Hospitals Are Losing the Coronavirus Battle
Failing to protect medical workers threatens Britain’s ability to combat Covid-19 and undermines one of the country’s most revered institutions.
Health care workers need all the protection they can get.
Photographer: Antonio Masiello/Getty Images EuropeIn the past week, four U.K. doctors have died from Covid-19; the youngest was 55. There will be more to come if the government doesn’t quickly resolve the shortages of personal protective equipment, or PPE, in hospitals and medical centers.
The British Medical Association wasn’t being dramatic when it said this week that health workers treating Covid-19 patients face “life-threatening” shortages of PPE, and asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer for enhanced death-in-service insurance cover. A failure to protect medical personnel will not only threaten Britain’s ability to help those worst affected by Covid-19 — it could also undermine the bonds of trust that have kept the country's under-resourced health service punching above its weight.