"I can't have the app- I am nhs"

[Thaimoon]

Heard someone saying this yesterday in a pub to the waitress. She asked if he had scanned his track and trace app and he said "I can't have the app, I work for the nhs in a hospital so it would be going off all the time". AIBU to think this is BS?! Surely if you work somewhere you could be exposed or expose others regularly that's all the more reason to have it?? Or am I missing something

NHS workers are supposed to turn the app off while working if they wear full PPE.

You’re meant to temporarily disable it if you’re wearing PPE. So that’s not right. Maybe they’re been told that they’re better to not have it at work though. They can always get it and then uninstall it though.

Lots of large organisations are telling their employees the same. They are allowed to have it but need to have notifications turned off. Same with the police.

No, that's ridiculous.

I work for the NHS, admittedly in community mental health, though our inpatient unit, which i do visit, is on a general site. I have the app.

She’s actually probably right. The app notifies you all the time based on GPS. If you work in a hospital then it’s going to constantly tell you to self isolate due to Covid cases in the hospital, even though you might not have had any contact due to being 3 wards away etc. And it will also affect your family members who will also be told to self isolate when they don’t need to. It’s a major flaw in the system.

Ah ok. Yes can understand turning it off temporarily

As PP said, we've been advised to turn off the app when at work as we are in PPE/socially distanced when at desks etc.
It's difficult to remember to turn it on/off at the right times so I can see that it would be easier to not have it or leave it off all of the time which negates having it in the first place

NHS staff in my sisters building have been told not to download it.

I work for the nhs. We have been told to get the app but pause it when we arrive at the hospital.

@ProudAuntie76

She’s actually probably right. The app notifies you all the time based on GPS. If you work in a hospital then it’s going to constantly tell you to self isolate due to Covid cases in the hospital, even though you might not have had any contact due to being 3 wards away etc. And it will also affect your family members who will also be told to self isolate when they don’t need to. It’s a major flaw in the system.

How will it effect your family members

It is a bit flawed then!

Teachers can't have it either - and we don't have PPE! But apparently no need for us to isolate if we spend 2 hours in a double lesson with an infected sixth former in the front row (1.5m away for me).
Because covid doesn't spread in schools you know... or rather, they don't want them to close because there's not enough teachers.
If the sixth former and I both had the app, I'd have to isolate.

He is incorrect that he can’t have it outside of work, but many NHS trusts are asking staff to disable them at work. The app cannot differentiate between contact while wearing PPE (not a true contact) or contact without (need to self-isolate).

NHS here - we've been told not to get the app full stop. Also been told not to isolate for contact (ie only isolate if someone in the household has symptoms), so it'd be pointless anyway.

You just turn it off if you’re in a situation where you are protected by PPE etc. I only turn my app on when I’m at work, shopping or meeting someone. You don’t need to have it on when you’re at home watching tv for instance.

All the teachers I know have been told to turn the app off in school, so it doesn't surprise me that NHS workers are being told the same.

I worked in a factory for a while. There were notices everywhere saying to switch the app off when you were there as it would mess up the workings otherwise. I presume in a hospital it would be worse as every time there was a Covid patient, many people would be registered as contacts, even if they weren’t. As my work was the main point of potential infected contacts, I didn’t bother to download the app as it seemed utterly pointless.

I’m nhs and been told not to have the app. We treat Covid positive patients. If it told us to isolate we would have to; and they can’t risk us forgetting to turn it off.

You’d just disable it when at work

The people that I know who work in the NHS can have the app but they have to turn it off when they are at work. Not sure how that works, just what I was told by a friend who works in the hospital. They can have the app for everywhere else. Might be different in other places though.

There's no obligation to have the app anyway is there? He could just check in with T&T manually.

I have to turn mine off at work (which I keep forgetting to do!) because we aren't allowed our phones on us, they have to stay in our lockers. So if one person tests positive we would all be alerted as a contact even though in reality the staff member in question would only have had contact with a few others. It's just that our phones have been together all day.

Makes sense to me or I expect most hospitals would be shut in a week

Police also been told not to have it I think.

Essentially they don't want to have loads of staff off when someone has a positive test. There was a whole ambulance station that had to close, DH in NHS says they are reluctant for staff to be tested.

I didn't know they were allowed to have phone on them during work. What pocket do they keep that in?