A year ago today, we lost the first of too many healthcare workers to covid as Dr Adil El Tayar and Dr Habib Zaidi passed away. Since their tragic deaths,…
Dr Rinesh Parmar DAUK Chair in The Independent “The families of our colleagues who have died deserve to know what happened, the circumstances surrounding the death and whether a lack of adequate PPE led to the deaths of loved ones.”
Following months of lobbying by DAUK Government ministers have asked medical examiners in England and Wales to review all deaths of frontline health and social care staff from COVID-19.
DAUK is seeking a judicial review after ministers refused to start an inquiry into whether NHS staff and care workers received adequate PPE in the wake of hundreds of healthcare worker deaths.
The deaths of more than 50 hospital and care home workers have been reported to Britain’s health and safety regulator, which is considering launching criminal investigations, the Guardian has learned.
Rinesh Parmar, the chair of the Doctors Association UK, has expressed concern. He said: “The provision of PPE is so vital to the safety of health workers that to suggest coroners do not consider its supply in detail misses a big part of the picture.”
He added: “Only comprehensive inquests into the deaths of every NHS and care worker will give the bereaved the ability to ask questions and have the circumstances of their loved ones’ deaths fully explained.”
The Doctors’ Association are the first to write to the Chief Coroner today about the guidance he published on 28th April 2020 into the investigation of healthcare worker COVID-19 deaths. We felt that the guidance sought to limit the opening of inquests into deaths caused by coronavirus and also the scope of those inquests that are opened. It is alarming that the guidance suggests that most deaths of healthcare workers caused by COVID-19 should not receive any investigation at all.