A SOUTHEND nurse has called out Boris Johnson for being out of touch after he played down the extent to which hospitals are struggling to battle the pandemic. 

During a press conference on Friday the Prime Minister said the capacity within intensive care units had "not yet been overwhelmed" in the way he had feared. 

He then went on to say the reason for that was down to the "hard work and professionalism" of the doctors and nurses fighting on the Covid-19 frontline. 

The PM's comments have since been met with outrage online, not least from Lisa Ward, who is a lead respiratory nurse at Southend Hospital. 

Writing directly to Boris Johnson on Twitter she slammed him for failing to grasp just how much pressure the NHS is under.

She said: "You’ve got this so wrong - definition of ‘overwhelmed’ please?!

"Staff are overwhelmed with exhaustion, sadness, feelings of helplessness and concern for colleagues.

"And yes, finding therapeutic beds to treat critically ill patients on a daily basis is overwhelming."

Lisa's comment come after the number of coronavirus cases within Southend-on-Sea soared to 11,892.