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?

@christinarossetti19

I'll take that as a no you don't know anything about health and social care provision then Cardiepockets although you do know that it's unacceptable.

Yes it is unacceptable. It’s not my job to figure it out. I don’t own a career business or part of the NHS. I don’t earn big money off it.

I don’t like the fact Richard Branson takes the piss out of my air stuward Dd - but I can still say it’s unacceptable.

People can say - ‘hang on that’s not right’ - because if they don’t - who will?

@Cardiepockets

Would it ever be acceptable for a baby who was in intensive care to be treated by a nurse who earlier that day was on a covid patient ward?

No it wouldn’t.

I work on ambulances. Today I was stuck on an ambulance for 5 hours with a covid positive patient. Straight afterwards, I went to a newborn baby. You honestly should stop talking rubbish about things which you have no clue about.

I'm sorry OP but this thread is ludicrous. As plenty of PP have pointed out, carers cannot disclose who is positive or not and we are given the same PPE for each client/patient regardless of Covid status. I'm in the position of being an NHS student in a hospital as well as working part time in a care home so experience this from both public and private sector and the rules are the same.
In my care home job I have to go from one room to another to care for clients whether positive or negative. I change my PPE as per government regulations. You could try phoning the manager and insisting that your relative gets special treatment but you will be given short shrift. We are doing the best we can under difficult circumstances and we are adhering to the rules. Same goes for community carers and hospital staff.
The only way you can control this is by taking in your relative and looking after them yourself. It's not that difficult really, in care we get paid minimum wage to do it so it's obviously not skilled or important so I'm sure you could figure it out!

I think that everyone who has the need to use either carers or NHS nursing staff needs to bear in mind that not only is the worker likely to be treating patients who may have Covid , but that they are likely to be exposed within their own lives if they have children at school , or using public transport etc

Hopefully they will have regular testing but this is unlikely to be more often than weekly .

*Would it ever be acceptable for a baby who was in intensive care to be treated by a nurse who earlier that day was on a covid patient ward?

No it wouldn’t*

General ward nurses generally wouldn't get redeployed to Neonatal ITU.
Of course, some of the babies on SCBU might already be positive, and the nurses might well be going from that baby to a negative tested baby in the same day.

You can argue it’s not right all you like. But it’s law currently and it’s happening and that’s what care companies have been told they have to do.

Why don’t you lobby the government and write to your MP if you feel strongly about it?

Of course you have a right to know, if the people organising the care have decided that carers will be going both to those with Covid and those without. I'd be horrified and furious, and I'm not surprised how you feel. It's negligent.

Saying you have to work with patients with Covid and non-Covid patients is not “disclosing medical info” FGS. To be breaching someone’s privacy they have to be identifiable.
It’s like saying an oncologist needs to be sacked for saying his patients have cancer.
What utter bs.
And no, those looking after Covid patients should be isolated from anybody else otherwise what’s the point of all these lockdowns. Might as well not bother.

Carers are now getting weekly COVID tests btw.

Also as previous posters have pointed out, people who don't work in care/NHS don't have a clue

@ForensicAccountant and @SpudsandGravy you need to read through the full thread.

Let me say it in bold so people might understand.

we do not have the staffing or the resources to have separate staff for covid positive people
Not in hospitals (although it's slightly easier if you can bundle all the positive patients into the same wards, but still people will test positive on the other wards)
Definitely, definitely not in care homes or the community.

District nurse - we visit covid positive and negative patients all in the same shift. We don't have enough staff as is, patients would not get their visits if we kept certain staff to positive patients.

Okay Cardiepockets knock yourself out telling those of us who work in health and social care what you consider to be acceptable.

It's really helpful and makes you come across as really knowledgeable.

Meme69 I know, the emotional strain and trauma that working with this virus day in, day out is putting on frontline health and social care workes is immense.

It's appalling how blind so many people are to this.

Take care of yourself.

@SpudsandGravy

Of course you have a right to know, if the people organising the care have decided that carers will be going both to those with Covid and those without. I'd be horrified and furious, and I'm not surprised how you feel. It's negligent.

Also clueless.

@MyMonsteraisDeliciosa

Also as previous posters have pointed out, people who don't work in care/NHS don't have a clue

They really don’t. It’s all very well saying just refuse but that’s simply not an option if you want your company to stay operating. That’s like saying “just break the law then if you feel it’s not right!”.

People who work with covid+ patients can't possibly be isolated from covid- patients or the whole thing would grind to a halt! There's not enough of us to go round, you could all retrain as carers/nurses/radiographers/midwives/physics etc if you want though, that might help?

@MyMonsteraisDeliciosa

Also as previous posters have pointed out, people who don't work in care/NHS don't have a clue

That is not the point.

The point is there should not be any chance of knowingly cross infection.

If your working with covid patients you should be severely be limiting the people you access - especially non covid elderly patients.

How can we agree to these lockdowns when careers could be taking the virus in to there homes.

*Would it ever be acceptable for a baby who was in intensive care to be treated by a nurse who earlier that day was on a covid patient ward?

No it wouldn’t.*

Recently i intubated a 55 year old with covid. About 2 hours later i intubated a 16 year old who had taken an overdose. In the same room.

I feel like it would have been less acceptable to let her die, waiting until the next shift came on with a “clean” doctor.

It's galling, but this scenario of relatives feeling guilty and powerless and then blaming staff because they have to blame someone and they're an easy target is a well trodden path.

Boils down to lack of resources, there are not enough staff to go round. I work in the NHS, I meet carers regularly, they are working their bloody arses off, as are the NHS staff, unfortunately it's not an ideal world

Its Carers, Not careers.

@DontStopThinkingAboutTomorrow DH asked me earlier about the Nightingale hospitals, when I mentioned the bed capacity in my acute hospital. I explained that the issue is staffing. You can have as many shiny new hospitals as you like, but if you don't have anyone to staff them it's completely pointless.

*That is not the point.

The point is there should not be any chance of knowingly cross infection.

If your working with covid patients you should be severely be limiting the people you access - especially non covid elderly patients.

How can we agree to these lockdowns when careers could be taking the virus in to there homes*

Yes, in a perfect world.
But nobody can magic up double the staff. It's shit but it's reality.
Lockdown helps because it reduces the amount of people carers will be exposed to who will be transmitting the virus.

How can we agree to these lockdowns when careers could be taking the virus in to there homes

Then take this up with the government who make the damn rules, don’t take it out on care staff or NHS staff trying their best to do their jobs and keep people alive!

Geez.