I write this editorial on the anniversary of the UK's first lockdown. It is scarcely believable to look back at that day, when we thought we'd be entering a short, sharp lockdown period, and that life would go back to normal in a few weeks. Yet, here we are, coming out of our third national lockdown, with glimmers of hope that this might be the last time. At the end of a truly unimaginable year, it is time to reflect.
Over 126 000 people have died with COVID-19 in the UK so far, and 126 000 families have had to navigate their grief and loss without their usual support structures, as the four nations have remained in various degrees of restrictions all year. Many people, regardless of whether they have lost loved ones, have reported struggling with mental health issues, as our lives have been turned upside down.
Government figures show that approximately 1 in 10 people with COVID-19 continue to experience symptoms beyond 12 weeks (Department of Health and Social Care, 2021). Helping people to manage this condition will be something that needs to be focused on after the acute wave of infections has been dealt with, and £18.5 million of funding has been given to research the causes and potential treatments of ‘long-COVID’.
Throughout this awful year, NHS workers have been celebrated, with doorstep clapping and rainbows in windows just some of the ways in which the public has shown appreciation. I want to acknowledge the hard work of nurses in general practice. From the first days of the pandemic, when the delivery of general practice suddenly changed to a blend of remote consulting and face-to-face where necessary, practice nurses adapted to the challenge and learnt new ways of working, and all the while kept vital services like childhood immunisations going. Practice nurses were instrumental in delivering the largest ever flu vaccination season – a huge success everyone should be very proud of.
Of course, I can't fail to mention the role nurses have played in the roll out of the COVID-19 vaccination programme. The delivery of almost 28 million first doses of the vaccine (at the time of writing) is a phenomenal achievement (Gov.uk, 2021), and it is the hard work of everyone involved in the COVID-19 vaccination programme that has made this possible.
The past year has been terrible for so many, but with the vaccination of over half of the adult population with the first dose, we can now have hope that the tide is turning and that we may be returning to a more normal life over the next few months. We must not allow the public to forget how grateful they were for our wonderful NHS, and practice nurses must shout from the rooftops for their recognition too.
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