A hospital consultant has said that people needed to "grow up" and take coronavirus seriously after footage shared on social media showed supposed empty hospitals. Dr David Nicholl, who works in the West Midlands, said he was fed up of people "wandering round empty hospitals". Police are investigating after videos filmed in hospitals in Birmingham and Redditch, in Worcestershire were posted on social media.
Dr Nicholl said: "We are only going to get through this if we work together." It follows a similar incident in Colchester, Essex, where security officers removed Covid-19 "deniers" who were taking pictures of empty corridors.
A spokesperson for the Doctors Association UK and a former Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate, he said: "We are extremely busy. It's important people treat this with the gravity they should, we must suppress the virus." He added it made him "pig sick" when he saw people together protesting that coronavirus was a hoax. It is grossly offensive to the now over 70,000 people - including the 600 of my colleagues - who have died because of this illness," he said.
Ch Supt Phil Dolby, of West Midlands Police, tweeted to say his "blood was boiling" when he had seen the videos. He contracted coronavirus in March and was in intensive care on a ventilator for 13 days. He was later discharged and began a phased return to work in June.
A West Midlands Police spokesman said the force had been contacted on January 1 by a member of the public at Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital concerned a man was "walking around inside a hospital without a mask and filming,” a spokesperson said. “We are liaising with colleagues in West Mercia Police and will consider the circumstances before deciding on the most appropriate course of action."
Ch Insp Ed Hancox, of the West Mercia force, said no arrests had been made but the investigation continued.
