To think my current work situation in the NHS is an absolute joke *MNHQ tweaked title at request of OP*

[MooreFoolYou]

Props to all NHS workers in the areas that were hit hard by Covid, I'm not denying for a second your hard work. What annoys me, is that hospitals in areas that haven't been affected are barely running and it's just a joke.

I work in a hospital that covers a large county, we've had 3 confirmed Covid cases. Ever. Yet almost all 'non essential' departments are still shut. Deployment has ended, as it's just not needed. Covid is not impacting us at this time. I have no work to do, as my department is shut, yet still I come in everyday. I'm literally coming in to sit in the office reading a book or even watching Netflix sometimes. There's loads of us that have nothing to do! You walk on to a ward and there's 12 nurses just twiddling their hands.

Why are non essential departments still closed when there is nothing else to occupy our time? Can the NHS really afford us to just bloody sit here? It's been two months of this! Why are patients having non emergency surgeries cancelled, why are non urgent referrals being postponed indefinitely, why are we turning people away to sit here with nothing to do?

I'm just fed up of it! I'm paying someone to look after my child whilst I do absolutely nothing. I've been told I can't work from home as the cost of getting me a laptop is too high, so I must come in everyday to just be here. With no work. Zero. What is the point!

It fits with my recent experience. Big hospital in major city. Follow up appt for broken limb. In and out in an hour, orthotics and physio department absolutely dead. About 3 other patients apart from us. Seen almost immediately. Chatting to plaster room staff who said they were so quiet. Great for us, yes, but great in general? Probably not.

Last time I was in the same department (again, broken bone) the place was absolutely packed and I could barely get a seat.

Hospital seemed really quiet in general (teaching hospital with A&E, maternity etc)

My GP surgery is normally an absolute nightmare to get an apt. However in the last 6 weeks I have had 3 apts where I have called at 8.15 (when the phone lines opened) and had a dr call me back (they gave me a time frame) by 10.30 each time. I was really impressed. No idea what happend if you need to see them f2f though.

@Stinkyguineapig

My GP surgery is normally an absolute nightmare to get an apt. However in the last 6 weeks I have had 3 apts where I have called at 8.15 (when the phone lines opened) and had a dr call me back (they gave me a time frame) by 10.30 each time. I was really impressed. No idea what happend if you need to see them f2f though.

And what if you were at work and couldn't talk to them? Can you request a time for them to call you?

We now have all departments open except private. They really should be further into reopening than that, the phase 3 letter was weeks ago! I'm also desperate for staff and none are redeployed anymore

I work in a role which supports student nurses on clinical placements. They rushed to get the students into paid employment then half of them were sat round doing nought. In fact we had to rotate them round the wards which were open just so they could get their clinical skills signed off. I’ve never had students complain so much that they were near to qualifying and learning nothing. To be fair, it was a bit feast or famine but it could and should be now being managed better.

@MooreFoolYou
I got called in for a blood test this week. No GPs on site. 1 receptionist and 1 nurse. Had to wait in car, mask up then be escorted in. Not allowed to touch door handles etc. Nurse then tells me she's only seeing 1 patient a day face to face. Rest is phone reviews.
I'd just come from work. Teaching 25, 7 year olds in a classroom all day.
I just can't see how the nhs can justify this.

You're lucky to get a blood test at GP. We have to book at a clinic and appointments being made now for December - my monitoring bloods are due next week.

NHS here and I’ve also got barely anything to do. It sucks.

And what if you were at work and couldn't talk to them? Can you request a time for them to call you?

I cant normally get an appointment at all let alone the same day so for me, it was an improvement but not sure if you could request a time.

Bleep your SDM, I’m sure you will soon be redeployed from Netflix! Wow!

If I may, I would like to present a set of what DT would call "alternative facts".

I have worked in a hospital (critical care) all though covid and have just moved to a new role in a different hospital (surgery) . There was a time when patients were not coming in and admissions numbers were like Christmas day. However at that time 3/4 of the people in hospital had covid. We had to close/reconfigure wards to ensure covid/non covid separation. We redeployed all the anaesthetics/theatre/non ward based staff to critical care. We tripled our bed capacity in ITU in a single week. We had 400+ staff ill/shielding through March, April, May. It was a real challenge in my area as we had no flex in our capacity and the nightingale we were promised was ready just in time for the first wave to be over and never had a staffing resource in place to open it to begin with. People stayed home, as per the advice. They only used services if they really needed to.

Subsequently we are now dealing with a backlog of patients who are now attending primary care (if they can get an appointment). They are innundating the walk in centres. I'm not sure where you are geographically or service-wise, but we are snowed under. We are having late cancer diagnoses. Patients in my service are likely to go back to 18m waits for surgery. People died because NHS 111 told them to stay home until their lips were blue. Now we are trying to reinstate services with massive restrictions on the number of patients we can accommodate face to face. We are trying to implement digital solutions without the appropriate tech infrastructure. Staff are mostly back but some with the most severe clinical vulnerabilities have been redeployed to 'safe' areas.

We can't reinstate full operating due to social distancing and speciality guidance that talks about the need for Covid free 'green' pathways we cannot commit to. Surgeons are shitting themselves that they will get sued, or worse, contribute to a preventable death due to covid. Many patients are too afraid to come in but we cant take them off waiting lists. We have no real way of understanding and communicating relative risk to patients. We have targets from NHSE that say we must be up to 100% capacity by October. We have put alternative models into place that have been really effective and are trying to now run these alongside our 'business as usual' with no extra resource. Some individual wards/departments feel quieter than usual either because they have been unable to fully restart services or because we have forced reductions in face to face contacts.

Covid cases are heating up again, we've got a rolling average of 2500 cases in the uk. We're back at the c.15-20 deaths a day level we were on at 17th March , around the time the government imposed a national lockdown that massively reduced the transmission chains and reduced death rates that, even so, remain unacceptably high. Cases in N East hospitals have been growing again over the last week. We have ventilated patients in ITU. The extra ventilators Boris promised us haven't arrived yet. We have local Test and Trace responsibilities and often have to close bays/wards during to suspected or confirmed Covid. We do all the local hospitals' testing with no additional staff and have pulled together swabbing teams from nowhere.

My colleagues and staff are burnt out, they have worked every day since March in many cases, or had just a few days of leave
We have all been suffering the pressure of home schooling/sorting out shitty last minute childcare solutions, trying to buy big roll. Noone is watching Netflix in my hospital. Some of our colleagues died. That makes the place feel quieter.

Are there any jobs going in your place?

Damn it, the paragraphs were there when I wrote that🙈

I’m confused...what’s the point going into work and just sitting there?

I’m confused too -=why not just furlough or fire OP?

Bad GP's aren't 'refusing to see anyone with suspected Covid.' Like many, we've set up a hot hub for such patients. Seen hundreds and continue to do so.

Was talking a few days ago to someone from London - hospitals practically over run in the first wave with virtually entire hospitals becoming Covid hospitals and the staff frantically trying to keep the remaining patients well away from the infection risk. Half the nurses down with the virus and some in ICU as patients, friends dying, all leave cancelled PPE hot when you had it and constantly worried about getting the virus yourself and giving it to your family.

There have been some issues over how surgery could stay covid free when the staff still cant get tests but medicine has been operating since the Covid patients dropped enough to have some wards back. Medical training more or less stopped and they now have to try and catch up.

So I just dont believe the "I have nothing to do" stories, those people I know - and so know genuinely work in the NHS dont say that. The government wants to see the NHS destroyed, it will have people making up stories to post on the internet.