Coronavirus: Police trauma warning after one officer called to 15 Covid-related deaths in 24 hours

Exclusive: Police officers being called to 'more and more' coronavirus deaths in houses and care homes

Police officers are being “repeatedly exposed to trauma” as they are increasingly called to homes where people have died during the coronavirus outbreak, with one officer responding to 15 deaths in the space of 24 hours.

While official statistics show that most deaths linked to the pandemic happen inside hospitals, an estimated 7 per cent have happened in private homes and care facilities.

Police officers are called to every sudden death as a matter of course, and there are concerns that their experiences during the current outbreak could cause significant levels of mental illness.

The Police Federation of England and Wales said the unnamed officer who responded to 15 coronavirus-related deaths in 24 hours was receiving support, but was “certainly not the only one to be dealing with such a high volume of incidents”.

“The likelihood of officers attending more and more sudden deaths will increase,” vice chair Che Donald told The Independent.

“It’s more than just the exposure to the deceased, it’s the exposure to grieving family members. That takes its toll.”

The almost 9,000 coronavirus-related deaths so far reported by the Department of Health only include people who were hospitalised in the UK.

Research by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) found that 7 per cent of Covid-19 linked deaths in the week to 27 March happened outside hospitals, in people’s homes, hospices, care homes and other communal establishments.

If the distribution of coronavirus-related deaths has continued at the same rate, it would mean that police have been called to almost 700 incidents in England and Wales alone.

“Cops have never been prepared for something like this,” Mr Donald said.

“And then to add more complications to the mix, officers are anxious because they’re going out and they don’t know if they’re going to get exposed.

A police officer wears a protective face mask in Westminster (Reuters)

“They would never forgive themselves if they went to an incident and passed coronavirus to a loved one. There is a hell of a lot of anxiety and uncertainty in the service.”

His comments came amid a row over the provision of protective personal equipment (PPE) to officers, which the Police Federation said had become a “postcode lottery” across regional forces because of changing guidance.

New rules were issued on Thursday and the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) said sufficient stocks of masks and gloves were available.

Last week, senior officers told parliament’s Home Affairs Committee that they had been given no date for when coronavirus testing would be made available to police.

Mr Donald said the wait was “making officers anxious”, at a time when they have “no idea” whether routine incidents will bring them into contact with infectious people.

Numerous prosecutions have already been brought against offenders who spit and cough on officers while claiming to have coronavirus, which the Police Federation said had been “weaponised” against police.

The lack of testing is also having an impact on staffing, as people are forced to self-isolate as a precaution.

Around 13 per cent of police officers and staff are currently away from work because they are ill, isolating or have caring responsibilities.

But the figure varies widely between forces – from 7 to 20 per cent depending on the region.

“Those are the forces where you’re going to have more officers going to more incidents because there are physically less of them,” Mr Donald said. “There’s no guidebook to say at what point it becomes too much.”

A study published last year found that almost one in five police officers suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) – five times as many as the general population – and that two-thirds of those suffering were unaware.

Mr Donald said work was underway to ensure officers can access support, amid fears of significant mental health-related absences after the coronavirus outbreak.

“There’s just as much uncertainty, anxiety and fear among police officers as there is among the general public and they’ve still got to get the job done,” he added.

“They get home, de-kit, go and have a long shower to scrub off everything before seeing their family and trying to have some degree of normality.

“But how do you have normality when the first thing on TV is how many people are dying?”

The NPCC lead for wellbeing, chief constable Andy Rhodes, said police officers were already being “exposed to some of life’s most challenging situations on a daily basis”.

“This is all the more true as the country deals with the coronavirus outbreak,” he added.

“We have a responsibility to look after the men and women whose job it is to keep us safe. They are doing an incredibly difficult job on the front line, seeing and doing things most of us could never face.

“We have done some great work in recent years to reduce the stigma around mental health and I would urge every officer to take up the offer of help, support and advice through the Oscar Kilo [wellbeing] service. There is no shame in being affected by the harrowing situations police officers face.”