AIBU re hospital staff begging for freebies on social media?

[Biscoffaddict]

I’m fully prepared to get flamed for this, and I want to say I really do appreciate everything NHS staff are doing at the moment, but I can’t help but feel it’s a bit grabby and entitled to be asking for freebies on social media. The post in question was from a HCA who was asking for hand cream for their ‘poor sore hands’. She tagged about twenty colleagues in the post and also named the ward in question (not ICU).

It would be understandable if there was nowhere open to get hand cream from but it’s sold in Boots, Superdrug, all supermarkets and online. Very cheaply available as well, which is why this seems really grabby, entitled and a bit unprofessional if I’m honest. Lots of body shop and Avon reps have been tagged in the post and no doubt they’ll feel pressured into donating stuff and meeting the cost themselves (I’ve done Avon in the past and know how it all works).

For some reason this has really rubbed me up the wrong way. But like Ive said I’m prepared to be told I’m out of order.

@PyongyangKipperbang

DD got free sky installation because she is NHS. She didnt ask, they were sorting it out and the guy asked what she did (as they were struggling to find an appoinment time) and when she told him asked her to hang on. Then said he had put a credit on her account so that she wouldnt have to pay for it.

But she wouldnt dream of basically saying "I am an NHS hero, what are you going to give me" which is what a lot of them seem to be doing!

My son got free fish and chips The owner heard us talking about his job while we waited and didn’t charge us for one out of the three we bought He told my son he’s a hero and to have ‘these on us’ He was very grateful but he didn’t ask either Not a chance would he have ordered,then asked for a freebie as ‘I’m a nhs hero what can I have for free?’ For starters he knows I’d have throttled him-and he’s not that greedy

...and yes, my local FB groups have had both MLMbots and nurses asking for donations, too.

When you see what they're doing and for traumatic it is, I really think your small gripe doesn't compare. It's not just hard on the hands either, the face gets very sore.

@Covidcovid

One of my friends who shop at morrisons use the 10% discount to buy some extra toiletries and food to put in the food bank donation box.

I think it’s an odd thing to do. Sure, the NHS is strapped for cash and doctors, nurses, etc are working incredibly hard right now. But they are still being paid and in fact have very secure jobs. It’s not as though the U.K. is a third world country where the government has run out of money to pay its public sector workers, meaning they have to rely on donations...

I agree with you. They are awesome. They are wonderful. They are hard working. But they trained to work in medicine and with sick people. Which means viruses and disease and other sickness. So they are doing what they trained up to do. Yes it's a challenging time. But not just for them. It's a challenging time for everyone. It's hard for shop workers. Teachers. Care workers. Cleaners. Delivery drivers. Public transport workers. Catering and hospitality. It's hard on children. It's hard on parents. It's hard on the world.

Nobody is more valuable than anyone else on this planet. I'm also sick of nurses moaning about people on my Facebook. I get it. But I get why people are frustrated. Tired of it all. Wanting to grab normality.

The whole country deserves a treat because in one way or another we've all lost, been inconvenienced, struggled and suffered through the last nine months.

It is grabby and puts all of us in a bad light.

Yanbu op, yes its shit at work at the moment but noone should be begging.

I also find your post on poor taste because regardless of anything else that they might do, there is a base line of gratitude in order at the moment.

The colleagues she tagged on her ward are probably fed up of her tagging them in things and deeply regretting the day they clicked "add friend".

Just report her, it isn’t allowed and the rest of the staff are fed up with people complaining about staff asking for freebies. You’d be doing them a huge favour as it’s not allowed and it seems to give people licence to forget the sacrifice that the vast majority of NHS staff are making; working incredibly long hours (many unpaid), being at high risk of catching covid and giving it to their families, cancelling all holidays and working in areas and situations they’re not familiar with. Nobody really cares that much about a freebie hand cream.

Just because some of them want to take advantage, that doesn't mean everyone is. There are always minorities that use their position for personal gain, in any profession.

Apparently there’s a shortage of things like hand cream which makes a difference to them washing their hands so much. I wouldn’t helping and feel many wouldn’t take your stance OP.

I work in the NHS, and this gets my goat. I have seen this type of thing 'car broke down need a mechanic' etc.
If she needs cream it is widely available in most NHS trusts, I asked occupational health and got loads.

She's being grabby. And who she works for wouldn't be happy. 100%

I love the NHS. I’m so appreciative of everything they are doing right now. But, I hear you. My news feed is overwhelmed with requests for donations for our local hospitals, hand creams, chocolate, biscuits and even free meals. It’s been pretty constant over the last few weeks. Every time I see a post begging for donations I can’t help but think of the families that can’t feed their kids right now or pay their rent. The supermarket workers who never signed up for this but have stuck with their jobs and worked through it. Without medical level PPE. All the vital key workers for that matter. My heart is with them all. Don’t get me wrong, I have actually donated things for the NHS staff, I just wish we could do more for the others too. Spread the love and kindness a bit and acknowledge how vitally important and brave they are too.

