Your article describes the tragic death from Covid-19 of a pregnant NHS nurse (Pregnant nurse’s death adds to concern among health workers, 15 April). You quote guidance from the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology which states that “women who are less than 28 weeks pregnant can continue in non-Covid patient-facing roles if necessary precautions are taken”. You omit to say that the RCOG strongly emphasises that the choice to continue working in any patient-facing role rests with the woman and that this choice should be respected by employers. If women are being coerced into working, the failure is with the trusts and health boards, not the RCOG guidance.
Despite this tragic death, there is no evidence that women below 28 weeks gestation are at increased risk of infection and death. The current guidance from the RCOG allows pregnant women the choice to work or not. To introduce a blanket ban on pregnant women working in patient-facing roles would be a decision based on fear and emotion, not rationality.
I am a consultant in emergency medicine and I am 25 weeks pregnant. I continue to work in the emergency department, in a section reserved for low-risk patients. I would prefer us to apply evidence-based medicine to all aspects of this crisis rather than to regress to Trump-style paternalism and science scepticism.
Dr Marion Campbell
Consultant in emergency medicine, NHS Lanarkshire
• On Thursday evenings, I am deeply moved by the clamour of public support for our key workers and also instantaneously grief-stricken. My daughter is a frontline doctor with inadequate personal protective equipment. Her wife is also a doctor and pregnant. My daughter has been sleeping and living in the garage because she is frightened she might pass on the virus to her pregnant wife and their two-year-old child.
We are banging pots, but why are we not clamouring for personal protective equipment for our key workers? Why is it they are made to feel like cannon fodder or frightened they might cause the deaths of those they love most?
Your report (Government ‘ignores’ UK textiles firms desperate to make PPE, 16 April) demonstrates what we have repeatedly observed – that this government fails to act when help is offered.
Sarah Brown
Brighton, East Sussex
