Coronavirus: Doctors in Spain ‘suicidal’ over traumatic hospital conditions amid fears official death toll is an understatement

‘When you see patients gasping for air as if they were fish out of water, it has an emotional effect on you,’ a doctor in intensive care tells Graham Keeley

A healthcare worker wearing a protective suit at the entrance of the Severo Ochoa Hospital in Leganes, near Madrid, on Friday (AFP/Getty)

Doctors in Spain have been so traumatised by their experiences trying to deal with the coronavirus pandemic that they have considered suicide, medical staff have told The Independent.

As they struggled to cope with the second highest death rate in the world after Italy, health workers in Spain have complained about the lack of hospital beds, insufficient protective equipment and a lack of testing kits.

With health service staff accounting for about 14 per cent of all infections in Spain, doctors and nurses working on the front line spoke out about the emotional impact of dealing with the outbreak.