Man sought over video showing abusive comments to hospital staff on Covid ward

Police have issued an appeal for help with identifying and tracing a 45-year-old man after a group of people who refused to wear masks in hospital became abusive towards staff and posted offensive social media comments.

Surrey Police released a photograph of Toby Hayden-Leigh, from Maidstone, Kent, in connection with the incident at the East Surrey Hospital in Redhill on 21 January.

Footage posted on social media showed Hayden-Leigh and two other people insisting that the hospital discharge an elderly patient with coronavirus against the doctor’s orders, as well as peddling theories that there is no proof coronavirus exists.

The doctor can be heard warning the group that the patient would die without his oxygen tube, adding that the group were “making him unsafe” as some of them were not wearing a mask.

He also lists the medication the patient is on to treat his illness, saying: “He has coronavirus pneumonia affecting both his lungs. He’s on steroids called dexamethasone. He’s on antibiotics to treat concurrent bacterial infections.”

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In reply, Hayden-Leigh tells the doctor that the patient’s treatment can be replaced with vitamin C, vitamin D and zinc.

Later in the video, the doctor asks Hayden-Leigh to put his mask on, but he insists he is “exempt” from wearing one.

A spokesperson for the force said the videos and a number of comments that were abusive towards hospital staff were posted on social media on 23 January.

Officers attended the scene and issued fines to two individuals for breaching coronavirus regulations and issued a breach of the peace warning, which then forced the group to leave the hospital premises.

Detective chief inspector Kimball Edey said: "We would like to speak to Hayden-Leigh in connection with this incident, and the escalating abusive and threatening comments being made towards hospital staff on social media.

"These comments are extremely concerning, and are obviously causing considerable distress for those who are being targeted.

"The staff at the hospital, as are all NHS workers, are trying to care for desperately-ill people in extremely challenging circumstances, and to be targeted and abused on social media in this way is simply unacceptable.”

He added: "We also need to track Hayden-Leigh down as a matter of urgency due to the public health risk he poses.

"He came into close proximity with a patient who remains seriously ill with Covid and may well have contracted the virus himself.

"We are appealing for any information and any help we can get from the public to find this man so that we can deal with him appropriately."

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