The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh echoes the call from the BMA to extend the exemption currently in place for nurses coming from red list countries with regards to quarantine to doctors.
College President Professor Mike Griffin said:
“The NHS workforce is overstretched and exhausted after dealing with the pandemic. Getting more doctors on the frontline is imperative and we need to be doing everything in our power to ease bringing more people into the workforce, including from overseas.
“With the significant costs of hotel quarantine, we are already seeing doctors who were due to arrive cancelling those plans because they cannot afford to quarantine. This is especially true for those coming from poorer, red list countries. It is therefore in the interests of the NHS to extend the exemption for nurses to doctors, so that the cost of their quarantine is picked up by the government.
“We should also make these doctors priorities for PCR tests, so that those who are negative can be released from quarantine early, saving the taxpayer money but more importantly getting them onto the frontlines faster.”