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.
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.”...<<<Read More>>>....
