NHS voices of COVID-19

Since March 2020 we have been interviewing over 250 frontline NHS staff, clinical leaders, policymakers and patients across the UK about the impact of COVID-19 on their personal and working lives and wider communities. The interviews are a mixture of 150 one-off interviews and recurring sessions with 100 interviewees which together comprise over 700 hours of audio recordings. Voices from all regions of England are represented in the collection, alongside voices from Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. Oral history gives agency to interviewees to shape the form and meaning of the interview and thus is adept at capturing experiences and reflections that speak to the plural identities of individuals as citizens, workers and patients. It facilitates sense-making and reflection on the narrative that is being shared and is effective at capturing the scale and depth of the effects and impacts of COVID-19 on every aspect of our lives and communities.