The UK Covid-19 Inquiry is examining, considering and reporting on preparations and the response to the pandemic in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, in areas reserved to the UK Government and Parliament. Whereas, the Scottish Covid-19 Inquiry is investigating aspects of the devolved strategic response to the pandemic between 1 January 2020 and 31 December 2022.
Established in February 2022, the Scottish Covid Inquiry officially opened in May 2022. The Inquiry has been split into four investigative streams called portfolios:
- Portfolio 1 – Public sector response.
- Portfolio 2 – Financial and welfare support to businesses and individuals.
- Portfolio 3 – The provision of health and social care services.
- Portfolio 4 – Education, certification, impact on children and young people.
It held its final week of Health and Social Care Impact Hearings from 21–23 May 2024. On the last day, Neil Craig who has worked as a hospital porter at Glasgow Royal Infirmary for 25 years gave his oral testimony. He worked as a porter at the hospital throughout the covid pandemic and was giving evidence relating to the impacts of the pandemic and its response on porters as a union representative for Unite.
At first, he and his hospital porters were not catching covid. They felt it was their duty to continue working despite what was being publicised in the media.
At first, he said, the managers at the hospital didn’t know what the impact of covid would be or the number of patients to expect.
“They thought that the workload was going to be higher so we were all there. And we could be there as long as we wanted to be really because people weren’t sure if you were going to be needed. But it turned out they weren’t really needed,” he told the Inquiry. Because there was a significant fall in the amount of work that porters had to do.
“We didn’t have the capacity [high numbers of patients] in the hospital. Obviously, a lot of patients they discharged out of the hospital, either to home or care homes or other places [and] they didn’t schedule elective surgeries. So, the workload was definitely not as bad,” he said.
In his written testimony (see the last section of this article), Craig said that the medical block was less than half-full. He was asked what he meant by the “medical block.”
“Medical block would be like your everyday general medicine patient,” he explained. “We’re used to being at full capacity most days. But then you’d go into the wards and they were like half empty, half full, whatever you look at it.”
So, as he stated in his written testimony, people were still going to work but a long period could pass before a porter was asked to do a job. “Because the amount of workload was near the same and because we had probably, that was the best time we were staffed in the hospital because people felt it was their duty to go to work and work through it. And we had lots of free downtime,” he told the Inquiry.
From sometime in April 2020, admissions to the hospital of covid patients increased and “gradually the workload would increase but it still wouldn’t be anywhere near as a normal day [pre-covid] because you’ve not got elective surgeries on, you’ve not got clinic appointments. So, you’ve only got people that need to be, seriously need to be, in a hospital and emergency fears,” he said.
You can watch the afternoon session of the Covid Inquiry hearing on 23 May 2024 HERE. The part of Neil Craig’s testimony included in the video below begins at timestamp 39:37.
Hellbound and Down 