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I'll say it now. If we survive this wave, the NHS will be broken and barely recognisable. The things we are asking the staff to do now in the full to overflowing ICUs will break many of them..
There is dramatic moral distress going on. Surge nurses unused to caring for ICU patients have been asked to step up and are doing things beyond their prior training. Experienced ICU nurses are being forced to cut corners because there's just no other way.
Many junior doctors are experiencing more death in a short space of time than they've ever had to before. Exams and training have been suspended. There is loss of autonomy due to rapid changes to rotas. Promises of staff vaccinations have been changed with delays to 2nd doses.
Many NHS staff from abroad who have come to the UK to work have realised the pandemic is better managed in their home countries and that this gross mismanagement has come at an extreme cost to their own personal safety and health.
There will be serious elective work backlogs to work through in between waves that mean staff will not get a chance to rest even after this lockdown ends.
Things do not look good. The public needs to understand "Protect the NHS" in the government slogan does not mean protect the NHS for the staff working within it. It means protect the NHS so that it can continue to deliver safe care for all. Now and into the future.
