Testing NHS staff for Covid-19

Letter to the Times - 13 March 2020

Dear Sir,

As frontline GPs and nurses we wish to call on Public Health England to offer testing for Covid-19 to symptomatic healthcare workers in the NHS. From our observations, we believe that the coronavirus is circulating far more widely than present case numbers suggest.  Primary care staff will be among the most likely members of the population to be infected and become potential super-spreaders.  This places us in the impossible ethical situation where if we go to work with even minor respiratory symptoms we risk infecting countless vulnerable patients. To not go to work with such a commonplace symptom would cause our service to collapse.  It cannot be the case that the virus is targeting footballers and MPs over ordinary members of the population.  Widespread screening of healthcare staff must be a top priority and the information used to guide the management of our service.

Yours Sincerely,
Dr Christopher Musgrave, GP Partner, Loddiswell
Dr Aamir Ansari
Louise Greenwold
Dr Lindsey Raeburn
Dr Rowena Neville
Kathryn Szatmary
Dr Naomi Rankin
Tina Swampillai
Dr Anna Clayton
Dr Naomi Bennett
Dr Sarah Michaels
Dr Emma Porcas
Dr Elizabeth Jones
Dr Ann Dean
Dr Fiona Sharvill
Dr Helen Redman
Dr Ceci Cu
Dr Jennifer Parvin
Dr Mairi Reid
Dr Aimee Billington
Dr Svetlana Kulikouskaya
Dr Farah Kassim
Dr Helen Iles
Dr Joanne Chew
Dr Anna Skilbeck
Dr Rob Munro
Dr Caroline Evans
Dr Farhana Rahman
Dr Priti Kushwah
Dr V Mahajan
Dr Neil Pound
Dr Anita Baker
Dr Fran O’Neill
Dr Kenny Livingstone
Dr Jess Rigden
Dr Carl Frampton
Dr Krishna Vakharia
Dr Angana Nankani
Dr Rashmi Jain
Dr Joanne Byfleet
Dr Manoka de Silva
Dr Sian Salek
Dr Nazneen Kagzi
Dr Jan Yazici
Dr Natalie Hogg
Dr Adam Caputa
Dr Glenys Quartey-Irwin
Dr Helen Phillips
Dr Kinjalben Patel
Dr Morgen Farrington
Dr Yieng Ching Lau
Dr Sian Newman
Dr Rachel Stone
Dr Claire Raw
Dr Adam Choycha
Dr Sumayya Nowrin
Dr Eric Beckett
Dr Reema Beri
Dr Melissa Patel
Dr Mateusz Pucek
Dr Rachael Llewelyn
Dr Sadie Penfold
Dr Rebecca Daniel
Dr Che Ghani
Dr Lanlin Lui
Dr Prashna Kooverjee
Louise Charnley ANP
Dr Anna-Jane Thomas
Shelley Bird NP
Dr Prasanna Nayuni
Dr Edyta Szymczak
Dr Nicky Shiell
Dr Sukrti Nagpal
Dr Owen Carter
Dr Sakina Naqvi
Joanne Topalian
Dr Yvette Rean
Clare Davey ANP
Dr Nabila Shafqat
Kate Rattray
Dr Maria Caballero
Jenny Vorenkamp
Emily Copeland
Dr Michelle Northrop
Dr Louise Cumberland
Dr Seyed Izzadeen
Dr Hemali Parekh
Dr Catherine Ievers
Dr Verity Lowndes-Burt
Dr Sarah Shaw
Dr Steph Harley
Dr Emma Funnell
Dr Chris Schoeb
Dr Katharine Towers
Dr Hannah Bailey-Thomas
Philippa Bellingham NP
Dr Hannah Field
Dr Tamsin Browning
Dr Ilona Mercieca
Dr Jo Williams
Dr Victoria Beasley
Rebecca Franks ANP
Kiara English ANP
Dr Annabelle Ross
Beverley Lewis Belza ANP
Katherine Ward
Dr Heather Forsyth
Dr Abi Gabel
Dr Rachel Tilley
Dr Lesley O’Keeffe
Dr Sonia Chester
Dr David Evans
Dr Ameet Deshpande
Dr Akhil Shial
Dr Amy Thorne
Dr Rosie Floyd
Angela Elling ANP
Amy Dawson
Dr Katherine Frankland
Dr Margaret Elizabeth Phillips
Dr Emma Francis-Smith
Dr Victoria Blake
Rebecca Adams NP
Dr Sophie Taylor
Dr Alexandra May
Hannah Maciver ANP
Dr Kate Foot
Dr Beth Hockley
Dr Anita Nathan
Dr Laura Barraclough
Dr Mahya Johnson
Dr Helen Willicombe
Dr Jonathan Graham
Dr Chloe Marshall
Dr L Vellaturi
Dr Dinis Idris
Dr Rachel Aarons
John Lawson ANP
Dr Katherine Murnal
Dr Polly Begum
Dr Stephen Pickup
Dr Farnaz Arshid
Dr Heather Butterworth
Dr Tomos Williams
Dr Nicola Thorley
Dr Salma Khanom
Dr Zohra Qazalbach
Dr Claire Hart
Dr Andrew Parton
Dr Andrea Price
Dr Ingrid Sepp
Dr Therese Talbot
Dr Laura Thomas
Dr Helen Drew
Dr Charlie Woodhams
Dr Catherine Banim
Dr Samantha Sylvester
Dr Charlotte Mendes da Costa
Dr Sarah Mehdi
Dr Fatima Elgizawy
Dr Danar Sabir
Dr Faustian Salimullah
Dr Anup Singh
Dr Andrew Oakford
Dr Latif Hussain
Jo Glover
Jane Pang
Dr Josh Ellwood
Dr Sharon Rocque
Dr Julia Foley
Dr Katherine Patel
Dr Claire Tickner
Tracey French ANP
Dr Jane Sehgal
Dr Charlotte Coffey
Dr Samir Patel
Dr Dominic Patterson
Dr Andrew Moon
Dr Helen Eisenhauer
Dr Hannah Whittingham
Dr Sanchita Sarah
Dr Saira Bano
Dr Sophia Nelson
Dr Philippa Girling
Dr Gillian Read
Dr Maria West
Dr Alex Warwick-Smith
Dr Narayanan Nair
Dr Emily Lister
Dr Sayma Ahmed
Adele Parsons ANP
Dr A Burns
Dr Saniya Mansfield
Dr Penny Wilson
Dr Rachel Wakelin
Dr Simon Kaklugin
Dr Janice Bell
Dr Elizabeth Scriven
Dr Jacqueline Howell
Dr Carole Brown

First 250 signatories of over 1000 frontline primary care staff working in the NHS.