‘I’ll never forget it’: Harrowing testimony as doctor recalls intensive care visitspublished at 12:07 British Summer Time 26 September
Jim Reed
Reporting from the inquiry
Prof Chris Whitty is now giving evidence to the Covid inqury, which you can follow by pressing watch live above.
Just before him, the inquiry heard harrowing testimony from Professor Kevin Fong, former national clinical adviser in emergency preparedness at NHS England.
During the pandemic, Prof Fong, a consultant anaesthetist, conducted around 40 visits to intensive care units on behalf of NHS England to offer peer support to the doctors and nurses working there.
He wrote reports which were sent back to managers including Prof Whitty – England’s chief medical officer.
In emotional testimony to the inquiry, he repeatedly broke down while describing what he’d seen and his conversations with other staff members.
“I was greeted at the entrance by one of the ICU registrars,” he said about his first visit in December 2020.
“I asked him immediately what things had been like and… I’ll never forget, he replied it’s been like a terrorist attack every day since it started, and we don’t know when the attacks are going to stop.”
He described Covid as the “biggest national emergency this country has faced since World War Two”.