Thankyou but please stop

[MingeofDeath]

Front line NHS worker here. Thank you for your amazing support, we are working unbelievably hard in extremely stressful conditions, so thankyou, thankyou, thankyou.
There is just one teeny little thing though; we are not heroes, just normal people going about our jobs. I don't want to see kids of NHS workers waving their pictures around on telly. I'm finding it a bit much. Please don't fetishise us
I know that AIBU

I'm cynical about the out-pourings of support because it's been ramped up to pan-banging, fireworks, instruments and I expect, a sign-writing plane very soon... but the funding of NHS meals hasn't met its target yet, nor the PPE provision. Those support measures actually matter.

Yes

YES

YES

Me and my DP work in the NHS. Me not on the frontline, but he is. We are both finding it grating now, don't want to sound ungrateful at all but personifying everyone as heroes and all the gushing has become embarrassing. Also, all the free stuff. Products, free food etc. Our local trust where I work they've had a different restaurant each night cook them food - NHS staff are getting their full time wage! They are the LAST people who need free stuff. What about the people who have lost their jobs? What about the people who have been furloughed and waiting for payments? People with kids? They deserve it more.

Don't vote for a party that makes ridiculous promises but doesn't hold on to them MamaBear Labour didn't get elected so couldn't hold onto their promises.

What a ridiculous thing to say. All that Conservative voters seem to be able to say is Labour would have been worse, well that is speculation but the mess the Conservatives have made is a fact. Significant difference.

@rosinavera

The Conservatives are ideologically opposed to the NHS as a concept.

y. A lot of nhs staff have been asked to take their leave now as there is nothing to do because operations have been cancelled. And yes, an awful lot of nhs key workers are working from home. The vast vast majority are not saints, just workers going about their jobs. Jobs they chose to do. Masses of them now have nothing to do

Yes this. Operations are cancelled, chemotherapy is cancelled, patients aren't turning up to their 2WW appt because they are frightened to go to hospital for fear of catching covid.

I'm the meantime the govt and their advisors and yes, some nurses and doctors, are seemingly putting protecting the NHS above saving lives and people are thinking that unless they are desperately ill with covid they should not be using the service. After this peak is over we will have patients who have become more ill than they would have normally because they are staying at home when they should have sought help. People dying prematurely of cancer. People becoming seriously ill from covid but still too scared to use the service.

There's a whole new clusterfuck waiting for us when this peak is over. No one will be clapping then.

"@TabbyMumzbut nowwearesix actually IS a SALT and knows what’s going on in that dept. It’s not just ICU that are dealing with Covid patients - it really isn’t."

I've had a few salts ring me in the past few weeks, saying they have nothing to do as they cant be near patients . This obviously differs from hospital to hospital, but if you think about it, not everyone can be redeployed to be in icu. Firstly there wont be enough room and secondly they arent trained. There are literally hundreds of people if not thousands working in each hospital, they wont all be working with covid patients.

They are doing it in every country - it's not a Tory thing, and these threads always die as soon as people start whining about the Tories. They are democratically elected every time.
I think for the most part it brings people together and helps us understand the common purpose, as well as showing appreciation. If you don't like being the focus of it, which I understand too, just ignore.

Maybe Mumsnet posters who are politically aware and who have skills in communicating that in a more simplistic way could post threads well in advance of elections, setting out the manifestos and historic outcomes so that those of us who aren't good at weeding out dross, can have the benefit of this and make it meaningful when it comes to the polling booth.

NONE of the parties outright says, "We will cut the NHS money if we get it". Life would be so much simpler if they did.

I've seen quite a bit of berating of Tory voters (I am not one) after the fact but, given the actual number of people who went in that direction, it's incongruous with the outpourings of support now. People who voted Tory are out there clapping and that needs to change - we need people to vote for the right parties but understand who those are and why.

I know I would benefit from this myself!

As long as we continue to be portrayed as hero's, the longer the government will get away with not supplying us with the correct resources. It's a commodity.

I don't judge you for your opinion @MingeofDeath loads of people are doing amazing things and it can feel uncomfortable being thanked, but I think it's just people's way of showing what a massive life saving difference you are making. Even the people who "virtue signal" aren't bad human beings, they are who they are.

Thank you, your 'crew' have saved people in my family and given us precious time we wouldn't have had. We can never repay that debt. I did clap once,last Thurs and that's fine I won't labour the point and it won't go on Fakebook I promise

Why would anyone on here be able to do anything about this?

Because the forum is read by millions, including a large number of people working in media and journalism?

The recognition is good, but the proof of all the gratefulness is surely in the funding rather than the clapping?

