To find this revelation from an NHS carer shocking?

[Lizzie523]

I have a very vulnerable family member that I have not seen since covid. She is now in the late stages of alzheimers and have been starting to wonder if I will ever see her again.

Recently her carers had been visiting her whilst also going to look after a person with covid at the same time. Their highers up explicitly told them they must not inform us or other family members this was happening/the risk to her.

So far she has not caught covid but I dont feel confident about it not happening in future. AIBU to be beside myself with worry?

@Almostslimjim

Cardiepockets

I'm a community geriatrician (currently mainly based in the hospital, but in non COVID times split between hospital and community). No. You do not have the right to know what the patients I've treated before you have got. That applies whether I treat you on ward, in clinic or attend your home.

I'm still doing some community work and going in to care homes. I'm seeing COVID positive patients at least daily.

Who says they don’t have the right?

As a adult they should every right to know what diseases people could be bringing in tin their homes. Especially if they have been working with covid sufferers.

I think you might get a stark reaction if it was company policy to declare you’ve been working with covid patients before you stepped through the thresh hold

@Cardiepockets well maybe not, but as every single health and social care worker in this thread has explained to you, it's the way it has to be.

So next time you need to access healthcare in any capacity, you know what to ask. And if you're not willing to see someone who also works with +ve people, even if they wear full PPE and follow all the infection control procedures, well you'll be screwed won't you?

Who says they don’t have the right?

you're shitting me right? Who says? The Law says! I could lose my job discussing confidential information with other patients.

If I arrive at someone's home and they ask if I've been treating COVID patients I may "I'm not able to discuss information about other patients".

It doesn't work that way about staff in contact with covid and non covid.. In hospitals it's red wards and green, ours is a green ward.. Everyone is tested before coming to our ward, first hint of a high temperature the patients are shuffled and the 'query' covid put into a side room of their own.. If no side rooms available the room is then blocked so we take no more admissions into that particular room until they have 2 tests that show negative

[quote baublesbaubleseverywhere]@Cardiepockets well maybe not, but as every single health and social care worker in this thread has explained to you, it's the way it has to be.

So next time you need to access healthcare in any capacity, you know what to ask. And if you're not willing to see someone who also works with +ve people, even if they wear full PPE and follow all the infection control procedures, well you'll be screwed won't you? [/quote]
No it doesn’t have to be. Just because it’s how things are doesn’t mean it’s ok.

And if I ever have to access a doctors appointment - god forbid as they are still only doing video calls because they still won’t face real patients or hospital treatment - I’ll know I’m running the gauntlet.

But I shouldn’t have to do that in my own home. And neither should the elderly. The status quo doesn’t mean it’s right

The thing is that a carer could be caring for an asymptomatic patient who has covid and not know - so it's a difficult thing. What would you have done differently - looked after her - what if you got covid? Har choices for everyone at least they are wearing PPE.

baublesbaubleseverywhere It is true in our local hospital. I have friends who work their and I have professional relationships with people who work their. Probably amounts to 20 people. It has also been confirmed by our county's care association. Strange that they would all lie As I said, I'm not speaking for every situation, just the one I have knowledge of.

@Almostslimjim

Who says they don’t have the right?

you're shitting me right? Who says? The Law says! I could lose my job discussing confidential information with other patients.

If I arrive at someone's home and they ask if I've been treating COVID patients I may "I'm not able to discuss information about other patients".

No. You don’t have to say ‘Jeff Hargreaves from XYZ road has covid and I’ve been with him today’ and you know that.

However, being transparent about your exposure to very recent covid infection would yield entirely different responses. Such as

‘ just need to let you know, today I’ve been with a covid patient are you ok for me to come in’

But then again as I said up thread - when you need your leg ulcer dressing changing or to helped out your dirty underwear you havnt really got a choice .

@Cardiepockets

"And if I ever have to access a doctors appointment - god forbid as they are still only doing video calls because they still won’t face real patients or hospital treatment - I’ll know I’m running the gauntlet.*"
*
Do you not see the irony in your jibe at GPs trying keeping face to face apts to a minimum, and community HPCs seeing both positive and negative clients.

