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 don’t know why people are struggling to get their heads around the fact that it’ll be different in different places. I live in London, had a baby last month and the hospital was always incredibly busy whenever I visited, talking to staff there it’s business as usual. On the flip side I have a family member who works in a screening unit who has had exactly the same experience as the Op - hospital has had very few Covid cases and the unit has been shut for months. She is incredibly frustrated as the screening programme is an incredibly important one and they’re sitting twiddling their thumbs which people are missing the opportunity for early diagnosis. It’s crap.

You are right to raise this OP. I wish more NHS staff would come out in the open about all the closed services.

@EDSGFC

and implying the whole of the NHS is like that does people a huge disservice.

Equally though, denying that there are still many departments not providing the treatment needed is doing patients like me a disservice. Many of us are seeing our health deteriorate because the treatment we desperately need isn't available and we aren't even being seen by our drs so that warning signs can be picked up.

I couldn't agree more.

OH with cancer has a monthly battle to get his blood tests done for his oncologist. Prior to covid, it was done at the GP surgery. They cancelled his end March bloodtest and said to call back in "a few weeks" to reschedule. He called back end of April, to be told they weren't doing them and he needed to contact the oncology dept. Oncology had shut down (literally shutters down, we went there in person), phone calls went to answerphone, messages never replied to. Kept calling every few days, messages left, no replies. Then he tried GP surgery again, they still refused to do the blood tests. By around May, he phoned the day treatment centre to try to find out how he could get his bloods done and how to contact oncology - they said it was all being done out of a different oncology dept in a different town, so we finally spoke to someone who booked him in for a blood test in July! So basically, no blood tests (which are essential apparently) between Feb and June. Impossible to contact our own oncology dept as they're buggered off without even so much as a note on the door and weren't bothering picking up answerphone messages. All that is shambolic admin/management.

and implying the whole of the NHS is like that does people a huge disservice.

But neither does it help to say 'well, I'm rushed off my feet so you must be talking crap'. To the pp who said they thought they had a good overview from various people in different areas, so do I and I can well believe what OP describes.

I don't recognise this picture at all. But all this thread really illustrates is that people's experiences of the NHS differ wildly depending on geographical location, which is neither new nor Covid-related.

Op I could of wrote this myself! I work for a large trust but in the community and the service I work for is absolutely dead, I'm bored out my brains day in day out. I sit online doing shopping or just browsing the internet. It's soul destroying. Mentioned it a few times, got moved to 2 different places doing absolutely nothing again! I need out. I'm hunting daily for a job but there's so little in my area. It's a disgrace to be honest.

Whilst some departments may not be back to full strength yet, the vast majority of the NHS is up and running as best it can within the rules laid down

This.

Staff have been redeployed, areas have been repurposed, this 'neither finished with covid nor properly back to normal' has been the worst of both worlds for a lot of departments as far as I can see - the service I'm in was relatively unscathed. But others were turned upside down overnight, then expected to start taking their normal patient group back while also looking after whoever had been put in their area in the meantime, plus trying to rejig things so patients whose covid status is unknown never cross paths with patients who are known to be covid free, while those unknown patients' test results take longer and longer to come back from the lab as they're buckling under the pressure too, ditto with negative tests needed to discharge patients back to care homes etc leading to bed blocking, plus having less beds than they need due to having to distance patients, plus having staff self isolating or flexible working due to childcare or their own health vulnerabilities, and on and on. It really isn't as simple as - no covid patients - all back to normal. One day last week my Trust had 1 covid patient, but still breached a&e waiting times for a dozen.

And for posters wondering about continued remote consultations, or half empty wards, we have to provide for social distancing, if every patient and whoever drove them came in social distancing would be impossible, that's why it can't just go back to normal now, we have to space people out in spaces already way too small.

I have to say my experience is very different to what OP has described. I am a nurse within a very deprived area of the UK with very poor health outcomes. Our hospital was hit hard with COVID. Admin staff where redeployed where it was possible to support the clinical team. Nurses who‘s area had been closed where redeployed to COVID wards. Theatres utilised for additional ITU areas as they have all the equipment, and skilled staff required to care for a level 3 multi organ failure patients. Days have been long and hard wearing PPE from 7am til 9pm only taking it off for my two 30 minute breaks (If I can find time in the day to take them). Extra shifts picked up to support my team when staff started testing positive themselves. Being there at a time of crisis to support my community.

