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!

I absolutely agree OP. I feel so much for the patients who will lose their lives unnecessarily over the next two years because of this and for the medical teams who care for them and who wanted to be working.

I'm waiting for surgery which isn't urgent but would change my life. My hospital has been so empty for the last 3 months and that was probably when it was safest to do it in terms of the amount of virus out there. But they wouldn't get on with certain surgeries and I have no idea when I will now be seen. I think a year's wait is likely.

There was no reason for everything to have been shut down past May - I totally appreciate the NHS needed protecting and some people would have been more at risk going in for procedures but it's going to have done such awful harm. It's a ticking time bomb.

Really

I'm NHS, been at work throughout and busier than ever. Consulting by phone/video is hard in a different way to face to face, though my team are now offering some choice for patients with a strong preference to come in. Everyone I know in the NHS is knackered, none of us are watching Netflix or reading books, nor have we been for the last 6 months. And our hospital got off lightly in terms of covid rates compared to some. Now we're trying to get back to normal but with massive backlogs and less capacity because we have to distance inpatient beds as well as people in clinic. How is your hospital so different I wonder?

If your entire department are doing nothing why don't you whistleblow?

I’m confused...what’s the point going into work and just sitting there? And that you can’t work from home as they can’t give you a laptop? Can’t you use your own laptop. But if there isn’t any work to do then why do you even need a laptop.

[quote AlrightTreacle]@emmathedilemma

Companies have offered NHS discounts since before covid, it's more for their own marketing gain.

Well done on starting yet another NHS bashing threat OP [/quote]
I have worked for the NHS for years, and have always been the first to speak up and defend it. I've always been proud of, and proud to work for the NHS.

However I won't do so blindly, people need to speak up sometimes. Things cannot keep running in the way they are at the moment, where I am. It's reassuring to hear that the NHS in functional again in many areas, and this thread has highlighted that. You'd think with us being a far more rural hospital, that maybe we'd of restarted sooner than hospitals in big cities, as we weren't ever really affected, but perhaps it's another instance of rural patients not getting the same standard of care that they would should they live in a larger area/city. An unfortunate circumstance that seems to happen a lot, and something I've formally spoken out about before.

I was really understanding at first and fully got why things where changed. Ds has had a lot of virtual appointments which have gone well.

However now I am getting increasingly annoyed. He was referred for two urgent tests at the start of March (wonderful timing!) and there is still no sign of when these will be.

He wears a full body Lycra support - but he has grown so it no longer fits but he can’t be measured for a new one yet. Same for his custom made insoles. So his mobility is getting worse, we are doing his physio (all set virtually) but without the right support it’s hard for him to do

So you're not clinical staff? How can you possible make these sweeping statements when you're not even patient facing?

If your department is shut down that sounds like bad management but I very much doubt the clinical staff are sitting around watching Netflix

@oceanbreezy

I’m confused...what’s the point going into work and just sitting there? And that you can’t work from home as they can’t give you a laptop? Can’t you use your own laptop. But if there isn’t any work to do then why do you even need a laptop.

All questions I have asked my management before. There is no work available for me but I'm expected to have access to my email and to systems regardless. All busy work/catching up was done at the beginning of the pandemic, the pandemic has gone on for almost 6 months yet in my OP I stated it has been two months of this situation, I.e Two months since we caught up on basically everything we, as a department, could catch up on and now until we reopen there's just no work coming in.

It is ridiculous now. Pubs, restaurants, cinemas etc are open. Can anyone get their contraceptive replaced? No. My NHS put on the website that the sexual health clinic is open, so I called up thinking great I can finally book an appointment. Only to be told they aren't open and I can't book an appointment. Why say you are then?

I took my godmother to a hospital appointment last week. It was very busy, and I couldn't park. My dad has two next week. (Different hospitals)

My friend had a Mirena coil put in a month ago.

Both my friend and my Aunt have been diagnosed with the same kind of leukaemia in the last six weeks.

My sister in law is in hospital right now.

None of my NHS friends report what you have said.

So I hesitate to call your post bollocks OP, but it certainly doesn't fit with my experience.

