A former social care nurse has told the Covid Inquiry that she wrote her final wishes on a card in case she died, after an outbreak left her as “the last nurse standing” at the care home where she worked.
It comes just days after former health secretary Matt Hancock defended his record on social care, which included rapidly discharging untested patients into care homes in the early days of the pandemic.
At an emotional appearance yesterday afternoon (3 July), the Inquiry heard that Charlotte Hudd was the “last nurse standing” at her place of work, after the five other nurses employed there tested positive for the disease. Forced to lock down at the home, she was left to care for 20 residents with complex needs on her own for ten days in January 2021.
Fearing for her safety, she wrote her final wishes, including Do Not Attempt Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (DNACPR) orders and what she wanted to be dressed in if she died, on a card at 3am, leaving it in a prominent place where it could be found.
The registered nurse and ordained minister now lives with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Long Covid following her experiences, during which she would work round the clock to provide care, moving into a deceased resident’s room and often only sleeping for 30 minutes at a time.
Between the winter of 2020 and January of 2021, the home lost almost half of its residents and two members of staff due to Covid-19.
There has been a staggering decline in the number of registered nurses working in social care in England, with just 34,000 posts filled in 2024, compared with 51,000 in 2012. According to Skills for care, there are 131,000 wider vacancies in adult social care, as of 2023/24.
Reverend Charlotte Hudd said in her written evidence: “The shifts felt like being a soldier on guard duty in the trenches. There was one resident next door to my room whom I would hear crying at night and another opposite, repeatedly shouted out for help. During periods of anxiety I would hold back the panic, retreating into the medicine cupboard to cry where no one could hear me.
“I realised I had to be strong and resilient for my residents, their loved ones and staff. They needed me to be present. My emotions lurched from stomach to chest, and I tried to keep anxiety sealed in a lead-lined box secured by chains deep inside of me.”
In her testimony, Charlotte said that her and her colleagues were caused moral distress by the level of understaffing at the home, fearing they could not meet people’s needs, be blamed for incidents and fall foul of the Nursing and Midwifery (NMC) Code of Conduct.
She also described how PPE (personal protective equipment) was in such short supply at a separate care home, that she and her colleagues had to make their own gowns from bedsheets and store their limited number of masks in freezer bags so they could be reused.
In its opening submissions, presented to the Inquiry earlier this week, the 国内精品伊人久久久久妇 said the experiences of those working in the care sector were dangerously overlooked during the pandemic, which had a detrimental and sometimes fatal impact on those who were on the frontline of care.
It said: “This is not just a lesson to be learned but also a warning that with the current level of staffing, the number of vacancies and the long-term effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, such as Long Covid, the UK Care Sector and its workers are struggling to meet the health and care needs of the population. Inevitably, as matters currently stand, their ability to do so will be compromised in the event of a future pandemic.”
The College is warning that social care is unprepared for another pandemic due to nursing shortages and vacancies in the sector, and is calling for safety-critical nurse-to-patient ratios to be enshrined in law.
国内精品伊人久久久久妇 General Secretary and Chief Executive, Professor Nicola Ranger, said:
“Nursing staff risked their lives and experienced unimaginable trauma to keep us and our loved ones safe. But despite these sacrifices, the government is not heeding the hard-learnt lessons of the pandemic. Social care remains dangerously understaffed, while plans to reform and grow the sector are yet again being kicked down the road.
“This leaves our country exposed, should another infectious disease test the limits of the health system. Nursing staff deliver the vast majority of care and every time the number of nurses on a ward or in a care home goes down, patients are put at risk. The government must recognise the urgency of the situation and act. This starts with enshrining safety-critical nurse-to-patient ratios in law.”
Ends
Notes to editors
According to data from There were 51,000 registered nurses working in adult social care settings in England 2012, 40,000 in 2016 and 34,000 in 2024. There were 131,000 wider vacancies in adult social care, as of 2023/24.
A spokesperson for Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK said that Matt Hancock’s evidence at the Covid Inquiry . Hancock described the decision to rapidly discharge patients back into the community as he described discharging untested patients into care homes as “the least worst option”.
