Hospital staff, tell us the reality

[Ihateme]

I’m am so fed up of seeing people comment on here that schools should be going back, that people should not be reporting mass gatherings in tier 4, how dare people begrudge a child their birthday party etc...

The hospitals are in a worse state now than they were during the first peak. Would any doctors or nurses care to confirm this? Maybe then these Mumsnetters will get the message.

@drinkingwineoutofamug

Finally got to the end of the thread. I'm very newly qualified RNA. 3 weeks qualified to be exact. I did my training during the first wave on the ward I now work on. I've had 15 yrs in the nhs. I'm feeling guilty I've had a weekend off. My partner is one of those deniers . I can not come home and vent. I sit alone and cry. I've had relatives shout at me. One even asked to speak to the nurse in charge to make sure I was qualified enough to care for the relative that if they hadn't neglected wouldn't of been in hospital in the first place. Friday. We ran out of oxygen points in the bay. Had to use cylinder. I had a 20 mins break on a 12 hr shift. The ward WhatsApp group yesterday, where do we get ppe from as they had run out. I love my job. But I'm broke. Love to all 💙

images.app.goo.gl/HZVrosMRBkkgDEmH8

It does make you quite tribal with your colleagues doesn't it? Because you're the ones who know and can see what things are like and you have a solidarity both in dealing with the madness and dealing with the nightmare gaslighting and bashing of the general public.

I'm happily single but I have to say I think I'd stick to teachers or nhs workers if I did decide to date. As a teacher it's all oh you're a part timer, those who can't ha fucking ha etc at the best of times so I'm relatively thick skinned.

When we're being battered just for wanting to have a bit more space and the right to wear a mask in a pandemic it feels like a whole new level when you're running round like the proverbial blue arsed fly trying to do your job under massive new pressures.

I can only imagine how awful it is when you're dealing with sick and dying patients. It's hard enough dealing with the social fall out of covid in schools so being on the frontline of the sick and dying must be hell. People forget you're human I think!

For the record I don't resent the teenagers I teach for it anymore than you'd resent your patients. It's the public not backing off and exercising a bit of compassion or insisting we should be overflowing with gratitude and never dare to complain because our jobs (which we chose, studied hard, made sacrifices and qualified for - they didn't land in our lap) 'secure'.

Just realised another thing teachers and doctors and nurses have in common - we have to deal with people's massive senses of entitlement in the face of blissful ignorance of the realities of the state of play for us.

Sorry if it's wrong of me to comment on here. I just feel massive empathy. I've had so many conversations with doctors and nurses about the reality of resource levels in the last couple of years due to suddenly having to access hospital and specialist treatment/care.

And no they weren't unprofessionally 'moaning' as others have suggested. We were empathising with each other because well before covid we were already working at the 'critical' end of underfunding in our own institutions and the loss of complimentary services that were vital to our own services.

I hope we don't get turned against each other by cynical spin doctoring.

@TheHoneyBadger @Doublefaced @Abijay1
Thank you.
Just made me cry again

Daughter works for NHS in ICU. She says the Covid wards are ram packed full, however loads of wards are lying empty because of cancelled elective surgery plus many staff are sick and others are having to isolate . What is concerning her most is the fact that people are dying without their family around them. This is having a huge mental health impact on the staff as well as the families. Her own parner died from Covid in November and she was in exactly the same position as other families. He went into ICU on 20th October and that is the last time she saw him. He died two weeks later on his own.

Surprised to read doubt on MN that there are clinicians dealing with PTSD from what theyve seen on COVID wards and ICU. I have been seeing numerous PTSD affected nurses as part of our Trust's staff support service. Full blown PTSD symptoms for sure.

Some really tough things to read on here

This thread has descended into something ridiculous but if anyone still cares about what's happening in hospitals right now, we are totally, utterly fucked.

