NHS nurse reduced to tears over panic-buying now self-isolating with coronavirus symptoms, ‘It’s lonely, but I’ll get there’

50 per cent of staff in some NHS trusts off work with Covid-19 symptoms, hospitals chief warns

An NHS nurse whose emotional plea for people to stop panic-buying moved the nation has described being “floored” with coronavirus symptoms.

Dawn Bilbrough recorded herself in tears after finishing a shift as a critical care nurse to discover the shelves at her local supermarket stripped bare of essentials.

In footage viewed millions of times after it was picked up by BBC Yorkshire, she said: “You just need to stop it, because it’s people like me that are going to be looking after you when you’re at your lowest.”

Just days later, Ms Bilborough was forced to self-isolate after developing Covid-19 symptoms.

“It began with chest discomfort when I do anything ... that’s making me kind of breathless right now,” she told ITV’s Good Morning Britain on Thursday, adding that she has ongoing nausea and persistent headaches.

“I’m quite fit and healthy, I work out, I’ve got strong immunity, but it’s floored me. I’m very lethargic, I can’t do very much.”

Describing her decision to self-isolate, she added: “It’s okay. It’s day four now, I’m just sleeping lots, so that’s okay. It’s a bit lonely, but I’ll get there.”

However, while Ms Bilbrough believes she has coronavirus, she cannot be certain as she has not been tested.

Under intense pressure to make testing available for NHS staff at least, the government has purchased 3.5 million tests for coronavirus antibodies – which show if a person has contracted the virus, and therefore is likely immune.

Despite some confusion, England’s chief medical officer Chris Whitty pledged on Wednesday that these tests will be prioritised for NHS staff once they are rolled out.

As a result, Ms Bilbrough is far from alone in fearing going to work and spreading the virus.

England’s representative body for hospital bosses has warned 30 to 50 per cent of medical staff are currently off work with coronavirus symptoms in some NHS trusts.

At the same time, Chris Hopson, the chief executive of NHS Providers, revealed hospitals ”are struggling with the explosion of demand in seriously ill patients”, describing it as a “continuous tsunami”.

“As one said to me, it’s much bigger and large numbers with a greater degree of stretch than you can ever have possibly imagined,” he told the BBC’s Today programme.

Asked if she believed hospital wards were still experiencing the calm before the storm, Ms Bilbrough said her colleagues’ caseloads were increasing every day, and appealed for the public to abide by the government’s lockdown rules.

“My colleagues and friends are all quite worried that we don’t think people in the United Kingdom are taking this seriously,” she said.

“People are going to die, you need to stay indoors, you need to protect the NHS and you need to save lives.”

Despite the challenges ahead, Ms Bilbrough said she believed morale among her colleagues remained high, and she hoped to return to work on Monday if her symptoms allowed.

“It’s good, it’s always good, we keep each other going,” she said. “We have our moments, but we keep each other going.”