As we enter into the third week of a national lockdown the signs of hope are still relatively dim. Cases and deaths are still extraordinarily high to an extent that has not been seen since the virus first hit these shores. The vaccination effort is world-leading and something that we should rightly be proud of but it will be some months before the effects are truly felt across society. In the meantime the government warns that the NHS is at risk of being overwhelmed but a recent article in the British Medical Journal by Daniel Sokol tells us that we are already at that stage.

For doctors, nurses and other frontline carers this translates into a huge amount of pressure in a job that, even at the best of times, is exhausting physically and emotionally. At times like this we have to accept that unintentional mistakes will happen and difficult decisions will have to be made as resources get stretched to breaking point. This does, however, raise interesting questions about what the legal liability of medical practitioners would be in this situation.

In general the majority of negligence claims would already be covered by existing arrangements whereby the NHS would pay out compensation if required to do so but these are unusual times and it is not surprising that staff want extra protection. Theoretically claims of gross negligence or manslaughter could be investigated by the police and criminal prosecutions could be brought against staff. Even in these trying times we have to hope that it never comes to that but the very prospect only adds another layer of stress to the job.

The government is currently planning to introduce a raft of legislation to protect statues and road names in a facile bid to restart the culture wars in 2021. It could be argued that this time of national crisis should really be an opportunity to offer meaningful protection to those who are working to save lives in hospitals up and down the country. No one is suggesting that this should be permanent because legal measures are needed to also safeguard the interests of patients but there is also good reason to have such legislation apply retrospectively so that it covers the entire period from when hospitals began to witness an influx of coronavirus patients.

At the moment everybody is doing everything they can to save as many lives as possible and if the law can help in some small way then it should be drafted accordingly.