After working a 13-hour shift on the Covid front line, watching people fighting for their lives while terrified and alone, nurse Stuart Tuckwood went back to his lonely room in hospital accommodation, showered, and went straight to bed ready to get up in a few hours to do it all again.
Hitting back at claims from Tory MP Michael Fabricant that NHS staff would "go back to the staff room and have a quiet drink" after a busy shift, Stuart says this couldn't be further from the truth. He says the thought would never have even occurred to them.
In fact, Stuart didn't see anyone away from the hospital due to fears of catching the virus and missing shifts, which would have added to the strain on the already overwhelmed hospital.
He's is one of a group of nurses and medical staff to tell The Mirror how they spent their evenings in the pandemic - and it couldn't be further from the boozy illegal parties at Downing Street.
The 32-year-old, from Liverpool, who was called back to the front line during the pandemic to help his NHS colleagues, said: "There was absolutely no way that at the end of a shift, we’d be sitting back and having a couple of beers or a cheese board with work colleagues or something.
"It was home. Change, shower, try and get some sleep."
Stuart moved into hospital accommodation to avoid spreading the virus to his loved ones, which meant he spent the evenings alone.
Staff in his team even refrained from meeting up between the lockdowns as they were worried about catching Covid and being unable to go to work.
Stuart describes Fabricant’s comments as “insulting”, adding: “He needs to retract his comments. He needs to apologise. He obviously doesn't have the faintest idea what it’s like to be a nurse or health care worker.”
He works for UNISON and says his organisation would like him to sit down with them to hear their experiences and find out what it was really like.
Nurse Sara Roberts says her NHS colleagues in Cambridge would never have even considered having a quick drink after work - and even if they did want to, they wouldn’t have been able to as their staff rooms were closed due to social distancing .
The 41-year-old said: “I cannot describe how furious these comments have made me.
“We finished our shift and we cried. We finished our shifts and were grateful our families were safe. We finished our shifts mentally exhausted from comforting terrified patients, relatives, and colleagues. Our staff rooms were taken away from us, social distancing taped out in the canteen.
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“Not once, even outside of Covid, have I ever even considered having a drink in the staffroom. Not at Christmas, or Hogmanay, or on birthdays.
“Drinking to relieve stress after a hard shift in the staff room - the suggestion is beyond comprehension. Our code of conduct is clear, it’s not appropriate behaviour for a nurse, and if we lied as the Prime Minister has done when caught - we would be struck off. I really have never been so angered".
Sara, who had to sacrifice her children's birthday parties since the pandemic, says that Covid has left her and her colleagues feeling isolated and drained.
“The added stress of homeschooling whilst carrying the pressure of full-time work. I missed my gran’s 90th birthday. She stayed in by herself. My kids missed their birthday parties. My sister delayed her wedding. I was lucky that our family stayed healthy."
Nurse Huw Edward Rees was unable to take time off work after losing his father to Covid due to staff shortages at his hospital.
The 58-year-old said: “Before my father died I didn't see him because we weren't allowed to visit, and that will stay with me forever. You just don’t get over that. It’s awful. We thought we were all doing our bit, keeping him safe - but these people, Boris, the party, they just do what they want.
“It’s one rule for them, another for us. I feel like I'm in a position where I did everything I could and then I see this on the news. I just can't believe they had the cheek to stand there and lie".
Huw, who has been working for the NHS for 41 years, said that after every 12-HOUR shift, drinking in the staff room was the last thing on his mind.
He recalled: “The reality of the end of our shifts was that we were praying that the night staff would come in to relieve us because it didn't always work like that. If the night staff did not come in, we were not going home. That was the reality. People were phoning in sick and so on. It was a real struggle.
“I would go home straight after work, after a 12-hour shift, after travelling an hour into work and an hour back home, strip off, shower and get into bed to get up the next day and start again because we were all working day after day after day because there was no staff. I was terrified that I would pass something onto my household".
Politician Michael Fabricant came under fire for his defence of Prime Minister Boris Johnson amid controversy over Downing Street parties.
Mr Johnson, his wife Carrie Johnson, and Chancellor Rishi Sunak have all been issued fines by the Met Police for breaching lockdown restrictions.
The PM has since paid the fine, issued after he attended his own birthday party in Downing Street back in June 2020, and has made a public apology.
Lichfield MP Fabricant said he thought that Mr Johnson would have to come to the Commons on Tuesday, when parliament returns after the Easter holiday, to apologise.
He went on to say: "Having said that, I don’t think that at any time [Johnson] thought that he was breaking the law.
"I think that at the time he thought, just like many teachers and nurses who after a very, very long shift would tend to go back to the staff room and have a quiet drink - which is more or less what he has done."
Mr Fabricant added: "But I don’t think he thought he was breaking the law. But of course that doesn’t make any sort of excuse."
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