AIBU to refuse to be held prisoner at work?

[KitKat1985]

www.theargus.co.uk/news/18227689.fresh-suspected-coronavirus-case-nurses-mill-view-hospital-held-quarantine/?fbclid=IwAR3IShE3kLzzULNr8qVGu-31Bxf_n4YbOVlDL1mXfm6CgQAdK1-XtTXRFCo

I'm a nurse in this Trust. The nurses involved have apparently been refused the right to leave the building and have bee there since yesterday because they treated a patient with suspected coronavirus. This in my opinion is complete overkill and they are essentially holding the staff like prisoners. Even if they were unlucky enough to get coronavirus, they won't immediately get ill and be contagious anyway, so why not just let them go home (maybe with facemasks etc on) and quarantine them there?! There's no way anyone is keeping me from going home from work.

if this does become a pandemic and the government chooses to quarantine every staff member exposed to he virus, there will literally be no staff to treat all the sick people.

No, only if we follow your idea OP and allow staff to quarantine at home. By quarantining in the hospitals you’ll be conveniently on site 24/7 to treat the sick people come to the hospitals and will still be working probably extended shifts until the quarantine is lifted.

BUT, if you ask me to choose between work and risking being away from my kids for 2 weeks, well then my children matter more to me. And I don't think I'll be alone in that.

a) if you were exposed you wouldn't have a choice, it would be too late for you to make a choice.
b) if you want to avoid the possibility of a) make a choice and quit being a nurse now, to avoid that potential risk.

Your logic is fundamentally flawed on these two points alone. So I guess you will be handing in your resignation in the morning then?

Further to that

c) if you just fuck off at the last moment, when theres an outbreak then you are putting patients lives at risk. Not simply from COVID-19 but from a lack of general staffing.
d) if there is a large scale outbreak and its highly infectious, all qualified medical staff might well be compelled by law to work in the NHS or face criminal charges. This sounds crazy, but this is the reality of the power of the Civil Contingecies Act.
e) And even if you werent legally obliged, socially, you'd be pretty unpopular if you refused to help. I'm not sure who you think would employ you under those circumstances, and you sure as hell wouldn't get benefits with all the medical job vacancies that suddenly pop up. So you'd have to be financially able to do this, perhaps indefinitely.

I'm nervous about this. I work in a hospital but if I get quarantined who will look after my dc? I genuinely don't know how that would work and as children appear to be avoiding it it would be ott for my children to have to go without a parent and be taken into foster care (which I assume is what would happen). My family are in a Canada and I'm in the UK.

OP, do what feels right for you. Don’t pander your the daily fail readers.

That's the Blitz Spirit, @Speckledhen10!

After all - you are a nurse.
So you obviously know more about epidemiology than the WHO, or senior virologists. I don't think they get their facts from The Fail either.

@PlanDeRaccordement Are you under the impression that if you are in quarantine in hospital you will be allowed to still treat patients in hospital?! Do you know what quarantine means?

Are they going to keep all the paramedics exposed to it under lockdown too.

Kitkat,
I am operating under impression that if you are quarantined and not exhibiting any illness, you would be caring for patients who are also in quarantine with you.
In most cases a quarantine would apply to an entire hospital or clinic. Very few facilities can operate isolation wards to the level required by a quarantine.

Swine flu was a pandemic and staff were not quarantined. I don't think it's selfish to not want to be away from dc for 2 weeks and I love the thought that I have a friend who will happily care for my 3 young dc for 2 weeks.

Thank you speckled hen. I just think 'media hysteria' is in over-drive here, as this thread shows.

No. I understand the Civil Contingencies Act. And I understand the implications IF there is a pandemic.

Understanding this does not mean there WILL be a pandemic. Understanding this does not mean that proper precautions to prevent a pandemic shouldn't be taken.

And the media doesn't write NHS infectious disease policy. Thats the pesky infectious disease experts.

Do you know what quarantine means?

Do you know what ethics mean?

You don't think they'd have already exposed, but well, staff looking after the affected patients? Really?

If an infected person was known to have visited the local supermarket just before their diagnosis, should all the supermarket staff be compelled to stay at their branch of Asda or whatever, for 2 weeks?