Well one is TERRIBLE if it's inconveniencing you, but the other is also TERRIBLE because it's irresponsible.

FFS.

@WaterOffADucksCrack which is why I said in my first post that it's not the same everywhere. I just wanted to emphasise that what you were saying wasn't universally true. Which it's not.

Cardiepockets I do not work for the NHS or private care, but I can see that you are being completely naive here. Hospitals and private care facilities just don’t have the level of staffing or even facilities to have completely separate people to deal with covid and non covid.

As midwives have explained they are a midwife to everyone. Same for anaesthetists etc. ICU etc.

There aren’t enough care in the community to separate it all. It’s partly why people in these professions must be raging if they look on other threads seeing how many other idiots won’t cancel their Christmas plans.

Our NHS has a huge shortage of nurses. Brexit isn’t going to help the situation either.

[quote baublesbaubleseverywhere]@Cardiepockets

"And if I ever have to access a doctors appointment - god forbid as they are still only doing video calls because they still won’t face real patients or hospital treatment - I’ll know I’m running the gauntlet.*"
*
Do you not see the irony in your jibe at GPs trying keeping face to face apts to a minimum, and community HPCs seeing both positive and negative clients.

Well one is TERRIBLE if it's inconveniencing you, but the other is also TERRIBLE because it's irresponsible.

FFS. [/quote]
No I don’t see the irony in that.

Our GP state they do not want to cross contaminate patients.

Yet careers are happily going in to covid patients and non covid patient houses

I’ve not been inconvenienced- my grandmother tried to get an appointment for conjunctivitis but was told she had to have a video call - to guard against cross contamination.

@Cardiepockets

It's CARERS!
Not "careers"

CARERS!!!!!!!

Bauble its annoying the hell out of me too, I posted it up thread somewhere lol

They wouldn't tell you if someone they were looking after had flu or gastro, as long as PPE is worn appropriately, there isn't anything else- and they definitely shouldn't have told you. You don't know what level of care that person needs, where about on the visit schedule they are, so not only breaking confidentiality, but causing unnecessary stress also, is pretty crap of them.

She has had her fli accination so again, while there is a risk she could still get flu the risk level is not the same imo

And also if what you say is true then how come people above working in homes are saying they had to tell families if a covid positive case arose @SD1978? What is the difference?

Flu*

People are talking about covid as if it's smallpox!

Of course if you think that way you won't be able to maintain any rational perspective.

What is that supposed to mean @ChestnutStuffing? That we are taking it too seriously?

I know someone that has died from covid but I don't know anyone that has died of smallpox of late.

The difference is that we are looking after 30 plus residents for 24 hours. Not just in and out within an hours or so.

@Lizzie523

What is that supposed to mean *@ChestnutStuffing*? That we are taking it too seriously?

I know someone that has died from covid but I don't know anyone that has died of smallpox of late.

Infectious diseases aren't your strong point, I guess?

Smallpox is the only human infectious disease that has ever been eradicated, it now exists only in labs. The last natural case was in 1980.

A real case now would bring out the big guns in terms of isolating it, ther would be no holds barred.

Covid is serious but in no way as dangerous as smallpox, or measles, or many other diseases we've suffered from in living memory. You are over-reacting because you are treating it like something like smallpox, a disease that was fatal in 30% of cases. Rather than one that can be serious in the very old but is less serious in children than the flu.

@ChestnutStuffing

Her family member is elderly and vulnerable you have just patronised her for being concerned about an illness that primarily effects the old and vulnerable when that's her exact issue?

I work in an nhs community team. If we can we'll see the COVID + at the end of the day but obviously some patients need to be seen at a set time. We don't have the staff to have separate teams. Not to mention how do we know who is definitely positive? We can do community testing on symptomatic patients (if they consent, not all do) but not routinely on everyone and on those who who do not obviously have symptoms.

We have to trust the PPE works because what else do we have?

@JacobReesMogadishu

It’s not great but I’m not shocked.

There are covid positive inpatients in hospitals all over the U.K. who are on covid negative wards as no space on the positive ones.

This can't be true can it??

Of course it’s true hospitals are packed. They should be in side rooms though.