I’m the real doctor behind ITV’s Breathtaking – I’ll burn with rage for the rest of my life, NHS staff were traumatised
THE real-life doctor who inspired ITV series Breathtaking has admitted that she will burn with rage for the rest of her life after being left traumatised over the handling of NHS staff in the Covid pandemic.
Dr Rachel Clarke allowed her story to be used for the ITV programme which aims to bring light to what life was like in the hospital wards at the outbreak of the deadly Covid-19 pandemic.
Having been on the frontline during the height of the pandemic, Rachel kept a hand-written diary during the time in order to control her anxieties..
These notes were later added into a book which in turn was itself used as the base for Breathtaking.
Dr Rachel has since opened up on her ‘real’ feelings to Metro.co.uk to express her fury at how Boris Johnson and Matt Hancock dealt with the pandemic and has branded their actions “unforgivable”.
Unleashing her fury, she said: “It’s unforgivable. It’ll make me burn with rage for the rest of my life that they both stood up in front of the British public and lied.
“Boris Johnson lied over and over again when they claimed that the NHS was not overwhelmed.
“We were rationing care.”
Slamming him, she added: “It’s the absolute antithesis of how a prime minister should be in a pandemic.
“I believe strongly that Boris and Matt Hancock in particular, owe every single one of the 1.3 million members of staff at the NHS a massive apology.”
Across the three episodes, the tense life of the hospital corridors is brought to life with the harsh truths exposed.
Stripped over three nights, Breathtaking recreates and dramatises the affect of the virus on medical staff.
It follows Dr Abbey Henderson, who is played by Joanne Froggatt, as a junior doctor as she navigates her way through 2020.
Speaking about the role, Joanne told ITV: “I feel truly honoured to be playing Dr Abbey Henderson in Breathtaking, based on Dr Rachel Clarke’s beautifully written, poignant and shocking book of the same name.
“When I first read the incredible scripts they moved me to tears on many occasions.
“I felt so passionately that I had to be a part of telling this story, the real story, of what was really happening behind the closed doors of the hospitals during the pandemic.”
Adding of her own harrowing time, Dr Rachel said: “Everyone in the NHS went through this incredibly traumatic experience.”
Rachel’s eyes filled with tears as she spoke to the publication as she continued: “We were not like soldiers who had been trained to go onto a battlefield.
“We were ordinary, flawed human beings trying to be brave while being wholly unprepared for the risks.
“The trauma of the deaths happening in such a short period has deeply scarred every person I have spoken to.
“We wished we could do something to stop patient after patient after patient from dying in the same way, but we didn’t have the resources.”