.

‘It’s suffocating at times and incredibly hard to communicate with patients and colleagues. But the reality is we will always have our anxieties whatever we wear, it is highly contagious.

‘The situation is frightening enough and I don’t want to focus my energy on whether we have enough protective equipment or ventilators or not. I trust that our senior managers will keep us safe and so far that has been the case.’

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The Clap for our Carers, held on Thursday night to thank health and social care staff on the frontline of the coronavirus battle, was ‘uplifting’, Emma said.



She said: ‘The coronavirus has put the NHS under the microscope for the general public to highlight how much strain we are under how understaffed and how overcrowded it is, how overworked and how overstretched we are.

‘We are so, so, so proud to care for the general public and it is an honour most of the time but I just hope that we will be treated with more respect going forward because when it comes down to it at a time of crisis it is a strong public health service that can protect you all.’

Listen to Emma Barnett’s interview with A&E Nurse Emma on BBC Sounds.

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