Posts which encourage bashing the NHS really hit a nerve I’m afraid. I have not taken any of these so call perks for the NHS, as along side the majority of my colleagues, I have not had time. Nor do I even care for them. I just want to do my job which is to nurse. Even through a global pandemic where I have been frightened, exhausted, dehydrated and distraught over loosing the battle to Covid I am still proud to be a nurse, and can hand on heart say myself and many others have done our part and want no praise for it either. All I want of for people to appreciate the FREE health service we all benefit from. I hope we never lose our health service but if we do I think people will realise what a privilege our NHS was.

I’m sorry people have had bad experiences over the past few months in regards to getting appointments and what not. But it’s is not nurses or doctors or physios or even clinic managers and hospital directors fault. We are following guidance set out by the government and various regulatory bodies. It is not the staff who decided to close clinics, GPs, dentists etc. So please do not take it out on us.

nothingcomestonothing

And I understand and appreciate everything that you've said but how long are we going to have to manage without treatment that many people need and what actions are in place to mitigate the dangers to patient safety?

I've been lost to follow up with one specialty because the system for booking follow ups went wrong - I chased my appointment but what system is there to protect patients not able to advocate for themselves?

Huge waiting lists - who's monitoring patients while they languish on waiting lists?

Things like access to blood tests, particularly for monitoring drug reactions - sorry but a waiting list of four months for a blood test marked urgent is inexcusable.

Remote appointments - how are these safe? Is anyone monitoring the outcomes to make sure safety isn't compromised?

But it’s is not nurses or doctors or physios or even clinic managers and hospital directors fault. We are following guidance set out by the government and various regulatory bodies.

So how come it varies so much between hospital to hospital, GP surgery to GP surgery, trust to trust, if all are supposed to be following the same set of guidelines? That makes no sense at all. Some trusts, hospitals or GP surgeries must be following them more, or less, than others, to account for the wide disparity in treatments/services being offered.

@RegularHumanBartender

Could you afford private as bad as that is? I'm presuming you are near Manchester and Google shows dentists are open, hope thay helps.

I've also had a smear test, so must be each trust deciding on what happens but it's a joke, it's as though nothing else is important except fucking covid.

I'm NHS and I can assure you our hospitals are full and busy, not sure where you are where your A&E dept is quiet 🤔🤷‍♀️

I know quite a few hospital doctors and consultants who were finding it all a bit of a worry and frustrating that everything had shut down so much, particularly ones in 'cold' hospitals where no Covid patients were even allowed. They were twiddling their thumbs and concerned about the onslaught when everything re-opens. Hospitals here are starting back to normal in a planned phase, and dentists are open now for emergencies and starting routine check ups from October...

Re waiting lists, I had a letter from out local trust last week which was an A4 page full of waffle about how they still had me on their waiting list etc.

Trouble was, in typical NHS fashion, there was no reference number, no phone number, no hint at all as to what the letter referred to.

I'm awaiting four different services at the moment, all of which are now overdue. I don't know which it referred to, so I don't know which one to ignore and which to chase up. So I'll end up having to phone up all four as heaven knows whether I'm even still on all the waiting lists.

Something so simple as including the clinic/service name on the letter would have saved them from receiving 4 phones calls now from me to chase up to find out which have been lost forever and which are still in the pipeline.

I am sorry you're experiencing this, but how come your hospital/organisation is taking this approach? The bit of the NHS I do work for is doing its best to get up and running, and throughout most of us on the "admin" side have been working from home wherever possible (which is pretty much all of us). We've just had to find different ways to do things (more online, mainly). And gradually as departments are declared physically COVID-secure they're opening back up, some with rotas for staffing and so on to help maintain social distancing. The Trust does have a very good VPN though (most of the time...it's always secure, it's just a bit flaky at busy times).

I'm afraid I'm very cynical about our government's motives for the way they've handled pretty much all of the pandemic (no, we couldn't have predicted that this type of pandemic would hit as it has, especially if you haven't read any history of previous outbreaks), including the way they're now trying to demonise the NHS. I'm afraid I never got over Boris and the clap in his underpants.

(I commented to various friends and family at the time and was roundly turned on by some folk and told to get on with drawing my glittery rainbows. Funny how things pan out, eh. So just keep on criticising the NHS, and just remember that in 5 to 10 years' time when we have a fully US style medical system.)

Thank you for everything that you've done @Sohe and I'm certainly not criticising individual drs or nurses but All I want of for people to appreciate the FREE health service we all benefit from - the NHS is not free and, speaking as a retired nurse, I'm not standing by in reverential silence seeing people suffering and their health deteriorating because of a misplaced belief that the NHS can do no wrong.

