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Apr 2020

Last Updated: 14/04/2020

Health

'Sent out unarmed to fight an unseen enemy' -one Harrogate district councillor believes some health staff face a horrific situation

by Tim

| 14 Apr, 2020

Independent Pauline McHardy, who worked for 41 years as a nurse, says shortages of PPE are putting some local healthcare providers at risk

Independent councillor Pauline McHardy believes some hospital workers in the front line are being 'sent out unarmed" to fight coronavirus. Cllr Hardy worked as a Registered Nurse in Ripon and Harrogate for 41 years and represented both nursing and domestic staff in roles as an area secretary for the Royal College of Nursing and branch secretary for UNISON,

The three-times Mayor of Ripon, who is councillor on Ripon City and Harrogate Borough councils, fully supports the RCN's stance that nurses should refuse to treat coronavirus patients if they are not supplied with the necessary protective equipment.

Cllr McHardy, who formerly worked in the city's St Wilfrid and Ripon Community hospitals as well as Harrogate Hospital, has close relatives who work in the NHS and told The Stray Ferret:

"You know that the situation is getting absolutely dire when the RCN is recommending to its members that they withdraw their labour."

She added:

"Day after day we are being told by the government that the PPE is on its way and there is plenty to go around, but in the meantime, some of the people on the front line, including doctors, nurses, nursing assistants, porters and domestic staff, are being sent out unarmed to fight an unseen enemy.

It's a horrific situation that nursing staff face, because they will always put the patient first, as they see what they are doing as a vocation, not a job, but you have to ask yourself what will happen to the NHS, if the people who deliver its services are not properly protected?"

Cllr McHardy stressed that she is not critical of local health service providers, who are having to cope with shortages of PPE, while providing the highest standards of care and she pointed out:

"They have been put in an invidious position and, as a person who has been passionate about the NHS for all of my adult life, I feel it my duty to speak up for them."