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.

Seriously? Some people are so fucking stupid they actually reported the OP as a troll?

Because obviously questioning orders from above (even if you yourself are a medical professional) is just totally unacceptable, as no doubt that dead doctor in Wuhan would agree.

Lot's of hysterical people on this thread all holding the OP and other NHS workers to far higher standards than they would ever be able to manage themselves, whilst no doubt in the same breath mumbling about how wonderful and selfless all of these healthcare workers are.

If we start quarantining nurses in hospitals then lots are going to start thinking about whether to go into work at all, and then where we will be?

I think the fact that the Op appears to be a mental health nurse explains rather a lot. She probably doesn’t have to pay anything more than lip service to infection control in her usual day to day work.

She’s unlikely to ever have come into contact with any very physically sick or infectious patients as they’d have been sent to hospital at the first sign of any physical health problem.

@Notthemessiah exactly. The naivety is hilarious. All these joker keyboard warriors sitting at home every day thinking poorly treated and pissed off public sector workers will sacrifice themselves to help them without question.

The reaction to this virus is ridiculous.

Yes, people have caught it. yes, those who are vulnerable may end up becoming seriously ill or even dying, but no, for the most part it is not a life-threatening illness.

Anyone suggesting that it’s reasonable that when someone drops their kids off at nursery, goes to work and then is suddenly told that they can’t leave for the next two weeks is a reasonable step needs to get a grip.

What happens if you’re a single parent with no family support who has dropped your kids off in a childcare setting while you work, intending to collect them after your shift? What do people suppose should happen to those children? They be taken into care perhaps?

And yes, I have had the flu and I nearly died from it, sustained permanent damage to my heart and would probably be vulnerable should I catch this virus. But people have lost all perspective over this.

A nurse who doesn't appreciate the need for infection control is like those nurses I remember meaning about hand washing. So what if a few people get ill.

OP you should be struck off, and not only for going to social media and naming your organisation (which I think you will find is outside your contract-why not check with HR).

All these joker keyboard warriors sitting at home every day thinking poorly treated and pissed off public sector workers will sacrifice themselves to help them without question.

Doctors, nurses, firemen, paramedics, police, military etc. All jobs where those who take them on do so knowing the risks they face. I think everyone on the thread is commending and thanking them - because most of them do what is needed. And if what is needed is staying put for a bit to make sure you don't put the UK population at risk then its a "reasonable" thing to do.

Ah! Sad you think like that OP!

I taught in a residential school when SARS hit. We had lots of foreign kids doing summer school and one of them came down with it. They were all quarantined and, because I shared a lunch room with them I was asked to volunteer to stay and help out.

Many staff did so, teachers, cleaners, canteen staff etc, a couple got SARS and were further quarantined. All got well, as did the few kids that got it too.

So no... I don't reall think that anything unusual is being asked of nurses here!

The point is not that it probably won't kill us. The point is, as others have said, to try and stop it spreading to third world countries where there isn't the infrastructure to deal with it, where people may not have such good heath.

And don't tell me it won't get there... look how quickly it got here! That isn't hysteria, I don't think it would harm me much if I did get it. It's common sense and thinking further than the end of my own nose!

All these joker keyboard warriors sitting at home every day thinking poorly treated and pissed off public sector workers will sacrifice themselves to help them without question. Yes! Like they do day in and day out!

Like many other people do, day in day out!

Yes, there are some poeple who would not, some of them are public sector workers, others not. It isn't where they work that is the difference...

Don’t roll your eyes at me @HasaDigaEebowai. Tell me, who is going to look after Ops kids, and the dependents of any others who need isolating outside of their homes? And then what when they have a second contact, or a third? We’re just going to expect people to exist in permanent isolation? Please tell us what the answers are to manage this in this country of depleted healthcare and public resources we live in.

Everyone on the thread is thanking and commending them?? What bollocks you spout. The post just above yours is demanding the op being struck off!! For worrying about who will look after her autistic kid in her absence. Fucking hell.

Don’t roll your eyes at me @HasaDigaEebowai. Tell me, who is going to look after Ops kids, and the dependents of any others who need isolating outside of their homes?

I guess nobody will need to if she kills them by taking home a potentially deadly virus...

Jesus Christ I’m out.

Everyone on the thread is thanking and commending them?? What bollocks you spout. The post just above yours is demanding the op being struck off!!

Commending them in general. Not the OP.

10/10. Thoroughly enjoyed reading this. Glad OP isn't my nurse

I'm still struggling to understand why everyone hasn't grasped the concept that I'm not talking about staff leaving but being allowed to go about their normal business, but going home and being allowed to self-isolate, which is what everyone else who was potentially exposed to one of the carriers in the Brighton area has been allowed to do. Why have acquaintances of the 'super spreader' in Brighton been allowed home to self-isolate but staff potentially exposed haven't? I would be willing to go into quarantine if necessary, but I would far prefer to do so in my home than be effectively locked up at work.

And I should explain my 'glorified flu' comment to explain that flu is serious virus that usually is self-limiting, but still kills thousands of people each year, despite a vaccination programme. Coronovirus is similar in this respect (except that there's no vaccine). Statistically I'm far more likely still to kill someone by inadvertently passing on flu that I've picked up at work than I am coronavirus. Yet no-one is foaming at the mouth insisting I go into quarantine every time I worked with a patient with flu are they?

