Frontline medics are prioritised for coronavirus testing as staffing numbers to hit breaking point

NHS staff on the frontline of the coronavirus pandemic are now being tested as a priority.

The move by health boards comes after we revealed calls for the fast-track testing of doctors and nurses to allow them to return to work more quickly if they do not have the virus.

A memo to staff at one NHS board said: “Priority will now be given to staff who are suspected to have Covid-19.”

Doctors had warned that the strain on frontline services would be intolerable if every doctor and nurse showing symptoms was isolated for a week.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said last week: “It is our intention to test key workers including critical frontline NHS staff to ensure that the people that are so essential to managing the disease but also keeping our critical infrastructure going, are not self-isolating unnecessarily.”

Meanwhile one doctor on an intensive care ward at an English hospital has told of his feelings of anxiety.

He told The Times, “I am extremely anxious. It’s tough because you know what’s coming and its going to be hellish. It will be relentless for days, weeks, if not months. That’s worrying in itself, but we’re at our maximum workforce now and we know that as this goes on more staff are going to get ill and we will be more and more ill-equipped to deal with patients who come in.

“I’m torn, because in a way we want a surge now while we still have staff.

“The Government says it would prefer to delay a peak until the summer and I can see the science behind that and the rationale for getting more ventilators.”