Consulting by phone/video is hard in a different way to face to face, though my team are now offering some choice for patients with a strong preference to come in.

But this is going to be detrimental to many patients isn't it?

How can I have an urgent consultation with a respiratory Dr over the phone? I mean, come on, do they not need to listen to my chest at least? How do they check my fingers for clubbing or my colour for cyanosis over the phone? How do they check my sats?

My mum called the OOH GP over a weekend complaining of severe eye pain. They refused to see her f2f and sent her to A and E. Turns out it wasn't her eye but cellulitis from an infected gnat bite on her cheek and referred pain to around her eye. Prescription for antibiotics given which could have been supplied by the GP if they'd bothered to actually see her rather than relying on an elderly woman trying to give her history over the phone. So an unnecessary A and E visit plus exposing an elderly woman to risk of infection by keeping her in a crowded waiting room for six hours.

@SpuriouserAndSpuriouser

So you're not clinical staff? How can you possible make these sweeping statements when you're not even patient facing?

If your department is shut down that sounds like bad management but I very much doubt the clinical staff are sitting around watching Netflix

I have stated in a comment below that I am certain clinical staff aren't killing time in the same way as us admin staff are. I've not once claimed doctors are sat around watching Netflix. I have spoken to several doctors and nurses around the hospital who have complained about not being busy, wanting things to get going again. I have information on what and how departments are currently operating as it's all on our intranet.

@MooreFoolYou

Good for you if you've spoken about it formally already. No point in posting on mumsnet about it though. Your post title is "to think the NHS is an absolute joke atm", which is misleading, you only have first hand experience of your none patient facing admin role, so not exactly representative of the entire NHS in the UK.

I’ve got an ear blockage. I never bother going to my GP as getting an appointment takes weeks then it’s weeks to get an appointment to have it cleaned out.
So I called my private audiologist who can usually fit me in within a day or two. I fully appreciate I have the luxury of this option btw. To my surprise, when I rang last week his receptionist said he was extremely busy as the NHS ear clinics are all closed due to Covid. So they could only offer me an appointment in two weeks. My audiologist does ear cleaning, hearing aids and advice. Which means people have all gone private out of desperation. I think it’s unacceptable and not everyone will be able to afford it easily which is putting already pressed people under more financial pressure.

I agree totally, my 13 yo son had a really painful ingrowing toenail, the NHS wouldn't see him - GP. Went to A and E who said he needed it removing urgently, only snag podiatry services wouldn't see him either. In the end I paid private at a cost of hundred of pounds. If a private clinic can operate safely why can't an NHS one?
Bloody ridiculous
I wonder how many people will die because of delayed treatment

Why isn't there public uproar?

Please blame the Prime Minister and the Health Secretary, no-one else.

Yet there was a thread on here started yesterday and the content of it saying how Hancock has been the most truthful and capable through all of this.

I think not.

There are far more people to blame than the two incompetents mentioned above.

I agree. A few weeks ago we buried a family member who died of cancer because he was refused treatment for so long.
Also another family member who ended up with sepsis last year due to negligence in the hospital had to have 3 limbs amputated. She called up last week to tell the she felt really unwell and her stumps where her legs used to be were swelling up. Doctor on call told her to rake paracetamol and go back to bed. Turns out she has gal stones, kidney stones and sepsis again! Yet a midwife phoned me to come in for a chat and gave me an appointment for 3 weeks time. They don't want to do any tests on me, they don't want bloods etc. Just a chat to see how I'm getting on so we can have a face to face meeting. The world has gone mad.

I’m in NHS commissioning and we’re busy beyond belief with recovery planning. Hospitals will be held to account on long waiting lists sooner or later. There are certainly issues with safely getting the NHS back up and running at the moment but your particular set of circumstances sounds batshit crazy OP.

All this talk about the risk of Uni's spreading it.

There's a campus surgery on site at our local University. It's been empty and moth-balled since it was converted to a "red zone" back in March. Not even been used for covid tests. It's road side with it's own car park so would be ideal for covid tests, either for the local area or for students starting at the Uni this month. But no, still shut.

