The public inquiry into the pandemic will begin a 10-week hearing on Monday looking at the impact on patients, health workers and the wider NHS.

More than a million Covid patients have been admitted to hospital in Britain since the virus emerged in 2020, while care for countless more people with other conditions has been disrupted.

third phase of interrogation The NHS will also examine the impact on staff, the use of masks and PPE in hospitals, policies to protect the most vulnerable and treatment of long-term Covid.

And for the first time, the stories of more than 30,000 health workers, patients and relatives will form part of the material recorded in evidence.

BBC News has spoken to some of them.

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“It was absolutely terrifying. We were really struggling, having to hunt around for masks and gloves,” says community midwife Mandi Masters from Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire.

In that early phase, she says, the NHS was “operating in the dark” as the virus spread from China to Italy and then to the UK.

Mandi later got Covid herself – she’s confident at work – and was in hospital on oxygen for three weeks.

“My husband took me to A&E but he had to leave me there, turn around and walk away,” she says.

“There were reports coming out about how many health professionals were dying from Covid, but I was too weak to care at the time,” she says.

“Looking back I have to admit it was extremely frightening.”

Mandi, 62, has now returned to work part-time, but she is having trouble breathing even after walking a short distance.

Every cold or chest infection “wipes her out” and she “mourns the person I was before Covid”.

The third section of the Covid public inquiry will look in detail at the impact on health workers.

This will also include:

• Diagnosis and treatment of Covid and long-Covid patients
• Masks, PPE and infection control in hospitals
• Policy to protect the most medically vulnerable
• Access to GP, ambulance and NHS 111 helplines
• Maternity and end-of-life care
• NHS staffing, including the use of private hospitals and temporary “Nightingale” sites

It is to examine the impact on the broader health care system, including delays and sharp increases in waiting lists caused by the pandemic.

Linda Ross, from Portadown, was booked in for spine surgery in early 2020.

Her operation was canceled and, by the time she could see her specialist again, she was told it was too late for treatment.

“The result is that I have to live my life at the same level of pain that I’m on the same medication as someone who is dying from cancer.” She says.

“It feels like the rest of my life has been destroyed.”