An embarrassed nurse "cried all the way home" after she said customers queuing outside Aldi made snide comments about her using her NHS card to avoid a large queue.
The woman, who did not wish to be named, had just finished a 13-hour night shift at Alder Hey Children's Hospital and stopped at Aldi in Fazakerley at around 7.55am yesterday.
Coronavirus social distancing measures mean that lengthy queues have formed outside some supermarkets as stores seek to limit the number of customers entering at a time - but Aldi has announced that NHS workers do not need to stand in line.
The unseemly incident came only days after millions across the nation stepped outside and clapped for the NHS - a show of support in a time of unprecedented crisis.
The nurse, who has worked at Alder Hey for more than 30 years, said: "I had just finished work and the girls had said to me Aldi opens at 8am and the NHS don't have to stand in the queue.
"I got there, got out of my car and there was a big queue. I walked over and there was a security guard standing there. I said 'where do I stand?' and said I was NHS and showed him my card, so he said 'stand here'.
"And then the comments from people in the queue, they started saying 'oh yeah, we're all NHS here', 'so what NHS that's your job.' There were about six or seven of them saying things, and I didn't answer back because I thought it would just fuel it."
The nurse said she felt so upset by the incident she rushed around the store and left.
But she was again aware of snide comments as she walked out of the exit, with one woman heard to say: "There she is, I know the NHS do a good job but so what?"
The nurse said: "I couldn't believe it. After feeling so humbled the other night.
"After the clapping for the NHS, to being abused this morning from a few people who haven't a clue what I had endured on my night shift.
"It's just horrible, people just don't know."
The nurse said she "cried all the way home" after the unpleasant incident.
She said Aldi staff had been fantastic and she had written to thank them - but the reaction of the customers she described as "very sad."
She said: "I never expected for one minute I would be challenged going in, I was embarrassed to be doing it in the first place. I cried all the way home.
The nurse said members of her extended family have died after contracting coronavirus and other relatives have had the disease.
She said: "This disease, if it is as bad as they say, at some point is going to touch a lot of people's lives, whether it is a neighbour, a close family member, it is going to affect each and every one of us.
"But for the NHS staff, it does not feel as if we get the same respect as we used to."
Supermarkets have also introduced so called NHS hours, when only NHS staff and other key workers are allowed in store.
