Councillor’s heartache as she loses both parents to Covid within months

A councillor who lost both parents to Covid has paid tribute to NHS staff who treated them.

Councillor Donna Williams’ mum Patricia died in the ambulance that was rushing her to hospital in March last year.

Aged 70, she had been in a care home since suffering a stroke in 2019, but was soon due to come home after her house was specially adapted.

Donna’s dad Maurice, 72, died last month.

The retired construction worker was taken to hospital as Covid left him struggling for breath, but sadly died two days later with his daughter at his side.

The Middleton councillor felt moved to tell her story during a council debate on the government’s recommendation that NHS staff in England should receive a 1% pay increase this year.

She was seconding a Labour motion calling on ministers to think again and recommend a pay award ‘worthy of the sacrifices’ they had ‘continually made’.

An emotional Councillor Williams said she knew ‘first hand’ how the pandemic had affected her family, friends and constituents – many NHS staff themselves.

“I have listened to their stories and now I’m going to tell you my story,” she said.

Councillor Williams told the remote meeting how NHS workers had supported her and her loved ones during their most harrowing moments.

“I have seen their grief, their anger and the sadness they have felt through all of this. But they have all carried on tirelessly,” she said.

“It was a paramedic who held my mum’s hand and comforted her when she took her last breath en route to hospital. She died in the ambulance.

“It was a paramedic who came to my house to take my dad to hospital to be ventilated – knowing that me and my dad were affected with Covid”.

 

 

Councillor Williams’ moving tribute continued.

“To the A&E staff who turned my dad on to his front so he could breathe and they fought to save his life,” she said.

“To Maggie, who stayed on after her shift to make sure my dad got to the Covid ward and to make sure I was okay.

“To Kate, who nursed my dad and made him comfortable at his end of life. To the health care assistant who, at 2am, brought me a blanket and a recliner chair because I was lying next to my dad while I was suffering from Covid and struggling to breathe myself.

“They helped me and they cared for me on the ward.”

She added: “To the specialist who sat with me and told me after 48 hours that my dad would not recover from Covid and I should say my goodbyes.

“To the two doctors who were leaving to go home after their shift late that evening on February 6, who picked me up when my body failed and comforted me and made sure I got to my car as my dad had just passed away and I was alone.

“I thank you all.”

The Conservative group ultimately voted for the motion, but tabled an amendment which urged the government to make mental health support – and improved conditions - the top priority.

This removed the demand for a review of the 1% pay rise recommendation. Tory councillors felt such a move was ‘premature’ as it pre-empted the decision of the NHS pay-review body.

Those on the Conservative benches said a cross-party call for mental health support would be a more ‘positive’ move – while the Labour motion was likely to prove ‘futile’.

Councillor Williams told the meeting that ‘the death and the suffering’ she had seen on the Covid ward had left her in need of ongoing mental health support.

And she said this was also true of NHS staff who have been repeatedly exposed to the horrors of the pandemic – yet ‘still continue to go to work every single day’.

But she rejected the Conservatives’ call to drop demands over pay.

“During the pandemic it’s been our amazing NHS staff who have kept our country going,” she said.

“They have kept us safe and looked after our loved ones and often held their hands when they took their last breath when we couldn’t be there.

“So this government’s insulting recommendation of a 1% pay rise for NHS workers who are exhausted after a year of working tirelessly, caring for patients during the pandemic is totally unacceptable.”

Councillor Williams told the meeting that a ‘decent deal’ for NHS staff was ‘fair, necessary and is affordable’.

She noted that a 1% rise for the average nurse would amount to just £3.50 in take-home pay – and could lead to thousands quitting the medical profession.

“The NHS has protected me, protected us, now it’s time to protect them and to give them the pay rise they deserve,” said Councillor Williams.

“I, like so many others have certainly learned through this pandemic just how important our health care system is.

“I’m supporting this motion because I have values of compassion and decency and a sense of fairness in the fact they have gone above and beyond for us all.”

The motion was ultimately supported unanimously by councillors when put to the vote.

Maurice and Patricia Williams lived in Middleton and had five children, five grandchildren and one great granddaughter.

Speaking after the meeting Councillor Williams said they had both been taken ‘far too soon’.

“They had so much life and had so much going and wanted to live so much,” she said.

Both from Langley, they ‘loved Middleton and loved life’.

“They really wanted to live, it just feels like we had come so far to have them taken away with Covid,” Councillor Williams told the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The remote full meeting of Rochdale council was held on Wednesday night (25 March).

Nick Statham, Local Democracy Reporter