The other problem (and you can already see Mumsnet threads to this effect) A&E is going to start to fill up now with people believing they have coronavirus because they have a cough and they had a Chinese last week. Are we going to make all the staff at A&E etc go into quarantine until each hysterical patient they've seen has been tested clear. Have some of you any idea of the level of chaos that would cause?

So again, who is going to look after the OP’s kids or the kids of anyone else who has now been forced to remain at work because they might have come into contact with someone with the virus? Shall we put them into the over-stretched care system?

And where do we end this lockdown? If a person presents to a&e with what they suspect to be corona should we then quarantine the whole department along with everyone who is there for other ailments, after all they might have come into contact? And what then about their dependents? The care system shall provide?

If you prevent one person from going somewhere then that has to apply to everyone, and that simply isn’t possible.

And it’s also worth bearing in mind that the vast, vast majority of people presenting with what they think is corona only have the flu or are just hysterical based on the fact they might have sat next to a chinese person on a bus. Ah yes, and said bus should obviously also be quarantined, along with every other place the person who thinks they might have corona has visited in the past two weeks.

This isn’t just about hospital staff in one trust being told they will be prevented from leaving work. It’s about the complete impracticality of quarantining everyone who has a bit of a cough.

Is the number in the UK still only eight? Out of what.... 60 million?

who is going to look after Ops kids, and the dependents of any others who need isolating outside of their homes? People like me! See above post

And then what when they have a second contact, or a third? They get dealt with as they occur. The point is to try to slop it / slow down the spread.

We’re just going to expect people to exist in permanent isolation? Don't be daft! That's more absurd than the media hype!

Please tell us what the answers are to manage this in this country of depleted healthcare and public resources we live in. I think you'll find that question has been answered, why WHO, Public Health in all home nations and some posters here!

It's not the thinking they will expect them to sacrifice themselves, it's the expectation that they will because 'they chose to do that job', whilst at the same time having absolutely no idea what it's like to work as a nurse in A&E at the moment.

All of the arseholes saying she should be struck off make me sick. Keyboard warriors of the worst kind with no empathy or compassion thinking they are entitled to someones unquestioning compliance but for whom probably the most dangerous or demanding thing they will do today will be deciding what to have on their toast.

I guess nobody will need to if she kills them by taking home a potentially deadly virus... ah yes, because people are constantly killing other people, children, adults, all manner of people are dropping dead left, right and centre. Oh wait...... they aren’t.

Is the number in the UK still only eight? Out of what.... 60 million? Yep! In part die to the fact that all those poeple with a sniffle were taken seriously and were checked, health professionals held, response teams at the ready, until results were in etc etc. The "superspreader" business man being one of the reasons why this is necessary.

That's the kind of thing we have had in place for a few decades now!

I think the fact that the Op appears to be a mental health nurse explains rather a lot. She probably doesn’t have to pay anything more than lip service to infection control in her usual day to day work.

She’s unlikely to ever have come into contact with any very physically sick or infectious patients as they’d have been sent to hospital at the first sign of any physical health problem.

As a mental health nurse I'd just like to say fuck off... I've had numerous bodily fluids thrown at me or left for me to clean... you can bloody believe we take infection prevention seriously.

And I've recently been involved in a joint review with our local acute trust around how many physically unwell people are being left on our wards receiving inadequate care (becasue we're mental health specialists) becasue the general hospital refuse to admit them.

It'll be worse if school kids start getting it, there'll be no controlling it. I don't think YABU op, it seems madness really, to be kept prisoner at work, what else would they consider? It would be better to transport someone and their dependants to a comfortable isolation centre. I think it's worse than the flu based on the mortality, and super contagious by the looks of it. Fingers crossed for a vaccine/treatment 🤞🤞🤞

What would happen if the person I sit next to at work got Covid19? Would we all be quarentined in the office? Genuine question. If that is the case I need to start making a list of people who could look after the kids and pets, and keep some kind of emergency supplies bag with me all the time.

It's probably a good idea to do this anyway. I was caught at work over nights once by unexpected snow and was envious of my super organised colleague who was ready for any situation where stuck.

It's probably a good idea to put provisions in place for frontline staff as if they started exhibiting symptoms at work they'd need to stay too

Self quarantine doesn't work as how do you totally isolate for 2 weeks? Kids at home,no food deliveries... but equally dependents need to be cared for and if there's no one else that's a big issue. With family/friends hopefully the amount of staff like that is low but they need support too.

There's no way anyone is keeping me from going home from work.

I think you'll find they can, as there are emergency powers put in place (The Health Protection (Coronavirus) Regulations 2020).

If you do kick off, I guess you could spend your time bringing your CV up to date, as you'd probably need it afterwards.

@PhilCornwall1 what a dickhead thing to say. Isn’t it a wonder that anyone keeps working in public services with lovely attitudes like yours on the receiving end. Op is concerned about who will look after her disabled kid in her absence- for fucks sake you yourself can’t even demonstrate a tiny bit of the empathy and high standards of care you clearly expect from her!

I’ve given up on this thread as quite honestly there is no sense to be had from arguing with some of the prats on here. Op think about some of these responses when considering whether you want to continue helping the ungrateful public.

what a dickhead thing to say. Since when is pointing out that there are contingency plans, laws etc, in place a dickhead thing to say?

You keep ignoring the majoirty of posters, like myself, who post sensibly, choosing to focus on the few who are less reasonable. Makes your posts really odd, unbalanced...

Op think about some of these responses when considering whether you want to continue helping the ungrateful public. But that makes perfect sense.... Pshaw!