Workers Revolutionary Party Nurses marching last August highlight the lack of PPE â an RCN report now reveals that higher grade PPE is necessary for NHS staff Female doctors say they have âfelt compelled to step upâ during the pandemic, even though they knew they were at risk, as BMA research shows that they have been consistently taking on extra â often unpaid â work to the detriment of their own wellbeing and mental health. In a diary, written as part of this research, a female doctor from an acute specialty wrote: âAs the first cases started to be reported in the UK we also heard that men were dying in much higher numbers than women, and the chance of serious illness or death was higher the older they were.