Recommendation 12

The University of Manchester’s Voices of COVID-19 project has interviewed over 2,000 NHS staff to provide a national collection of testimonies in partnership with the British Library. This evidence highlights the concerns of frontline NHS staff regarding the public dissatisfaction they face and the NHS’s lack of capacity to deal with backlogs of care. The submission stated that since summer 2021 interviewees had described less tolerance from patients for delays in treatment and appointments, and patients becoming less understanding about the continued impact of COVID-19 on the NHS’s ability to provide healthcare.28 Sadly, there had also been increasing evidence of some patients complaining to and verbally abusing NHS staff. We heard from NHSE&I that it was concerned about how exhausted many NHS staff were and that it was seeking to support staff wellbeing.29 Specifically for GPs, the Department told us that it was making investments so that GPs could more quickly access specialist advice to help them support their patients.30