Iceland's NHS worker coronavirus advice labelled 'offensive and hurtful' by Portsmouth woman

Iceland issued the apology after concerns were raised about a section on its Coronavius FAQ.

Under the ‘How will you be protecting your staff’ question, the response read: ‘We have had strong measures in place to protect our staff during the Covid-19 outbreak.

‘We will be limiting payments to cards only during the NHS exclusive hour, and aiming to clean stores following the exclusive hour each day.

‘If NHS workers touch products they have to buy them, they can’t put them back.

‘This is to reduce the risk of contamination.’

Harriet Shaw, from Paulsgrove, who is a nursing associate practitioner with Solent NHS Trust,

The 29-year-old explained: ‘As an NHS employee I found it incredibly offensive and hurtful that anyone would have the opinion that NHS staff could be spreading the virus. Such a large company making that statement spreads a message that is not true and incredibly ignorant.

‘They still have posted that for health and safety reasons members of the public cannot shop while NHS staff are.

‘NHS staff at this time do not need morale breaking. The support has been fantastic and this is horrible.’

Iceland have since issued an apology, a spokeswoman said: ‘This was an error and should not have been posted on our website. We sincerely apologise for the offence this has clearly caused, and have immediately withdrawn this guidance.

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‘We are deeply grateful to the NHS and all key workers for everything they are doing to keep the country running.’

Iceland have now removed the guidance about NHS staff having to purchase every item they touch from its website.

The supermarket is dedicating the last hour of trading each day to NHS customers, with photo ID as proof.

In its Iceland food warehouse stores, NHS staff will be allowed early access for the first hour of trading at 7am.

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