A nurse who cared for Boris Johnson when he was on his deathbed with coronavirus has resigned from the NHS after she branded the Government’s proposed 1 per cent pay rise for frontline staff a ‘kick in the teeth’.
Jenny McGee, who kept vigil by the PM’s side for two days when he was in intensive care in St Thomas’ Hospital in London, said she is disillusioned with the ‘lack of respect’ shown by No10 for healthcare workers.
Speaking out in a Channel 4 documentary about the covid pandemic in the UK, to be broadcast on May 24, she also revealed that Mr Johnson’s staff had later attempted to co-opt her into a ‘clap for the NHS’ photo op with him during what she thought would be a discreet thank you visit to Downing Street.
Referring to the proposed 1 per cent pay rise, Ms McGee, a Kiwi who moved to the UK nine years ago, said: ‘We’re not getting the respect and now pay that we deserve. I’m just sick of it. So I’ve handed in my resignation.’
Laying into No10’s handling of the coronavirus crisis, the nurse added: ‘Lots of nurses felt that the Government hadn’t led very effectively – the indecisiveness, so many mixed messages. It was just very upsetting.’
Responding to her criticism, a No10 spokesperson said: ‘Our NHS staff have gone above and beyond over the past year and this government will do everything in our power to support them. We are extremely grateful for the care NHS staff have provided throughout the pandemic in particular.
‘That is why they have been exempted from the public sector wide pay freeze implemented as a result of the difficult economic situation created by the pandemic.
‘At the same time we have invested £30million to support staff mental health and are expanding the number of places available for domestic students at medical schools in England to continue expanding our workforce.’
Her remarks, made in a documentary called The Year Britain Stopped, come as Mr Johnson’s ex-top aide Dominic Cummings claimed an obsession with secrecy at the heart of government ‘contributed greatly to the catastrophe’.
In a length Twitter thread, Mr Cummings also threatened to reveal a ‘crucial historical document’ when he is grilled on No10’s handling of coronavirus at a joint session of the health and science committees next Wednesday, May 26.
Boris Johnson and Jenny McGee sharing a joke as the Prime Minister talks to the NHS staff that cared for him while he was in Intensive Care on July 5, 2020
Referring to the proposed 1 per cent pay rise, Kiwi nurse Ms McGee said: ‘We’re not getting the respect and now pay that we deserve. I’m just sick of it. So I’ve handed in my resignation’
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Ward sister Jenny McGee
Jenny McGee moved to the UK eight years ago after doing her intensive care training in Melbourne.
She previously worked at the Royal Melbourne Hospital for six years where she did her intensive care training.
Ms McGee attended the Verdon College in Invercargill, New Zealand, and they said the community was ‘so proud’ and that she had wanted to be a nurse since leaving in 2002.
She told TVNZ last summer: ‘We take it very seriously who comes into intensive care. These patients who come into us. It’s a very scary thing for them so we don’t take it lightly.
‘He absolutely needed to be there. We are constantly observing, we are constantly monitoring.
‘ I’ve worked in intensive care for ten years, I’m a sister, I’ve been in charge for five years. I’ve been in really stressful situations and I was not phased by this.’
She added: ‘All of out intensive care shifts are really tough for whatever reason. There was a lot of media interest about him being in hospital and, to be honest, that was the toughest.
‘As a unit, he was just another patient we were trying to do our best for, so it was business as usual. It was just another day at the office.’
The documentary describes Mr Cummings’ breach of restrictions in travelling to Barnard Castle from London as a turning point for when national unity crumbled during the first lockdown.
Ms McGee, a lead intensive care nurse at St Thomas’ who is originally from New Zealand, described Mr Johnson’s appearance while suffering with covid symptoms when she arrived for work last April.
‘All around him there was lots and lots of sick patients, some of whom were dying,’ she revealed. ‘I remember seeing him and thinking, he looked very, very unwell. He was a different colour really.’
In the documentary, Ms McGee also reveals how she had been asked by Mr Johnson’s staff to take part in a ‘clap for carers” at an event in the Downing Street garden last July – an offer she says she declined.
No10 had released photos of the Prime Minister hosting Ms McGee and another nurse, Luis Pitarma, last summer as the NHS marked its 72nd anniversary.
Mr Johnson named both nurses on the day he left hospital, telling the world’s media: ‘The reason in the end my body did start to get enough oxygen was because for every second of the night, they were watching.’
Ms McGee said: ‘It would have been a really good photo opportunity.
‘You know, kind of like Boris and his NHS friends, but I wanted to stay out of it. Lots of nurses felt that the government hadn’t led very effectively, the indecisiveness, so many mixed messages. It was just very upsetting,’ she said.
‘Yes, we have put ourselves on the line and we have worked so incredibly hard, and there’s a lot of talk about how we’re all heroes and all that sort of stuff. But at the same time, I’m just not sure if I can do it. I don’t know how much more I’ve got to give to the NHS.’
In a statement released on Tuesday through Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, Ms McGee said: ‘After the toughest year of my nursing career, I’m taking a step back from the NHS but hope to return in the future.
‘I’m excited to start a nursing contract in the Caribbean, before a holiday back home in New Zealand later in the year. I’m so proud to have worked at St Thomas’ hospital and to have been part of such a fantastic team.’
Ms McGee previously revealed how when carrying out intensive care duties, she and the PM ‘spent a lot of time together and we talked away about NZ’, particularly about her home city of Invercargill, which she said he took an interest in.
After shifts caring for the British premier, she said she would get in her car and ‘hear things about Boris Johnson on the news that was very surreal because I thought ‘wow, I’ve been looking after him”.
Boris Johnson, Staff Nurse Luis Pitarma and Ward Sister Jenny McGee sharing a joke as the Prime Minister talks to the NHS staff that cared for him
Nurse Luis Pitarma, who also cared for the PM, posing for a photo with his sister Sonia Pitarma
Mr Johnson’s video message from inside No10 after he was discharged from hospital. He singled out Ms McGee for praise during his message
‘But I really wasn’t fazed by looking after Boris Johnson,’ she added.
Ward sister Ms McGee moved to the UK eight years ago after doing her intensive care training in Melbourne. She previously worked at the Royal Melbourne Hospital for six years where she did her intensive care training.
Ms McGee attended the Verdon College in Invercargill, and they said the community was ‘so proud’ and that she had wanted to be a nurse since leaving in 2002.
Mr Johnson was not the only national leader to congratulate Ms McGee, who acknowledged she took longer than planned to respond to a message from New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, saying ‘it’s very surreal to have a message from Jacinda. She’s a hero of mine.’
Once the nurse did respond to the New Zealand leader, the two shared ‘a little bit of banter which again was surreal, (and) a couple of emojis’.
She added: ‘I’m so proudly New Zealand and we are a wonderful group of people who just get on with it. The messages are adorable.
‘Kids telling me they want to be a nurse. Families are saying how proud the are. It means so much right now. People will never know how much it means.’