Yes, the NHS stepped up and the people working in it are heroes in my opinion. Government and management though needed to have made proper and robust provision to run parallel services as soon as possible, not just cancel all but treatment for immediate life threatening conditions and just forget everything else. People's health is being destroyed and the longer it goes on for the worse that will get.

My BFF is a GP working A+E and they're pretty slammed it sounds like, although friend did say they have a lot less people in with minor ailments like earache and boils on bums that shouldn't be in there in the first place. And hardly any of the usual weekend alcohol related stuff too... long may that last.

This is why I’m paying extra attention to my health and that of my family. Doctors not interested and hospitals not doing procedures.

Also forgot to add that at the start of the pandemic, many admin staff were redeployed to help with the outbreak. As others have said, though, every Trust is different. I've worked for 3 excellent Trusts and 1 awful one in my time.

I’d get my own laptop and WFH OP. It’s worth it.

@Sohe

I have to say my experience is very different to what OP has described. I am a nurse within a very deprived area of the UK with very poor health outcomes. Our hospital was hit hard with COVID. Admin staff where redeployed where it was possible to support the clinical team. Nurses who‘s area had been closed where redeployed to COVID wards. Theatres utilised for additional ITU areas as they have all the equipment, and skilled staff required to care for a level 3 multi organ failure patients. Days have been long and hard wearing PPE from 7am til 9pm only taking it off for my two 30 minute breaks (If I can find time in the day to take them). Extra shifts picked up to support my team when staff started testing positive themselves. Being there at a time of crisis to support my community.

Posts which encourage bashing the NHS really hit a nerve I’m afraid. I have not taken any of these so call perks for the NHS, as along side the majority of my colleagues, I have not had time. Nor do I even care for them. I just want to do my job which is to nurse. Even through a global pandemic where I have been frightened, exhausted, dehydrated and distraught over loosing the battle to Covid I am still proud to be a nurse, and can hand on heart say myself and many others have done our part and want no praise for it either. All I want of for people to appreciate the FREE health service we all benefit from. I hope we never lose our health service but if we do I think people will realise what a privilege our NHS was.

I’m sorry people have had bad experiences over the past few months in regards to getting appointments and what not. But it’s is not nurses or doctors or physios or even clinic managers and hospital directors fault. We are following guidance set out by the government and various regulatory bodies. It is not the staff who decided to close clinics, GPs, dentists etc. So please do not take it out on us.

I did say in my OP that my experience is of one end of the spectrum, as we haven't experienced anywhere near the full impact of Covid here. This doesn't negate from your hard work during that time and I think I speak on behalf of everyone, no matter how disgruntled by their own experiences during this when we thank you, truly, for your hard work.

I don't believe my thread is encouraging anyone to blame the doctors, nurses, consultants etc. I do think senior management of the NHS have a lot to answer for though. Both staff and patients are suffering, in some health boards, due to their questionable decisions. It's extremely unfair patients are getting full services in some area, yet people in another postcode are being left suffering.

There have been threads bashing staff, this is not one of them. This is a frustrated member of staff bashing the powers that be.

Anyone slagging off the NHS needs to get themselves to the USA for a few years to experience how f-ed up a health service can really get. Even with amazing coverage via my work it still cost us $$$ for the most routine of things, caused endless stresses and we were the 'lucky' ones.

and implying the whole of the NHS is like that does people a huge disservice.

You guys find that OK to say about the police force, why not the NHS?

Want to know my experience of the NHS? They failed to find my grandads cancer until it was too late, same with a family friend. A doctor failed to see that I clearly had a broken bone and was refusing to xray it as he clearly had xray vision. The NHS nearly made my mum die thanks to some dipstick nurses and doctors who didn't treat her right. The hospitals up here have lost several patients, actually lost as in not dead they couldn't find them. I have had to deal with several arrogant and horrible physios as well. Met some GPs that clearly couldn't give a shit either. And let's not forget the doctors and nurses through the years who have deliberately killed patients.

And yet i don't tar them all with the same brush. Some doctors, nurses, physios etc are lovely people who work hard and treat people well. And the decisions being made are not their fault either, it is our lousy governments who are happier that we can have a fucking pint than get medical help. That's who we should all be highly pissed off with, for any public service.

@Grannyspecsandslippers

Anyone slagging off the NHS needs to get themselves to the USA for a few years to experience how f-ed up a health service can really get. Even with amazing coverage via my work it still cost us $$$ for the most routine of things, caused endless stresses and we were the 'lucky' ones.

I find this really unhelpful though. Are we lucky to have free at point of use healthcare? Of course. Does that mean it's perfect and should never be subject to constructive criticism and feedback though..?