Thursday, 28 Mar 2024

NHS workers return to find cars vandalised during their shifts

Three NHS workers at the centre of the coronavirus pandemic found their cars had been smashed up while they were on shift.

Dr Alec Watson, who works at the King’s Cross Hospital in Dundee, and a colleague’s car windows had both been shattered. Meanwhile nurse Holly Coates finished her shift at James Cook Hospital, Middlesbrough, to find her back window had been destroyed.

It is thought no items were stolen from the vehicles in either case. Sharing a photo of her battered car on Facebook, Ms Coates warned other members of hospital staff to be careful with where they park.

She wrote: ‘This is partially upsetting at a time when we are all working above and beyond and doing extra shifts during annual leave to pull together to fight this nasty and life-threatening virus.’


Dr Watson said he would now be forced to take a taxi to work everyday while the damage to his car is repaired. He also had to leave the hospital for an hour to discuss the incident with the police.

The doctor, who assigns the level of urgency to patients suspected of having coronavirus over the phone, was pulled from his shift at 10.45am and found the front passenger window of his Volvo had been shattered as it sat in the hospital car park.

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Describing the incident as ‘appalling’, he said: ‘We are hugely busy at the moment with coronavirus and this is the last thing we need. I’m semi-retired but have been working more to help ease the pressure.’

Dr Watson said nothing of value was taken from inside the car. Police Scotland are still investigating the incident.


NHS workers are under increasing pressure across the country as the UK’s death toll rises day by day. As of Monday afternoon, there have been 335 fatalities from Covid-19, and 6,650 confirmed positive cases of the virus.

On Monday it was confirmed that the armed forces are stepping in to support the supply chain of personal protective equipment (PPE), after medical staff wrote an open letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, telling him off the shortages they have experienced.

Doctors and nurses described how anaesthetists had been putting patients on ventilators ‘with masks that expired in 2015’, while some paediatricians had been told stocks of protective glasses could run out in just 48 hours.

In an address to the nation on Monday evening, Johnson stressed that members of the public must follow government advice during the coronavirus crisis, or else risk the NHS collapsing.

Announcing a countrywide lockdown, he said: ‘Without a huge national effort to halt the growth of this virus, there will come a moment when no health service in the world could possibly cope; because there won’t be enough ventilators, enough intensive care beds, enough doctors and nurses.

And as we have seen elsewhere, in other countries that also have fantastic health care systems, that is the moment of real danger.

‘To put it simply, if too many people become seriously unwell at one time, the NHS will be unable to handle it – meaning more people are likely to die, not just from coronavirus but from other illnesses as well.

‘So it’s vital to slow the spread of the disease.’

The UK lockdown means people are only allowed to leave their homes to shop for essential items, such as food or medicine, to exercise alone or with members of their household, or for their job, if they are a key worker.

No funerals or weddings will take place during this time, and gatherings of more than two people will be split up, Johnson said. The measures are expected to end after three weeks.

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