Doctors who contracted COVID-19 on the frontline and are still living with the ongoing symptoms of the virus have been left in financial limbo as they struggle to return to work.
The British Medical Association (BMA) found one in five doctors with long COVID had been forced to stop work or significantly cut back on their hours.
Dr Amy Small had been a GP partner in Edinburgh.
She contracted COVID-19 in April 2020 but her symptoms persisted and snowballed.
Dr Small told Sky News: “In the first six months to a year and a half, daily I had awful fatigue to the point I couldn’t eat because my jaw was too sore because chewing made my muscles hurt.
“I had headaches and I had a daily fever for seven months. I still get fevers very easily if my kids catch colds. I had tinnitus, I had awful aches and pains in my body, I was so breathless I couldn’t walk up the stairs without stopping once or twice for many months.”
After six months off work, she eventually lost her job because her condition left her unable to keep up.
“It was devastating, my husband also had long COVID, at the time that I lost my job his pay was halving, my roof was leaking, I had to pay for a kid in full-time nursery and we risked losing everything at that point. I thought we were going to lose our house, we were really facing really really challenging times.”
The BMA surveyed some 600 doctors, with 48% saying they’ve experienced loss of earnings as a result of long COVID symptoms.
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The BMA say those medics need support while they recover.
Professor David Strain, chair of the BMA’s board of science, told Sky News: “We cannot afford to have fully trained, very able staff, not able to do the job they’ve been trained for at this moment, it’s a disaster in a health service that is very short-staffed already.
“There are many doctors who’ve actually retired on health grounds – and feel they’re not able to work at all and that in order to be able to get back to work going forward they need to be given additional support – but there are many others who are way too young to have a retirement plan in place but are too unwell to return.
“They need to be able to be given the financial support to allow them to focus on getting better whilst they’re in this position.”
Dr Small moved to Sheffield where she now works as a part-time GP and for a charity.
She says she’s in a considerably better state than when she first contracted the virus but still has some health complications.
“The symptoms were endless like many others and it comes back now and again.”
Dr Small says this is far from an issue in the past – long COVID continues to take so much from so many.
“So many of us are still ill, many of us have lost our jobs and their houses and their livelihoods, and they’re not likely to get them back anytime soon so this isn’t a past problem, it’s a very live problem which is going to have ongoing consequences for many years.”
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson told Sky News: “Long COVID can have a debilitating impact and we are backing our world-leading scientists with over £50 million to better understand the long-term effects of this virus and make treatments available.
“NHS staff are able to seek support for long COVID from their GP or one of the 100 specialist clinics available nationwide. The NHS has also committed £324 million to support people with ongoing symptoms of long COVID.”
Detective Superintendent Lewis Hughes said they were looking at four crime scenes in Salford and the Greater Manchester area.
The human remains discovered over the last two days were found at Salford’s Blackleach Reservoir and Linnyshaw Colliery Wood.
Officers had already identified the two scenes before the remains were found and were “on route to the Colliery Wood” when a member of the public called to say they had found a package, said Det Supt Hughes.
Police officers found the other remains at the reservoir today while searching the area.
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“We are very confident it is the same victim,” Det Supt Hughes added.
The victim is believed to have died in late March.
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Police are searching a warehouse in Bury where “items were stored after this incident without the knowledge of occupants of that warehouse,” said Det Supt Hughes.
They’re also searching a house in Winton where the victim “was believed to have lived with the two men in custody”.
Two men, aged 42 and 68, from Salford, who are believed to be known to each other, were arrested on suspicion of murder on 25 April, GMP said, after officers trawled through hundreds of hours of CCTV footage.
The 42-year-old was arrested after officers stormed a bus in Eccles Old Road around midday, the force said.
The other man was later arrested at an address in Worsley Road.
A 20-year-old man previously arrested on suspicion of murder was later released on bail pending further inquiries.
“It is too soon to rule out [looking for other suspects] but we’re confident at this time that we have the right two suspects in custody,” said Det Supt Hughes.
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Detectives are still appealing the public for any information related to the crime and want to hear from witnesses, including dog walkers, who were in the area between 6am and 6pm on the day a passer-by made the original grim discovery.
