Walking the tightrope of COVID-19 - how can doctors and other healthcare professionals protect themselves from future criticism?

Considering how front-line healthcare workers might protect themselves.

Recently, the “clap for the NHS” came to an end, after ten weeks. Reasons for its demise include some NHS staff feeling it had been hijacked by politicians, and some commenting that they would much rather have a properly resourced NHS than receive a weekly round of applause.

Nevertheless, the national sense of thanks for the NHS is strong, but will that strength be enough to carry doctors and other healthcare workers safely through the almost inevitable professional implications and the public inquiry which will follow in the aftermath of the Covid-19 crisis? 

There have been calls for emergency legislation to protect doctors and other healthcare workers from criminal and regulatory action arising from treatment provided under Covid-19 conditions.  In the absence of any such change in the law, this article considers where doctors and other healthcare workers are left in the continuing fight to control Covid-19. How do they walk the tightrope: protecting their patients, while at the same time trying to ensure that they do not risk criticism and legal action in the wake of this crisis? We consider the new guidance that has been drafted to assist healthcare workers on the front line, and then suggest some ways in which medical professionals might seek to protect themselves from future criticism.