My London hospital has no empty beds, not enough staff and hundreds of very unwell Covid patients keep on arriving every day. We have tripled our ITU capacity and it's not enough. It's much, much, much worse than the first wave and there's no end in sight.

The public want to believe everything is fine and no of course they shouldn't have to make any kind of sacrifice or adjustment for an international pandemic and sadly we have a government who wants to tell them what they want to hear for the most part.

If I talk about the dangers of schools being open I'm met with you lazy selfish horrible teacher, you should be ashamed of yourself, we rely on you etc. They can't comprehend that it is absolutely our concern for our students and their families and our wider communities and our colleagues in hospitals that we are speaking up about the inevitability of surging cases if schools continue to be forced to be open without mitigation measures.

You know when you have to get a kid to take a spoon/syringe full of gross glucky horrible antibiotic liquid because some twat has forgotten to prescribe a nice flavoured version so that parents don't have to rugby tackle their toddler to the ground four times a day to combat a massive chest infection? I think that's how we have to look at this. They're screaming and shouting and throwing their toys out of the pram when we're just trying to be the grown up who knows what needs doing.

Massive kudos to everyone in hospitals. Massive sympathy that you're having leave cancelled that could mean never getting to sea family that lives away from you or being left pulling your hair out worrying about childcare etc.

Don't let the public get you down - just imagine that screaming wrestling toddler that you know damn well has to take their antibiotic. You're the moral adult doing the right thing.

With respect @TheHoneyBadger working in a hospital right now is absolutely nothing like your analogy of giving a toddler it's medicine.

Imagine instead that you go into your work tomorrow and you are short 50% of the staff you need. But if you don't keep doing the work to a high standard people will die. But they die anyway even though you and your colleagues are working as hard as you possibly can. And more people keep arriving and some of them are also dying despite your best efforts.

That's what it's like.

As well as being hugely patronising and arrogant Badger, and I say that as school staff. We are not 'the adults' any more than any other member of the public.

@crocsonmyfeet

With respect *@TheHoneyBadger* working in a hospital right now is absolutely nothing like your analogy of giving a toddler it's medicine.

Imagine instead that you go into your work tomorrow and you are short 50% of the staff you need. But if you don't keep doing the work to a high standard people will die. But they die anyway even though you and your colleagues are working as hard as you possibly can. And more people keep arriving and some of them are also dying despite your best efforts.

That's what it's like.

Sorry for the misunderstanding. I wasn't saying that working in a hospital is like giving a toddler it's medicine. I was saying that dealing with angry abusive covid denying people and particularly mumsnet posters is like having to be the parent who has to administer the medicine.

I have imagined what you're describing and that's what I was empathising with. The analogy was about dealing with public/tabloid/certain mn'ers rage and tantrums at having to deal with some degree of inconvenience.

I'm sorry I wasn't clear enough. No way would I trivialise your experiences at this time to a flippant metaphor. Sick and dying people are not toddlers and the pettiness and nonsense I'm talking about is way back from the front line - it couldn't be so ridiculous if it actually had to engage with the frontline.

I really hope that clears up the misunderstanding.

gypsywater I'm definitely seeing some PTSD in my brother, frontline NHS for his entire career, now aged 54; he's seen some things in his career in A&E. I'm currently very worried about him; he's barely sleeping, running 12-hour shifts with rarely any break even for a drink of water. He's lost team members to covid and deals with very angry families who are distressed at not being able to see their loved ones, many of whom he knows are going to die. It is not possible to continue like that, however dedicated you are, you'll just burn out. I realise it's just a microcosm, my brother, but there must be many like him.

I'm so sorry for your brother, LittleDog. It's heartbreaking what people like him are going through and then made a hundred times worse by pathetic smiley faced covid deniers. It's making me so, so angry.