Students will have to travel to the nearby city to register and get any treatment, get flu jabs, etc., they may need from another branch surgery of the same GP group. So, that's just going to mean huge numbers of students leaving the Uni campus to go to the city centre GP surgery, mixing with people on buses, in the city centre, in the surgery itself.

It's absolutely crazy. How can the NHS let buildings stand completely empty for so long?

What is the point of a GP surgery red-zone anyway. GP's aren't doing the covid tests - they're being done by army personnel in a city centre car park. Anyone with covid needing medical attention goes to the A&E. GPs aren't seeing anyone unless they have to and are refusing to see anyone with suspected covid.

None of it makes any sense.

@PullTheBricksDown

The chairs have been removed from my GP surgery's waiting room. Small thing I guess but it communicates 'Fuck you, patients, you and your comfort and health are less important than protecting the Precious System' very effectively. I have seen many more instances of this mentioned on here. I can well believe people are in the OP's position.

We can't even get into the waiting room at our surgery!!

They've only just opened up for non-emergency appointments again. Telephone triage to decide if you need a face-to-face appointment - fair enough.

But when you get there, you find a notice on the (closed) door telling you to ring the surgery number to tell them you are there, and wait by the emergency exit in the car park. There is only phone phone line, which is also used for general enquiries and booking appointments so it's constantly busy with no option to hold.

I went last week, for a consultation that I should have had in March. It took me ten minutes to get through on the phone, and I then had to spend a further ten minutes by the uncovered emergency exit in lashing wind and rain, until someone let me in.

I was then lectured about being five minutes late for my appointment and the fact that I was making a mess of their floor - as I was soaked through as it was too windy to use a brolly. However if you have an appointment for the eye clinic, which is in the same building, you're allowed in to use the waiting room!

There's so much randomness about the approach to covid that you can understand why people get pissed off and fed up. DH and I are NHS patients at different branches of the same dentist chain. His branch is doing routine appointments again. My branch is refusing to see me unless it's an emergency. It goes over into schools as well - my friend has three children at three different schools, each of which is handling covid differently in terms of what to wear, what to bring, whether they can have lunch or not...

So I hesitate to call your post bollocks OP, but it certainly doesn't fit with my experience.

If the op was the only person describing this I'd agree, it's bollocks, but they aren't.

I am incredulous that both hospitals I'm being treated at are still not doing f2f out patient appointments and these are major teaching hospitals in London.

Surely you can appreciate that as non-clinical staff you’re probably not getting the full picture of what’s going on? Also if everything really is shut down as you describe, that is far from the situation in most of the country.

All this thread is going to do is add to the false belief that the NHS is closed, when it very much is not. It has the potential to be really damaging.

[quote AlrightTreacle]@MooreFoolYou

Good for you if you've spoken about it formally already. No point in posting on mumsnet about it though. Your post title is "to think the NHS is an absolute joke atm", which is misleading, you only have first hand experience of your none patient facing admin role, so not exactly representative of the entire NHS in the UK.[/quote]
You are correct, I have reported my own thread to mumsnet to change the title to highlight that I am only talking about my current situation. I'm sat in work twiddling my thumbs again and just needed to vent. I've been wrongly under the impression most hospitals in the UK were in the same situation as mine and it's reassuring to hear this isn't the case and I have requested that be reflected in the title.

Please blame the Prime Minister and the Health Secretary, no-one else.

The PM and ministers aren't making local decisions. It's local NHS managers who are cocking up healthcare at the moment. It's not Boris who decided that the oncology dept in hospital B shut down completely (not even bothered to tell patients who turned up for treatment) yet hospital A carried on open and providing treatment throughout. That's local management making decisions. I hope once all this is over that there'll be a day of reckoning for the NHS managers who've botched it up.

Also our dentist has been back to normal (but with PPE for ages. About six weeks I think.

I couldn't give blood last time I was due to, but the opportunity was there.

Which departments are twiddling their thumbs?

Our local hospital, is very quiet. I know a few people who work there and they have all said the same right the way through this sbit show, so why people in desperate need of help are being turned away is beyond me. Unless you are dying of covid they don't want to know.