December 17, 2021 12.20 pm This story is over 40 months old

Lincolnshire doctor says “we’re being hung out to dry” by government in COVID pandemic

She feels the government is being misleading

A Grimsby-based doctor said those in her profession are being “hung out to dry” by the government during the coronavirus pandemic as the Omicron variant continues to spread.

Doctor Nathalie Dukes, who works at Littlefield Surgery in Grimsby, said they are having extraordinary meetings to try to free up staff to help in the vaccination clinics.

And she believes the government is being misleading about the availability of locums.

Doctor Dukes told BBC Look North: “This year one of the frustrations has been that the government made it sound as if there were locums we could just hire, so that means doctors who do sessions in different surgeries, and yet these locums are not available because there aren’t enough doctors around the NHS.

“So it’s no use giving us money and making it sound like we can just hire additional staff when those additional staff are not available, and it was yet another example of where we’re being hung out to dry, where it’s presented to the general public as if there’s a solution out there that we just need to grab.”

This comes as more than 1,000 cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in Lincolnshire on Thursday, December 16 – the highest daily number recorded since the start of the pandemic.