As the number of confirmed cases of the CCP virus have risen in the United Kingdom, over 7,500 clinicians have responded to the call of the government to return to work for the National Health Service (NHS) and help tackle the outbreak.
On March 23, Matt Hancock, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, told MPs, “7,563 clinicians have so far answered our call to return to work, including Members of this House, and I want to pay tribute to every single one of them.”
He further added, “These are difficult times and they have risen to the call of the nation’s needs and we know that many more will join them.”
The Epoch Times refers to the novel coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19, as the CCP virus because the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) coverup and mismanagement allowed the virus to spread throughout China and create a global pandemic.
On March 20, as British hospitals were overstretched by the number of incoming cases, Hancock said on BBC Breakfast, “anybody who has had a recent qualification and has let that qualification lapse, as a doctor, as a nurse, to come back to the NHS.”
Hancock emphasized, “We really need you to come back to the NHS, to serve your NHS, in what is going to be a really difficult time.”
He further added that retired doctors and nurses would be receiving letters from the government. As per the NHS, more than 65,000 former nurses and doctors were told “the NHS needs you,” as a new recruitment drive.
Hancock mentioned that those who left the service recently would be able to join immediately, whilst the others would be provided with refresher courses.
Within 48 hours of issuing the call to service, over 4,000 nurses and 500 doctors responded. Hancock went on Twitter to thank those who had responded. However, he emphasized, “we need many more [...] the whole country needs the NHS now.”
Hancock was encouraged by the response from recently retired medical professionals. “From those I’ve talked to, I think people can see just how important this is,” he said, according to ITV News.
Regardless of doctors’ and nurses’ prior areas of specialization, Hancock emphasized that they would receive special training for handling this new pandemic. “We’re putting in place the training that some will need to get them back up to speed,” Hancock said, “also train them in the use of the ventilators, exactly what’s needed for coronavirus.”
Leaders within the health service, including Professor Stephen Powis, national medical director of the NHS, and Ruth May, chief nursing officer for England, echoed the government’s appeal, calling on their former colleagues to come back and lend a hand. May said, “[I] am urging all recent former nurses to lend us your expertise and experience during this pandemic, because I have no doubt that you can help to save lives.”
Powis stated that “[b]y offering to return to the NHS now, these thousands of well-qualified and compassionate people will make more of a difference than ever before—not just to patients, but to colleagues and the wider community.”
In addition, The General Medical Council, which maintains the register for medical practitioners in the United Kingdom, would be contacting the over 15,500 doctors who have left service in the last three years.
In light of the desperate need for staff in a variety of roles, both in terms of active treatment of COVID-19 cases, as well as support, medical schools have been urged to fast-track qualifications for final-year medical students, waiving requirements for the clinical exam.
Oxford University noted in a press release that 24 final-year medical students at the university have been volunteering in the emergency department (ED) at John Radcliffe Hospital since March 20.
Ordinary British people are also being directly appealed to by the government to help by “[staying] at home to protect the NHS.”
Hancock reminded people that “If you respect the people on the frontline of the NHS who are keeping people safe, then the thing you need to do is stay away from other people.”
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