I agree and it utterly gets on my tits and I’m an NHS nurse.
At the start of the pandemic last year we were inundated with foods and hand cream etc, it didn’t sit right with me when so many people were being layed off and struggling to make ends meet! All those pizzas could’ve gone to someone starving and wondering how the hell they we’re going to feed their kids!
We don’t need hand cream, I have loads of my own and there’s pump dispensers in every clinical area with it in (good stuff too!). They’re just being greedy, grabby and very ‘look at me the poor key worker here!’ Grrr
Don’t get me started on the NHS worker/key worker car stickers....

I haven't seen anything like that on social media.

What I have seen a lot (and it's recently made a comeback) are posts in my local community group, where people shoehorn working for the NHS, into the most bizarre posts.

Just this morning, "Please can you look out for my cat (accompanied by photo). I'm a frontline NHS worker and I miss him".

Like no-one would bother if she drove a bus or something

Our Avon rep did ask people to buy hand cream during the last pandemic and she donated a big box that she matched used her commission to do so. It didn’t offend me.

I have seen our hospital on FB asking local business for meals. Pre-packaged and able to reheat although granted, food is a bit different but I was surprised to see them so publicly asking for donations. I should imagine a lot of small businesses aren’t in a position to help right now.

YANBU

But don’t tar everyone with the same brush! My sister is a Sister in ICU and on Covid wards and she has never asked for a freebie, in fact she never used her NHS entitlement to go to the front of the queue in Sainsbury during previous lockdowns. And she works 12 hour shifts 8am-8pm for a week and then nights 8pm-8am for a week.

She sounds awful. Just so you know, we aren’t all like this. I wouldn’t dream of asking for anything.
It pisses me off because it makes the rest of us look bad.

So I am sticking my 2pence right in. I work within ICU during covid -19 as well as balancing my other nhs job and also I have been redeployed to work on the Vaccination hub 12 hour shift.

The sights that we have seen throughout the past year are awful - I would not wish what I have seen and experienced on my worst enemy! You can say NHS is your job, you chose to work there - yes we have but we didn't in a million years expect this and to have to be living away from our families and children to be able to keep them and my fiancé safe..

We have seen nothing because we have spent every hour in the dark depths of a struggling NHS. I have nightmares every time that I get to sleep about the deaths, the struggling, the pain that I see and treat with my own eyes. We are treating a different person each day because it seems as though it is 'One patient in, one patient out' when it was meant to be 1:1 care. An ICU nurse is now looking after 7 patients to themselves.

So actually, yes I would say you are being a bit Unreasonable - because if I ever saw something being offered to me, even if its handcream that's nearing the expiry date, then yes I am going to take it and be proud of that bloody handcream, because the nhs have taken the brunt force of all of this.

YANBU, asking is just rude and using your job to gain free shit is quite cringey. As a side note, ICU are not the only covid wards in hospitals though.

I’m NHS and would be mortified if a colleague tagged me in one of these posts. Bog standard emollient is available in large pump bottles as a pp has said.

It’s grabby and bad manners.

‘Medical level PPE’ you mean a surgical mask which are freely available to buy? There was a report on the news last night saying staff on wards are getting twice as many infections as those on ITU because a surgical mask is not protective, it’s designed to protect other people from you.

Many businesses have encouraged people to pay for extra meals etc which they deliver to hospitals, half of it gets wasted because it’s not needed. Boris should just read out the NHS policy on gifts at his next briefing and stop it all. The best gift would be for people to follow the rules

@Amyloulou

I agree with you. They are awesome. They are wonderful. They are hard working. But they trained to work in medicine and with sick people. Which means viruses and disease and other sickness. So they are doing what they trained up to do. Yes it's a challenging time. But not just for them. It's a challenging time for everyone. It's hard for shop workers. Teachers. Care workers. Cleaners. Delivery drivers. Public transport workers. Catering and hospitality. It's hard on children. It's hard on parents. It's hard on the world.

Nobody is more valuable than anyone else on this planet. I'm also sick of nurses moaning about people on my Facebook. I get it. But I get why people are frustrated. Tired of it all. Wanting to grab normality.

The whole country deserves a treat because in one way or another we've all lost, been inconvenienced, struggled and suffered through the last nine months.

You realise that the situation is so horrendous that nearly half of the nurses and doctors in ICU are suffering from PTSD?? And the situation is 100 times than in April when people were all clapping for them?

Yes they are trained to look after the sick. But not like that. It’s not hard like fir everyone else. It’s extremely hard for them in their job AND then they have to deal with lockdown etc like everyone else on the top of it.

So please give them a break.

My local facebook is dominated by the posters who 'need to find' a local tradesperson/someone selling something and then people post recommendations. I usually suspect these are all set-ups - a friend of a seller/tradesperson asks and another friend recommends.