An NHS front-line employee was left feeling “betrayed” after he was suspended from a hospital because of a Facebook post asking COVID deniers to follow the blocking rules.
Gary Oldershaw, 53, a practitioner of the intensive theoretical unit, spoke on January 4 after seeing seven patients die during a 12-hour shift at Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford, Essex.
He wrote a long post in reaction to seeing a friend share coronavirus conspiracy theories.
Oldershaw urged people to listen to medical and governmental advice and “stay home and take care of themselves”.
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However, an anonymous complaint was made to the hospital about the content of the post, which included explicit language.
The NHS worker said he was informed by the Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust on February 7 that he had been suspended for “discrediting the trust”.
Oldershaw, who came out of semi-retirement to help treat patients with coronavirus, said he would never return to the hospital, where he worked for 17 years.
Speaking of posting on Facebook, he said he did not mention where he worked, but admitted that he did not need to use this “colorful language”.
In the post, he wrote: “This is real shit. I thought for good, young people die in my arms. Stop being an asshole and do what you asked.
“For God’s sake, listen to what the doctors and the government are telling us.”
Regarding his suspension, he said: “When I was suspended for the first time, I doubted my own ability, I thought that maybe I would put a patient in danger or someone died under my guard.
“I was worried about my days that I inadvertently killed someone. When I found out it was Facebook, it was just ridiculous.
“People die every day and we have been on the front lines trying to save as many lives as we can.
“For the first time in my career, I was brought to tears because we had to see seven people die in one day and the next day, five people died.”
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Oldershaw said he felt “totally betrayed”, adding, “I put my heart and soul into this job and they hurt me. I will never go back.”
He had worked as a doctor in the operations department (ODP) at the hospital for 17 years before retiring last summer.
In December, he returned to help on the front lines to help with the intensive care unit just before the second wave of COVID, working in the hospital’s intensive care unit for the first time.
At the time, hospitals in Essex declared a “major incident” after being overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients.
Oldershaw said he didn’t know he was suspended until a weekend shift started at 8 am, and was told by a manager that he had to go home while he had his PPE complete and ready to work.
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After making a phone call, Oldershaw learned that he was suspended after an anonymous person filed a complaint.
He said, “I was absolutely devastated. I came home totally discouraged. I couldn’t understand why I was suspended.”
He claimed that because he sent the e-mail with the notification of the complaint to an incorrect address, he was never consulted or spoken to before the decision was made.
“This is not what the NHS needs, we are in a pandemic, hospitals are overloaded. We need so many people to help, ”he said.
“They didn’t need to go that far. I think they could have talked to me and chatted, but instead, I was suspended.”
A spokesman for the Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust said: “As this is an ongoing investigation, the Trust cannot comment.”
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