My understanding is that the clapping was started by a member of the public as goodwill gesture, which now seems to have taken on a life of its own.

@LandOfAThousandJumpers you maybe right but it has not been any better under Labour

Are these same Tories (and the people who voted them in) also clapping NHS workers now?

Pay a penny per pound more in tax that goes to the NHS. Much better than clapping.

I can’t get a SALT to call me and dp has significant aphasia and has been discharged from hospital around 2 months early! Pass me one of your SALTs please @TabbyMumz - I could do with the advice! I have had no instructions as to how to help him speak or understand beside a website. We have a good stroke service too. So I’m hoping once his covid isolation period has ended we’ll get going. You see he has Covid and is not in ICU - as do a lot of people. I’m very grateful that the physios took the risk because they didn’t want him losing rehab.

I'm a nurse. I'm not a hero. I'm not in ICU. I've felt devastated by the deaths of care workers, bus drivers and everyone else who has died of this. Personally I dont want to be clapped. I've been left feeling angry at the lack of planning, we have had pandemic threats before why haven't we learned? We are a manufacturing country that cant make enough PPE. Instead of clapping hold people accountable in governmenr. The death rate should be accurate and not exclude nursing home and own home deaths. Returning healthcare workers need retraining and proper support. They are being used to band aid over chronic shortages due to poor funding. That's just my personal view. I do appreciate why people love to clap but clap for this to be over and in respect to everyone who has lost their lives

Because the forum is read by millions, including a large number of people working in media and journalism?
If mums net posters could get traction behind their ideas, they would be getting jobs in government, the NHS, etc., they would get elected to a position where they actually implement strategy. The only time mumsnet is mentioned in the press for some "light" reading in the Daily Mail.

I do see what you mean. My friend is a nurse and used the nhs opening hours at tesco after her shift and was beyond mortified to have a round of applause as she entered and to be filmed walking into the store. Especially when she saw herself all over twitter the next day.

Some of it is a bit much.

As long as we continue to be portrayed as hero's, the longer the government will get away with not supplying us with the correct resources. It's a commodity.

This is a great point. The current government is probably fucking loving this 'NHS staff are heroes' narrative. It means they can cast being a doctor, nurse, etc. a sacrifice as opposed to a skilled, properly-paid job like others.

@MeganBacon this thread is full of people who work in the NHS, government etc. I used to be in a role where I set national strategy and now I teach others how to do it. All of us can influence policy by responding to government and public sector consultations, campaigning or volunteering in local authorities, and by voting.

Maybe Mumsnet posters who are politically aware and who have skills in communicating that in a more simplistic way could post threads well in advance of elections, setting out the manifestos and historic outcomes so that those of us who aren't good at weeding out dross, can have the benefit of this and make it meaningful when it comes to the polling booth.

I was planning to do this very thing.

I ended up exhausted by trying to support some (and one in particular) extremely vulnerable people who had fallen through the gaps in terms of mental health provision.

I was also exhaused by gaslighting related to trying to stop an ongoing and extremely serious situation re bullying.

I suspect that part of the problem is that people who genuinely case about others and who stick their necks out and take time to help others end up being bullied and gaslighted, exhausted and burned out.

Just for example, the charity shops near me are staffed by many former NHS, social services and other public sector professionals who gave up their jobs due to bullying, gaslighting, burnout and breakdowns.

These are highly qualified, trained and experienced people working in charity shops because they just couldn't deal with the pressures and stresses of working in a broken system.

This is something that should be talked about. People who actually care about other people end up burnt out and the more psychopathically inclined get promoted. I think it happens in many professions, especially in the public sector.

I am adopting a temporary kind of psychopathy. It's not that I don't care any more I simply cannot take more on until I get on with the wider issues. Social distancing is actually going to help me do this. I'll need some time to recover though as I'm exhausted.

If you voted Tory, stop fucking clapping. You voted to put the NHS into the state it’s in, the erosion of pensions, the suppression of pay awards, the cutting of the bursary, and the systematic destruction of all public services which all impact and add to the NHS burden.

Stop clapping, it’s embarrassingly hypocritical.

I’m public services who has been issued NO PPE.

People need to feel like that they are doing something to help, is there something that you could think of that we bystanders can do?

I can’t volunteer to the NHS due to high risk family members and working (more than) full time from home, yet I feel like we are almost in a war situation, I want to do something. I think that’s why the clapping has taken off tbh

"My understanding is that the clapping was started by a member of the public as goodwill gesture, which now seems to have taken on a life of its own."
Yes a member of the public who saw them do it in Italy. People saying it's a Tory thing just twist stuff to suit their own needs.