Former Sheffield ICU nurse demands covid decision-makers held accountable

An intensive care nurse from Sheffield who suffered PTSD from the pandemic says the public inquiry launching today must hold decision makers accountable.

The Covid-19 Inquiry is officially beginning its first day of evidence, two years after then-prime minister Boris Johnson announced it would be set up.

The first module of the inquiry will focus on whether the pandemic was properly planned for and "whether the UK was adequately ready for that eventuality".

Joan Pons Laplana was forced to leave his role on the frontline ifter suffering PTSD and now helps train NHS nurses.

“I was putting my life at risk every day, not just as a nurse but as a father, I couldn’t see my son.

“I had a lot of patients, they couldn’t say goodbye to their families.

“And I become their brother, I become their husband, I become their relative, holding their hands and saying goodbye. While Boris Johnson was meeting anybody he wanted whenever he wanted, and according to him always inside the rules.

“The full impact that covid has had on me will last me forever, and my mental health has suffered through that.”

The inquiry is split into six modules, with public hearings scheduled to conclude by summer 2026.

Joan wants to see people at the top help accountable for their actions.

“They always do recommendations but nobody’s ever accountable. We have a lot of inquiries in the past, they last years and they spend millions and millions. But at the end they only do recommendations. I want accountability.

“Boris Johnson will never go to jail for breaking the rules, he will not suffer any consequences of him breaking the law and doing whatever he wants to do. While a lot of people have been scarred for life.”

It comes as Boris Johnson will reportedly be found on Wednesday to have deliberately misled MPs over parties in Downing Street during the pandemic.

Mr Johnson resigned on Friday after receiving the report from the Privileges Committee – but he struck a defiant tone, quoting Arnold Schwarzenegger as he told the Daily Express: "I'll be back."

The ex-MP accused the committee of "bias" in a furious 1,000-word exit statement after receiving a draft of its findings.