Should all supermarket staff be forced to stay at work (or be arrested!!) in the middle of a pandemic as it is in the interests of the country to keep the nation fed etc etc?

The fucking mad, unthinking frothing on this thread is just unreal.

The fucking mad, unthinking frothing on this thread is just unreal.

Yes, you’d think the OP, as a nurse, would know better. 🙄

I think the average MN’er thinks nurses just do there shift then vanish into thin air !
Sorry MN’ers but most of us have families who RELY on us. The OP has an autistic child. Who do you think takes care of our kids if we have to go into quarantine? Our partners work & cant just take a few weeks off to look after the kids.
Looks like we’re in a news drought so the daily fail & other media need to make up scare stories for the public & attempt to scare nhs staff.

@T0tallyFuckedUpFamily Do you know what you are absolutely right. From now on every time I'm exposed to a horrible illness at work which could potentially kill someone, especially the frail and elderly (such as flu or norovirus) I'm going to put myself in two weeks quarantine. Granted I'll be off work for most of the year but obviously it would be utterly selfish to do anything otherwise. Thank you for your advice.

Looks like we’re in a news drought so the daily fail & other media need to make up scare stories for the public & attempt to scare nhs staff.

Are you saying that the story of the quarantined nurses is untrue?

Yes because nurses should all be completely selfless and not be worried about missing their family
The expectations on nurses on this thread is utterly unreal.

You cannot take staff who may have the virus, put them in quarantine and then get them to care for poorly patients who definitely do have Coronavirus. Thank fuck you're not leading the emergency planning!

The gov. cant be that worried Otherwise they would be cancelling all benefit sanctions so poorer people wont be left without electric ergo can afford to practice basic hygiene. Like the NHS is telling everyone to do.

Are they going to keep all the paramedics exposed to it under lockdown too.

Initially yes.

If it became more widespread and the threat level was very high because of a very high death rate or serious complication risk then the government would look to other options.

It'd be full on martial law with everyone quarantined at home. People would be restricted to go out, army on the streets instead.

Medics would be working on the front lines, with known cases quarantined away from other patients. Paramedics would be in desparate need so would have to work. This would potentially expose other ill people to a risk, but this would be unavoidable if the scale was big enough.

God some of you really need to watch more disaster movies!

YANBU.

I saw a patient at the weekend face to face with full blown flu just back from a skiing trip in the Alps. No swabs as didn't and still doesn't qualify. Didn't really occur for me to worry until I heard about the Alps connection the following day. Could well be incubating and spreading it as I continue NHS work. No reason to stay off work at present.

It's a joke how it's being handled. If the government actually want to know what's out there everyone with a flu like illness should be swabbed. Don't imagine anyone wants that job.

It's either being badly handled or PHE aren't really too worried about it. Not sure which yet.

Do you know what you are absolutely right. From now on every time I'm exposed to a horrible illness at work which could potentially kill someone, especially the frail and elderly (such as flu or norovirus) I'm going to put myself in two weeks quarantine. Granted I'll be off work for most of the year but obviously it would be utterly selfish to do anything otherwise. Thank you for your advice.

I didn’t actually think your reasoning could be any more lacking. You aren’t quarantined away from home, for other the other illnesses, as you well know. You may be quarantined for close contact with someone with Covid19 so now that you’re aware of that, are you resigning?

@Haffiana if the supermarket staff had been delivering a service to their customers that is comparable to the care a nurse/medic delivers to a patient then yeah, I’d move them to a quarantine. But they tend not to in my experience.

The world has been preparing for a potential pandemic for a long time, and has planned to deal with it in a way that will minimise the cost to human life - that’s what you’re seeing enacted now. And it wasn’t a plan concocted by the Daily Mail.

OP and @Speckledhen10 - do give up your day jobs!!

Sorry MN’ers but most of us have families who RELY on us. The OP has an autistic child. Who do you think takes care of our kids if we have to go into quarantine? Our partners work & cant just take a few weeks off to look after the kids.

If there was a national emergency, you wouldn't have a choice!