Senior mortician at Royal London Hospital breaks down as she admits it feels like a ‘conveyor belt’

A senior mortician at Royal London Hospital has admitted the devastating number of bodies flowing through the mortuary makes it feel like a ‘conveyor belt’.

Hannah Leahy, who has handled hundreds of deceased Covid patients, broke down in tears as she spoke of the devastating impact the pandemic has had on her and her five-strong team at ths hospital in Whitechapel who are predominantly women.

Speaking to the BBC’s Clive Myrie, she said: ‘How do you ever prepare for… people just dying and dying and dying? 

‘Although it’s our job and we deal with dead people every day, this level I think has taken its toll.’ 

Barts NHS Trust, which runs five hospitals including Royal London, has recorded 1,357 deaths of patients with confirmed Covid-19, as of January 18. For the same period 8,009 inpatients hospitalised with confirmed Covid-19 have recovered and have been discharged.

Hannah Leahy, who has handled hundreds of deceased Covid patients, broke down in tears as she spoke of the devastating impact the pandemic has had on her and her five-strong team who are predominantly women

It comes after the UK hit a sombre new milestone yesterday with the highest number of Covid deaths (1,610) recorded in a 24-hour period. It marked a sharp 30 per cent rise on the 1,243 announced last Tuesday and nearly the double the number of victims a fortnight ago, when there were 860.

The Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine has warned many hospitals are overwhelmed, with some staff on their knees after many months of treating ill patients. 

More than 10,000 people in London have now died from coronavirus according to official figures.

Myrie spent 10 days filming at the Royal London Hospital speaking to staff, patients and family members for a special report.

Asked if the mortuary feels like a ‘conveyor belt’, Hannah – whose official role is an anatomical pathology technologist – admitted: ‘It does, in a way, I hate to say that because I hate to think of it like that, but yes it is, almost.’

Hannah admitted the devastating number of bodies flowing through the mortuary (pictured) feels like a ‘conveyor belt’

Speaking on BBC Breakfast this morning, reporter Clive Myrie said the raw emotion seen is a result of Hannah ‘holding all that in for the whole of the pandemic

Breaking down in tears, she added: ‘Sorry. I’ve done this for years… when someone says how does it make you feel, and you’re saying how it makes you feel, this is how it makes you feel.’

Speaking on BBC Breakfast this morning, Myrie said the raw emotion seen is a result of Hannah ‘holding all that in for the whole of the pandemic’.

‘When we filmed her she told me that she doesn’t talk to her family or friends about it because no one outside her circle wants to talk about death,’ he told hosts Dan Walker and Louise Minchin.

‘So these emotions and feelings are bottled up within that five woman-strong team at the Royal London Hospital, and for an outsider to approach her and say, “How do you feel about what you’ve had to see?” was something that she was simply unprepared for.

Hannah’s colleague is also seen becoming tearful as she admits nothing could have prepared them for the toll the pandemic has taken on them

‘What you saw there was months and months of pain, of hurt, of frustration, just spill out because no one outside her circle ever asks her how she feels and that’s what… we want to get across in these films. The side of the pandemic that so many people might know about in the back of their minds but don’t really think about or want to think about.’

The report also showed devastating scenes from Covid wards, which occupy 12 of the hospital’s 15 floors – a total of 400 patients.

Critical care consultant Marie Healy is seen checking on a 28-year-old man with no underlying conditions who has been on a ventilator for more than three weeks and also has other family members in critical care.

She undertakes the difficult task of phoning his wife to deliver the dreadful news that he might not pull through.

Critical care consultant Marie Healy is seen checking on a 28-year-old man with no underlying conditions who has been on a ventilator for more than three weeks and also has other family members in critical care. She undertakes the difficult task of phoning his wife to deliver the dreadful news that he might not pull through

Tearful after the call, she admitted: ‘It’s very difficult because this poor family have been through a huge amount and actually someone nice, that makes it more difficult.’ 

Marie added: ‘Think the public want to do the right thing, but I don’t feel they understand fully the scale of the problem.’

Kathy Macgloin, a consultant anaesthetist who is currently ‘mucking in’ on the intensive care wards, told how she is caring for a Covid patient in her mid-twenties, whose oxygen levels dropped to a dangerous level.

She explained: ‘I’m sweating, and it’s not just the PPE so I mean she’s young, she’s someone’s relative, this is something precious that we are holding and we are trying to do. Yeah, it’s quite frightening.’ 

It comes weeks after bosses emailed staff admitting they are so overwhelmed with cases ‘we are no longer providing high standard critical care, because we cannot’.

The warning, leaked to NHS campaign group Every Doctor UK, came as the hospital’s doctors and nurses begged bosses to declare an emergency as they opened a new ward and moved adults into a paediatric ward after 200 new Covid patients were admitted at the end of December. 

Kathy Macgloin, a consultant anaesthetist who is currently ‘mucking in’ on the intensive care wards, told how she is caring for a Covid patient in her mid-twenties, whose oxygen levels dropped to a dangerous level