Medics including from the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and senior NHS figures in the North East have hit out at a Tory MP's "insult" after he defended Boris Johnson 's Downing Street parties by suggesting that "teachers and nurses [...] would tend to go back to the staff room and have a quiet drink" during the pandemic.
Michael Fabricant, the Conservative MP for Lichfield, was being interviewed on Sky News when he said he thought the Prime Minister Boris Johnson would be forced to apologise to the House of Commons after he was fined for attending a party in Downing Street during the first Covid-19 lockdown. Mr Fabricant said: "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. But I don’t think he thought he was breaking the law. But of course that doesn’t make any sort of excuse."
Read more: 'Get out of Downing Street now' – North East MPs demand Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak quit after lockdown fines '
These comments have been met with a backlash from the nursing profession, led by the RCN. General secretary Pat Cullen has written to Mr Fabricant to complain about his "factually incorrect" comments. She said: "We remain at the forefront of pandemic response. Despite political narrative, as health and care professionals we know the Covid-19 context is nowhere near over.
“While you position yourself with some authority as to the behaviour and actions of nurses during the pandemic, I'd like to inform you of the following facts. Throughout the pandemic - and still certainly, now - most days, nurses and nursing support workers, when finally finishing a number of unpaid hours well past shift end, will get home, clean their uniforms, shower and collapse into bed.
"Throughout the early pandemic, this was often alone, for the protection of others - kept away from family, friends and support networks. These shifts - in communities, in hospitals, anywhere people are - are long, unrelenting, understaffed and intense. At the end of one of the many hours, days and years we have worked, since recognition of the pandemic, I can assure you that none of us have sought to hang out and 'have a quiet one in the staff room.'
"There isn't a site in England that would allow alcohol on the premises for any professional to consume during working hours. As frontline professionals, still dealing with the implications of the pandemic - understaffed, underpaid, overworked, exhausted, burnt out and still holding it together while doing the best we can for our patients.
"It is utterly demoralising - and factually incorrect - to hear you suggest that our diligent, safety critical profession can reasonably be compared to any elected official breaking the law, at any time."
Trade union UNISON's national officer for nursing added: "Many nurses avoided their families for months - some moved into care homes to reduce transmission [and] protect their patients They were not having birthday parties or eating from cheese boards at work They made sacrifices whilst the PM partied."
Senior NHS staff in our region including Lisa Ward, executive director of nursing at the County Durham and Darlington NHS Trust, were among those to echo the RCN's condemnation. Tweeting in a personal capacity, she said: "At no point during the Covid pandemic, or indeed any time, do nurses go back to the staff room for a ‘quiet drink’ This would be career ending (and rightly so). Struggling with my feelings on this given how hard we have all worked for the last 2 years [and] how broken many are."
Dr Mickey Jachuk - a cardiologist and clinical director at the South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Trust - also spoke up on social media, adding: "A number of dedicated & hard working colleagues left or retired during the pandemic - some with many years of service to the NHS - none were recognised for their contributions with the simple gesture of a leaving do, because everyone else followed the rules."
The Newcastle branch of the National Education Union also slammed Mr Fabricant's comments. In a tweeted comment the union said: "This is an outrageous slur on the professionalism of teachers and nurses during the pandemic. They might have had a cup of tea in their classrooms while catching up on planning or marking, but I don't know what planet he lives on if he thinks staffroom drinking is a thing."
Both PM Boris Johnson and Chancellor Rishi Sunak were fined over a gathering in the Cabinet Room in Downing Street to mark Boris Johnson's 56th birthday on June 19 2020. Despite calls for their resignations, yesterday both men refused to step down from their roles.
Boris Johnson said it initially "did not occur" to him that the gathering had broken the coronavirus rules. He said: "I have paid the fine and I once again offer a full apology. In a spirit of openness and humility I want to be completely clear about what happened on that day." It was a "brief gathering in the Cabinet Room shortly after 2pm lasting less than 10 minutes."
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