Peter Dowd MP has given his backing to calls from doctors for investment in NHS staffing, improved health and safety and to heed the voice of front-line medics in the national Covid inquiry.

Peter Dowd MP signed up to pledge support for the initiative following the publication of a new report detailing the experiences of front-line hospital doctors and GPs during the pandemic.

Never Again: Covid from the frontlines, published by hospital doctors’ union HCSA and campaign organisation EveryDoctor, received its formal Westminster launch on June 7th.

It includes stark first-hand testimony, with one Junior Doctor working in Emergency Medicine recalling: “Everyone was swamped. I was going home absolutely exhausted and having a cry. At one point we ran out of ventilators. It was a terrifying time.”

The Never Again report spotlights the experiences of front-line doctors on issues such as PPE shortages, staffing and patient care, warning that there was “no slack in the system” prior to the pandemic and urging that lessons must now be learnt.

The key recommendations include more investment and planning to ensure sufficient staff and protective measures to enable the NHS to deliver a better level of non-pandemic care alongside any future Covid upsurge or similar crisis.

Peter Dowd MP has formally endorsed the following calls by HCSA and EveryDoctor:

● invest in NHS staff and solve the workforce crisis

● listen to doctors during the Covid inquiry

● improve health and safety for Covid and beyond.

Peter Dowd MP said:“Now is the time for Government to invest in the NHS and its precious workforce. In Bootle, NHS staff are facing burnout and the Covid recovery work is mounting. I wholeheartedly support the calls from frontline doctors.”

EveryDoctor CEO Julia Patterson said: “It is imperative that lessons are learnt from the mistakes made during the pandemic by the government. NHS staff and patients were put at risk due to poor planning, and the scope of the loss of life and trauma endured is immeasurable. This must never happen again.”

HCSA President Dr Naru Narayanan, a hospital Consultant, said: “The weakness of our NHS was laid bare by the pandemic following years of chronic understaffing and shortsighted policy decisions. We were simply not ready for the crisis that hit us and this has had devastating consequences for patients and NHS staff which are still being felt today.

“We are delighted to receive Peter Dowd’s support for our call to learn the lessons of the past two years. Never again must our health service be left in such a perilous, unprepared state.”