More than 100 officers searched the Kersal Dale area for 12 days looking for evidence, working with an underwater search team and dogs before lifting the crime scene on 17 April.
The number of migrants that have crossed the Channel in small boats during the first four months of the year is at its highest ever level.
Some 7,167 people have arrived on UK shores after travelling by small boat from the continent between 1 January to 27 April, with 902 entering just this past week
This compares to 5,745 for the same period last year. The previous record was 6,691 in 2022.
The figures come after Rishi Sunak has staked much of his political future on getting the number of migrant boat crossings down.
On Sky’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips programme he said migrants travelling to Ireland after arriving in the UK on small boats was a sign the Rwanda scheme was already working as a deterrent.
“People are worried about coming here and that demonstrates exactly what I’m saying,” he told Sky News.
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“If people come to our country illegally, but know that they won’t be able to stay there, they are much less likely to come, and that’s why the Rwanda scheme is so important.”
However, the news that migrants are crossing from Northern Ireland into the Republic has sparked an outcry in the country, and prompted the government in Dublin to announce they are planning emergency legislation to send asylum seekers back to Britain.
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More than 80% of recent arrivals in the republic came via the land border with Northern Ireland, Irish justice minister Helen McEntee told a parliamentary committee last week.
Stopping the boats was one of the government’s five priorities set out by the prime minister after he took office in 2023.
The latest figures have been seized upon by Labour, with shadow immigration minister Stephen Kinnock saying: “This is the blunt reality behind all of Rishi Sunak’s empty boasts: more people have arrived by small boats so far this year than ever before and more people are having to be rescued.
“What will it take for Rishi Sunak to wake up and realise that his plan is not working?
“We desperately need a Labour government in place to get a grip of this issue.
“Our plan would strengthen Britain’s border security, crush the smuggling gangs, clear the asylum backlog, end hotel use, and set up a new returns and enforcement unit so those with no right to be in the UK are swiftly returned.”
Ireland is pledging emergency legislation enabling it to send asylum seekers back to the UK.
More than 80% of recent arrivals in the republic came via the land border with Northern Ireland, Irish justice minister Helen McEntee told a parliamentary committee last week.
Ireland’s deputy prime minister has said the threat of deportation to Rwanda is causing migrants to head for Ireland instead of the UK.
Micheal Martin said the policy was already affecting Ireland because people are “fearful” of staying in the UK.
The former taoiseach told The Daily Telegraph: “Maybe that’s the impact it was designed to have.”
Simon Harris, Ireland’s latest leader, has asked Ms McEntee to “bring proposals to cabinet to amend existing law regarding the designation of safe ‘third countries’ and allowing the return of inadmissible international protection applicants to the UK”, a spokesman said.
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Ms McEntee said she will be meeting UK Home Secretary James Cleverly in London on Monday.
“There are many reasons why we have seen an increase in migration towards Ireland,” she told RTE.
“My focus as minister for justice is making sure that we have an effective immigration structure and system.
“That’s why I’m introducing fast processing, that’s why I’ll have emergency legislation at cabinet this week to make sure that we can effectively return people to the UK, and that’s why I’ll be meeting with the home secretary to raise these issues on Monday.”
People are now “worried” about coming to the UK, Rishi Sunak has said.
He told Sky News: “If people come to our country illegally, but know that they won’t be able to stay here, they are much less likely to come, and that’s why the Rwanda scheme is so important.”
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Are migrants fleeing from UK to Ireland?
Mr Sunak said the comments from Irish politicians show that “illegal migration is a global challenge”.
“[That] is why you’re seeing multiple countries talk about doing third country partnerships, looking at novel ways to solve this problem, and I believe [they] will follow where the UK has led,” he said.
Shadow minister Wes Streeting said it was unlikely a Labour government would bring people back from Rwanda if some are sent there.
“Once people are settled in Rwanda, they’re settled in Rwanda,” he told Sky News, adding it was doubtful that Labour would “unpick that situation”.
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Regarding illegal migration in general, he said it required “putting the money that’s gone to Rwanda into the National Crime Agency so we can have proper cross-border policing to tackle the criminal gangs, speeding up the processing of decision-making, making sure we’ve got serious returns agreements with other countries”.