NHS workers betrayed: 'Cover up' allegations as most NHS Trusts say no staff died of Covid on their watch

NHS leaders and ministers face allegations of a “cover up”, as Byline Times reveals that almost two-thirds of NHS employers did not make a single, legally-required report of Covid being caught by staff working during the first 18 months of the pandemic.

And four-fifths (82%) of NHS employers have not reported a single death of a worker from Covid caught while working in those first two waves.

The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases & Dangerous Occurrences (RIDDOR) rules mean that employers have a legal duty to report certain serious workplace accidents and occupational diseases – including Covid. 

The lack of acceptance of responsibility from NHS employers has left some families in limbo – and angry at what they consider to be deliberate “denial” of the experiences of those who died serving the public.  

David Osborn, a health and safety consultant and member of the Covid-19 Airborne Transmission Alliance (CATA), co-wrote the research. He said: “One wonders how many bereaved families who have been denied this payment did not have the benefit of [these reports] to support their case.”

Osborn wrote to Sarah Albon, Chief Executive of the Health and Safety Executive, to raise his concerns after speaking with family members of NHS workers who had died of Covid, saying the reports of zero NHS worker deaths from Covid caught in the workplace are “difficult, nigh impossible, to believe.” 

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Source: Byline Times, 6 April 2023