AN exhausted nurse at York Hospital has admitted that the last few weeks have been ‘the hardest of my NHS career’.

Michael Mawhinney, a senior nurse who in normal times is in charge of cancer and endoscopy wards, said the flood of new Covid patients coming into the hospital since New Year had been ‘relentless’.

“The patients have just been coming in and coming in,” he said. “No sooner have we converted one ward to deal with Covid patients than we start talking about the next ward to convert, and then the next ward.”

It was ‘horrible’ when York Hospitals Trust passed the grim milestone of 500 Covid-related deaths, Mr Mawhinney said. “It has been very challenging,” he admitted. “It feels like it is never ending. The pressure is intense and staff are just exhausted, drained, anxious.”

Although the number of new Covid cases in York as a whole is falling, the number of Covid patients in York Hospital remains very high.

There is a lag of 2-3 weeks between cases falling in the community, and the number of new cases being admitted to hospital beginning to reduce, Mr Mawhinney said.

At time of writing, York Hospital was looking after131 patients who have tested positive for Covid, on seven designated Covid wards. Last week, there were 159 Covid-positive inpatients at the hospital.

Mr Mawhinney said he hoped the number of Covid patients would continue to fall over the next couple of weeks. But he urged members of the public to continue to follow social distancing guidelines.

“Following the ‘hands, face and space’ advice is so important,’ he said.

Mr Mawhinney said his lowest point came at the start of January. He, like other NHS staff, had been glad to put 2020 behind them. But then they just found themselves dealing with a new rush of Covid patients that never seemed to stop. “And it also seemed as though the virus was more aggressive, and the patients a bit sicker and a bit younger,” he said.

As the number of covid patients continued to grow, more and more of his nursing staff were redeployed to Covid wards, he said. Essential and emergency non-Covid patients are still being looked after. But much pre-planned treatment has had to be stopped or postponed.

Mr Mawhinney said the death last week from Covid of Chris Buckingham, a retired Scarborough emergency nurse, had been ‘horrible’ - as had the death of Captain Sir Tom Moore. And he added that he feared some NHS staff may struggle to deal with the legacy of Covid even once the pandemic is over.

One of his ward sister had recently told him that she now understood why many soldiers returning from war zones didn’t want to talk about their experiences.

“She said when she gets home, she doesn’t want to talk about it,” he said.

But Mr Mawhinney said there was some ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ - not least the roll-out of vaccines.

All his staff have now had their first dose of a Covi jab, he confirmed.

And his own parents had also now had their first dose of vaccine, he added. “I feel such a sense of relief.”