"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

@ProudAuntie76

No, they dont. If you are contacted by track and trace then it's only you who needs to isolate. Your family you live with only need to isolate if you start to show symptoms.

Havent downloaded the app. Having enough trouble being stalked by track and trace by text, email and phonecall since dd tested positive last sun. Two calls for dd, 3 each for me and dh, 4 emails each and five texts each now. One text this morning and the lady that rang yesterday said someone would ring again tues!

I work for the NHS and I don’t carry my phone while I’m working so all our phones go in lockers in a corridor with hundreds of other lockers and phones so how is that going to be accurate for test and trace?

My db has to turn the app off when he goes to work. He’s a nurse.

I'm a teacher and its not even been mentioned to us either way.

you can have it but just turn it off-they can use it out of work

Out of interest what did the waitress say?
I have to turn mine off at work.

@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 know what is happening 3 wards away?

@SchrodingersUnicorn

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.

@SchrodingersUnicorn that’s quite bad. Of course you should be isolating, and I hope you stay well. People think 2m is a magic number they can be up to 14mins for, it’s not.

We've all but been told to turn it off as teachers.

@Audreyseyebrows she just said "ok no worries"
Interesting replies thanks. I never realised some people have actually been told not to have it, and of course as PPs have said I guess it's not obligatory.

I've got one, I turn it off at work as I was advised to do (NHS)

A person I know (I was there when she was told) was told not to get tested and not to get the application either. They had symptoms and asked work about it, work told them they were not to do a test.

Husband is a consultant and was told not to download the app.

Regarding Track and Trace:

NHS: On Wednesday, a person at work was urged to get tested as he looked awful and was coughing. He tested positive. We were all emailed asking who'd been in the staff room (eating lunch so no masks) with him on the Weds.

As a result, 8 people are SI. One is a close colleague who sat more than 2m away from him in the staff room, for half an hour on Weds.

Now, on the Tuesday, the day before he tested, I sat less than 1m away from him, both eating lunch, for at least 15 mins as did a few others. Different, much smaller staff room, an alcove off the work area. There is no way anyone could SD in there! One of the others has subsequently told me she told him he looked ill on that Tuesday as they were working together. I was working in a nearby but different area.

I asked my line manager why only the Wednesday people had to SI, not Tuesday's as he was evidently positive, then, as well.

She said it was because he'd only become symptomatic on Wednesday, but surely The Advice says anyone in contact 48 hours or less before the symptoms appear should SI? Thus Monday and Tuesday?

Sadly, I know why they are re-writing the rules as they go along. If they SI'ed all those people, a mid-size hospital would no longer have a functional Radiology department....

Anyway, we are all now going to be tested across The Trust over these 5 days, so the Contact thing is moot.

As an aside, we haven't been told to turn the App off at work.

I've refused to download the app.

@RedComb it would make much more sense to get into the habit of turning it on when they go out socially and turning it off when they return home, rather than turning it off for work.

I work in for a supermarket and we were told to turn it off at work so we not to be told to isolate unnecessarily. Also if you do have to isolate due to this or track and trace, only you has to isolate not your whole household

We've been asked to turn our location and Bluetooth off while we're at work. I'm sure NHS staff can do the same.

You’re not missing anything OP. It’s not bullshit.
We have been told by school that staff should either ‘not download the app’ (preferred course of action) , OR ‘leave our phone at home or turn Bluetooth, the App, phone off when in or near the school’.

Maybe he has been told that by his managers

As Miljea pointed out the guidelines will change this will largely be down to staff availability in hospitals/nhs community staff and care homes

We too are going back to being regularly tested and we can’t socially distance at work even though it’s in our guidelines (nhs mh)

@Miljea

Regarding Track and Trace:

NHS: On Wednesday, a person at work was urged to get tested as he looked awful and was coughing. He tested positive. We were all emailed asking who'd been in the staff room (eating lunch so no masks) with him on the Weds.

As a result, 8 people are SI. One is a close colleague who sat more than 2m away from him in the staff room, for half an hour on Weds.

Now, on the Tuesday, the day before he tested, I sat less than 1m away from him, both eating lunch, for at least 15 mins as did a few others. Different, much smaller staff room, an alcove off the work area. There is no way anyone could SD in there! One of the others has subsequently told me she told him he looked ill on that Tuesday as they were working together. I was working in a nearby but different area.

I asked my line manager why only the Wednesday people had to SI, not Tuesday's as he was evidently positive, then, as well.

She said it was because he'd only become symptomatic on Wednesday, but surely The Advice says anyone in contact 48 hours or less before the symptoms appear should SI? Thus Monday and Tuesday?

Sadly, I know why they are re-writing the rules as they go along. If they SI'ed all those people, a mid-size hospital would no longer have a functional Radiology department....

Anyway, we are all now going to be tested across The Trust over these 5 days, so the Contact thing is moot.

As an aside, we haven't been told to turn the App off at work.

Why aren’t you and your colleagues maintaining social distancing at work? We have it drummed into us in every CEO update (currently twice weekly) that we must in order to avoid situations exactly like the one you describe.

MIL is NHS in hospital and has been told to turn off whilst at work due to data protection?!

world class system then

I'm in FE and we've been encouraged to get the App. I have it. No pings as yet. I don't think the students are using it though. 😶