NHS scared & stressed but overwhelmed by kindness says Peter Andre’s wife Dr Emily MacDonagh as she backs Sun appeal

ON work days I get up at around 7am to leave the house at 7.30am.

It’s just enough time to have a shower, make my coffee and run out of the door.

Usually the kids are still asleep when I leave, so I don’t get to see them before work.

Before the outbreak I would wear my own clothes to work, but now we have to wear scrubs, which are kept at the hospital for infection control purposes.

After the shift I get back into my own clothes before heading home, always making sure to give my hands a really good wash on my way out. I also anti-bac in the car and as soon as I get in the door at home.

I often shower straight after getting home, before I see the kids. I can return quite late so usually they are in bed, or on their way.

I catch up with Pete over ­dinner, then a cup of tea on the sofa and it’s back to bed!

I think I speak for many NHS and key workers when I say it’s a very anxious time at the moment.

Not only are we in the midst of a pandemic, but our jobs are ­rapidly changing and we are learning new skills and new roles within the team.

Many hospitals are short-staffed due to sickness, with increasing numbers of very unwell patients.

This is obviously coupled with anxiety about the disease itself and what may happen if you become unwell, not to mention how that may affect your family.

Lots of people I know who work for the NHS also have family ­members working on the front line, so that adds another dimension to the worry.

On the other hand, we are being so well supported, not only by our colleagues and families but by the whole country.

The number of kind gestures I have seen is overwhelming — ­people bringing in food for ­hospital workers, offering them places to stay or simply just words of encouragement.

And of course the clapping on Thursday nights is wonderful.

Something that has come to my attention recently is the issue of distribution of ventilators across the country and how that is affecting patient care.

As there are more and more people requiring ventilation, some hospitals are running out of the intensive care ventilators and are having to use the simpler ­anaesthetic machines.

These machines are obviously able to ventilate a person to ­support their breathing, but are not designed for prolonged use and do not have the same ­complex settings you find on the intensive care machines.

Although there are more machines being manufactured, this is a slow process and not all of the new machines will be the more advanced type.

Hopefully with more awareness of this issue we can start to identify which geographical areas have a higher concentration of cases and whether ­collaboration across the NHS could make it easier to manage areas with high demand.

From speaking to other parents, it’s clear that lots of people are worrying about their children and the coronavirus.

Although the virus is less likely to be life-threatening in children, it is still a concerning time for parents.

There are parents working in the NHS who are living separately from their children to protect them, especially if they have underlying health conditions.

To me it is so admirable to dedicate yourself to your work in this way.

From a medical perspective, one of the big concerns is that children will not be taken to hospital with easily treatable conditions because their ­parents are worried about the coronavirus.

Conditions such as appendicitis, pneumonia and meningitis will continue at the same rate as usual, so parents need to treat their children the same as they would at any other time.

Children are susceptible to many viruses that can affect their breathing, including viral chest infections and the flu, so parents should base their ­decisions about attending hospital on how their child is, not on if they are worried about the risk of coronavirus.

The Royal College Of Paediatrics And Child Health has published a one-page guide on when you should seek help for any child who is unwell.

Another source of information is the Handi phone app, which has been adopted by lots of areas across the UK. It covers the five most common reasons for hospital admissions in children.

As a parent I think it’s important that you always feel like you can get help and advice if you need it, and above all I keep reminding myself to approach any illness in the kids as I would at any other time.

Hopefully if more parents take this approach it will avoid delays in getting unwell children to hospital.

Meanwhile I’m very lucky to have such a hands-on husband to help me out at home. Pete really is brilliant.

I’m pretty sure I speak for most mums when I say dads never do things exactly to your standards.

I’ve found a few black socks in the white washing!

But with everything going on I have put my unreasonable standards to one side and been very thankful for all his hard work.

Having the kids at home all day is like mini tornados running around everywhere that you constantly need to pick up after.

But the kids are enjoying themselves, and that’s the main thing.

They are loving having time with all of us, and I think they will look back and remember this strange moment when everyone stayed at home with great memories of a loving family.