{"id":46459,"date":"2024-02-22T20:00:56","date_gmt":"2024-02-22T19:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1996711"},"modified":"2024-02-22T20:15:51","modified_gmt":"2024-02-22T19:15:51","slug":"breathtaking-creator-rachel-clarke-on-buried-trauma-caused-by-covid","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/breathtaking-creator-rachel-clarke-on-buried-trauma-caused-by-covid\/","title":{"rendered":"Breathtaking creator Rachel Clarke on \u201cburied trauma\u201d caused by COVID"},"content":{"rendered":"

“We have a frontline NHS workforce that remains deeply scarred.” <\/p>

By Abby Robinson\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Thursday, 22 February 2024 at 19:00 PM<\/p>

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Palliative care doctor\u00a0<\/span>Rachel Clarke, who wrote ITV COVID drama Breathtaking<\/a>, has spoken about the devastating long-term impact of the pandemic on NHS staff who worked on the frontline.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s possible to overstate the ongoing scale of traumatic feelings in NHS staff to this day provoked by COVID,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI find if I talk to anyone in my hospital about COVID for more than a few minutes, they will start to compulsively relive the traumas they witnessed and endured through the pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n

But despite that, \u201cstaff don\u2019t talk about this publicly\u201d, said Clarke, not even to one another.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all went through the same thing, so why would you?\u201d she explained. \u201cYou feel as if you just have to get on with it. But actually, we have a frontline NHS workforce that remains deeply scarred by COVID and what we witnessed.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cI dearly wish that every member of NHS staff had the opportunity and the resources to talk to somebody about that if they so wished, because it is buried trauma at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Breathtaking.<\/span><\/figcaption> ITV<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

The three-part series, which is based on Clarke\u2019s 2021 memoir<\/a>, stars Joanne Froggatt as Dr Abbey Henderson<\/a>, an acute medicine consultant who is \u201cthrown into this maelstrom of pressures and tensions and traumas\u201d when the outbreak takes hold.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe finds herself in a world that is alien, bewildering and at times doesn\u2019t even seem to make sense to her,\u201d said Clarke.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is traumatised, frightened, she starts to become outspoken, she challenges authority, she is devastated at times, full of guilt and grief.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n