Councillor who returned to the NHS frontline amid the coronavirus crisis lifts the lid on the battle against the pandemic and its toll on those risking their lives

“The other night, it did get emotional for me,” admits Danny Meredith, one of the thousands of healthcare workers who have returned to the frontline in the fight against coronavirus in recent weeks.

“[Just] because of the amount of people coming through who have been unwell in their 30s and 40s.

“There has been a lot more unwell people coming through who we would not be expecting at this time of year, with respiratory problems and high temperatures – people you would not expect to be unwell at all at this period of time.”

The 28-year-old nurse, who is also a Rochdale councillor, previously worked in a supervisory role at Stepping Hill Hospital in Stockport but had to step down last October to look after his poorly baby son, Cillian, with partner Aisling.

But with Cillian’s health improving – and the scale of the coronavirus threat to the country becoming horrifyingly clear – Danny felt he had to return to the frontline.

He is now in the third week of working as a staff nurse at Rochdale Infirmary’s urgent care centre, as well as being on bank shifts to help on other wards where needed.

“I was always going to be going back, but what spurred me on in trying to start as early as possible was that I have a lot of friends and colleagues I class as my NHS family.

“I wanted to go back to the frontline to help them out – they have been bombarded over the last couple of weeks, with what’s been going on.”

Rochdale Infirmary does not have its own intensive care unit, but Danny’s work involves stabilising seriously ill people so they can be transferred to Fairfield Hospital, in Bury, for further treatment.

“It’s quite a scary situation to be in,” says Danny. 

“As much as I’ve gone back to help my NHS family, I’ve also gone back to help in the fight against Covid-19 and the people of Rochdale.

“A lot of people have been very unwell, I would say that’s the part that has changed.

“There’s a lot more people than you would expect to be unwell that are coming in that are not just unwell but life-threateningly unwell.

“Patients are usually here for less than four hours – but once they have had an X-ray, we realise they have pneumonia symptoms as much as coronavirus symptoms.

“They have pneumonia bacteria as well and need oxygen to stabilise them if they’re acutely unwell and unable to transfer out.”

The availability of personal protective equipment (PPE) has been one of the most controversial issues of the pandemic, and Danny confides the NHS is ‘struggling’ for kit – particularly on hospital wards and the ambulance service.

Equipment made by Prestwich Art College sent to the urgent care centre has been given to the wards which Danny says are currently more in need than frontline services.

“A lot of people have respiratory symptoms, general flu symptoms – we don’t know if it’s Covid-19, it’s a judgement call. We treat them as if they have Covid-19 using full PPE and we do stabilise them before sending out to acute hospitals,” he adds.

And Danny doesn’t deny that life at the frontline of the coronavirus takes its toll on health workers like himself.

“The wards are getting busy with Covid-19 patients and there have been more deaths in the hospital as well.

“It’s hard – not just for frontline services but for services receiving Covid-19 patients because not every patient can be intubated.”

And with a young family to look after at home, his decision to go back into nursing did pose something of a dilemma.

“Yes, I’m obviously worried about my family, because I could contract the illness at work and bring it back.

“But I could also contract it at Tesco. From that point of view, I don’t want my family to get it but I’m not worried to the extent that it stops me. I feel like if I’m going to get it, I’m going to get it and will take all precautions possible moving forward.

“With me having a young family I need to make sure I’m properly having a scrub and a shower when I come home and making sure my family is safe and healthy.”

He and Aisling also discussed the possibility of her and Cillian temporarily moving back to Basildon, in Essex, where she hails from originally – but ultimately decided against it.

“The problem is we don’t know how long this is going to go on for – the government is saying three months, but it could go on until October. So in the end we made the decision to stay together as a family,” Danny adds.

Last weekend saw some people recklessly flouting lockdown rules to enjoy the fine weather, while house parties have been reported up and down the country.

And with what promises to be a sunny Easter break ahead of us, Danny has strong words for those who may choose to again break government guidelines.

“It’s just completely irresponsible,” he says.

“They might not find themselves high-risk but, as I said before, a lot of young people contracting this don’t have any comorbidities.

“Everyone is at risk of this virus and everyone is at risk of death from this virus, everyone needs to take that on board.

“I would suggest everyone staying at home – we have seen in other countries the death rate going down because of lockdown. Anyone can get this illness; we need to help the NHS out.”

But on a more positive note, the Labour councillor for Balderstone and Kirkholt says that the ‘clap for carers’ being held every Thursday on streets up and down the country is genuinely helping to keep spirits up.

“I think it’s brilliant what the public have been doing. We have had a lot of charities bringing us food, we get a lot of food at urgent care centre and we make sure it goes out to everyone.” says Danny.

“That public support is helping with our morale, it’s giving us that boost to carry on with what we are doing.

“Morale is very, very high because we are working together as a team for a common goal – to make sure we are giving the best health care we can to everyone.”

Nick Statham, Local Democracy Reporter