Red tape blamed for only 5,000 of the 40,000 retired NHS workers who volunteered to return to fight Covid being given jobs GP Claire Barker said she did not have the required 21 forms to work despite owning her practice for 30 years Dr Brian Cooper, 73, one of 47,000 retired medics to sign up to the NHS's call for volunteers in April They were supposed to be deployed to hospitals to get normal care up and running during Covid crisis But Dr Cooper claims he was left in lurch for seven months then asked to do contact tracing work