Interesting post here from an ICU doctor, very stark.

m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=173479607846313&id=109658230895118

Press release on occupancy statistics from the Intensive Care Society today; fairly succinct explanation on surge capacity

www.ics.ac.uk/ICS/Pdfs/Understanding_Intensive_Care_Staffing__occupancy_and_capacity_statement?_zs=7L9wN1&_zl=MMj66

Helpful graphic in that document, parallax - really does dispel the whole 'hospitals are less full than last year' crap we keep seeing from denialists.

@TheLittleDogLaughed you are so right.

Working in acute care for any length of time wasnt sustainable before Covid - with Covid working in acute care is just blatantly bad for your health & wellbeing.

@gypsywater ditto.

40% of our staff are showing signs of PRSD.

I’ve had people tell me that the hospitals are empty, etc.

Funnily enough not by anyone who has been in one or who works remotely in that area. However people I know why are nurses and first responders are telling a different story (and it’s not the ‘I read on Facebook that there is a coverup, 000’s more dead than recorded, first lot of test patients for the immunisation all died...’)

@strivingforjustice

Your post is totally correct and the BBC are actually quite propagandist because it serves the narrative the Gov want us to believe. Your are stating fact. Anyone who dares to question the narrative or provide information/ footage or scientific data are either not given airtime or column inches in the MSM or by allowed to speak freely or are censored. 100, 000 doctors from around the world have signed a document expressing concern over the C vid va x's. And no I am not an anti vax er . But having worked in for big pharma for a decade 9 years ago I have researched these issues extensively. Yet it appears nobody hears about this in the MSM. Most people are not aware that the B & G ates Foundation granted / funded/ bunged ( however you want to view it) many millions of pounds to UK journalists from BBC , Times, FT and other news outlets. This led to a sley of pro G ates articles regarding philanthropic acts of generosity & the tech geek expunging his medical views 7 billion of us need the v ax, we simply don't yet he has absolutely no medical qualificatoins, let alone a degree in anything. They also hosted Event 201 Wuhan October 2019 , with the CDC , WHO , Clinton Foundation etc which was an simulated excercise to a global Pandemic. These are facts too and people should be asking questions now, applying critical thinking. The NHS is overwhelmed every winter season for aprox 2 decades now , simply because it was underfunded. We have seen 100's of millions of taxpayers money spent on the Nightingale Hospitals, yet we have had xmas cancelled due to overwhelming surges in 'cases' , hospitals at ' breaking point' yet quietly end Dec & in complete Contradiction to Hancock's press brief, the Nightingale has been completely dismantled down to the partitions... not a ventilator in sight. If we were genuinely in the midst of such a life threatening crisis with a super spreading mutation surely this would not be the case. After all no excuse for the powers that be to rely upon the previous excuse of 'we have no experience of this' for their ineptitude in managing this. The reason staff are being called in is because so many are told to self isolate / have children to look after with no childcare / off with cold/ flu symptoms etc. Yes you're correct up to December 2020 only 377 people under 60 with no co morbidities died of/with C vid in a population of 67 million ... Yet society has been virtually shut down.. really ?

So many lies in this I'm not even going to bother addressing them individually. Either link to some actual evidence (no, not YouTube), or be assumed to be a conspiracy believing cult member @strivingforjustice

Yes, I just wouldn't bother @DameFanny, this type is just too far gone and won't listen. And evidently hasn't bothered to read the thread.

I can't even.

I know @Madhairday - needs calling out though because it looks like willful stupidity is as contagious as covid

Idiocy. It's rests like that that think even positive kids should be able to go to school. Jog on.

Mnhq will delete but it's quite illuminating to see it's the same old nonsense and buzzwords.

I lived in Egypt when polio vaccines were being freely vaccinated to children in communities in Sinai where diabetes can still be a death sentence for kids let alone polio. Righteous westerners would be trying to fill their heads with the bill gates, they're sterilising your kids, it's poison crap from their privileged position of never having to worry about watching a kid die or be left disabled for life in a country without a safety net from a preventable disease.

They're so far gone they can't even hear themselves