Covid Isolation Hotel Nightmare

[Suppermumzy]

Stuck in this London Isolation Hotel...food is terrible...if you are lucky to go out for exercise you are hurriedly sent back in as there is always a list waiting to go out and use the outdoor space which can safely have 4 people in at a time..i will add photos of food. Cost for 11 days £2285.

I asked today "Would they stop me if I wanted to leave?" Answer No..but you will be reported as an absconder and may face a £10,000 fine....Surely this is not voluntary nor is it fair...who is monitoring this system..we seam to be a forgotten minority rotting away behind fences..

I am coming back from Africa to bury my 99 year old father who died 1/08....and I couldn't have not gone...I had to see him through....Surely this is not voluntary imprisonment as without the hotel booking reference you are not allowed on your flight at the departure airport...

AIBU to feel aggrieved by the system..when i left England the hotel fee was £1750...when I went to book it had gone up £500....NHS nurse looked after British public throughout the Pandemic but I feel that I am incapacitated to look after my own..including my young kids...

Honestly, the comments here = "disgusting", "muck", "slop", and so on. It's pictures of rice and what appears to be curry, and of milk desserts. Get over yourselves.

the comments are an accurate description of the photos. Would anyone go to a restaurant and pay to be served that food? Clearly not.

Totally unacceptable to treat people that way.

There's no state of emergency in the UK, we do have food available.

Excelthetube
your posts are horrible and your attacks very distasteful.

The racism is disgusting, how dare the OP want to come HOME and be with her family. It gives no one the right to treat them and all the other travellers stuck that way.

It's embarrassing - and we should share all these photos to show what the UK is actually like and how we treat people coming back.

The red list is constantly evolving.

@isthisareverse
I was pointing out the racism!
How dare people think that serving Indian food is “slop” That’s racist.

The op could be be from any nationality and it wouldn’t matter

Indian food is not "slop". What the OP took photos of IS. It doesn't matter what nationality that food is, it is not acceptable and it is not healthy.

Have you even looked at that breakfast? Even airlines have better standards.

or that lunch - and pretty sure a pack of salt and vinegar walkers with a mars bar doesn't qualify as "Indian food" but it's still not an acceptable meal in this context.

So please give us a break with the racism, especially on a thread where the OP is abused for daring coming home from "abroad" where shock horror she had family.

The posts about Multiculturalism are laughable.

@isthisareverse

Indian food is not "slop". What the OP took photos of IS. It doesn't matter what nationality that food is, it is not acceptable and it is not healthy.

Have you even looked at that breakfast? Even airlines have better standards.

or that lunch - and pretty sure a pack of salt and vinegar walkers with a mars bar doesn't qualify as "Indian food" but it's still not an acceptable meal in this context.

So please give us a break with the racism, especially on a thread where the OP is abused for daring coming home from "abroad" where shock horror she had family.

The posts about Multiculturalism are laughable.

The evening meal looks very like many delivery Indians I’ve ordered -some sort of dhal I would have guessed - and isn’t an indicator of the quality at all, though if you don’t like dhal it isn’t going to be that appetising.

Delivery food in plastic trays tends to look awful. It doesn’t make it taste awful, or mean it’s not good for you.

Very unclear what the breakfast is to me, but lunch was a can of pop, a mars bar, a packet of crisps and a sandwich as well. That’s not brilliantly healthy but it’s less than two weeks, it doesn’t have to be the best diet and lots of people would love some thing like a can of pop and a chocolate bar while they’re holed up somewhere.

@MauveMagnolia

I believe that you could have pre-paid to get it at the lower price after the announcement was made. Were you made aware of that?

How could she have pre-paid for a death she didn't know was going to happen

I'm not sure I'd call those photographs Indian food or any other kind of food. Doing so is hardly a compliment to India or its cuisine. Regardless, Indian food is distinctive and spicy enough that it's really not suitable fare for a captive audience outside of India. The digestive systems of many non-Indians simply can't process it. If they aren't going to let people choose their meals, then they need to at least provide meals that everyone can eat. I would say the same thing if the government of a country where most people are lactose intolerant required people in quarantine to choose between dairy-based meals and going hungry.

I don't understand the point of this policy. People with known confirmed exposure to covid aren't forced to quarantine in hotels - they're allowed to do so in their own homes, if they're required to quarantine at all, and there's no real enforcement. So why the stricter rules for people flying in from high-transmission countries, even without any confirmed exposure? I'd feel differently if the UK had managed to stay at "covid zero" in a manner similar to Australia before Delta got loose, but since it's everywhere anyway, I really don't see the benefit of the double standards.

Regardless, Indian food is distinctive and spicy enough that it's really not suitable fare for a captive audience outside of India.

...you can't possibly ever have lived in the UK, can you, PurpleOkapi?

On that 'breakfast' alone, YANBU!

People with known confirmed exposure to covid aren't forced to quarantine in hotels - they're allowed to do so in their own homes, if they're required to quarantine at all, and there's no real enforcement. So why the stricter rules for people flying in from high-transmission countries, even without any confirmed exposure

This is in large part down to practicality - we can’t provide that many hotel rooms, and you can’t morally require people who don’t have the money and haven’t made a choice that increases their risk to pay out for it (there’s enough questionableness about not picking up lost earnings fully). Whereas people who choose to fly to a country they have been told they should not fly to have very deliberately taken that action (however understandable their reasons). So it is much more ethical to require them to fund the cost of making sure they don’t increase the risk to the rest of the population. Especially since the trip itself is probably beyond the means of many of the tax payers who would, in part, be funding the cost of cleaning up any fall out from the increased risk.

But it’s not just the practical/ethical trade offs between isolating people exposed at home and people exposed abroad. It’s also about the need to slow the spread of new variants - which are more likely to develop in hotspots and for which it is not a good idea to facilitate international transmission.

Which isn’t to say the current red list is the most optimised way to protect the UK. Just that there are different pressures on the decision to require home quarantine/isolation and decision to do so for international travel.

@ArcheryAnnie

Regardless, Indian food is distinctive and spicy enough that it's really not suitable fare for a captive audience outside of India.

...you can't possibly ever have lived in the UK, can you, PurpleOkapi?

Yes, though I'll admit I've never ordered Indian food in the UK because I first lived in India and didn't care for it there. Is it different in the UK?

Cannot believe people are defending that food. Regardless of which culture it comes from it looks TERRIBLE. There's not a piece of salad, fruit or vegetable to be seen! It's all brown and beige.

PurpleOkapi yes it's different in the UK. It's made to cater for the English taste unless you visit a really good restaurant. Many of the cheap Indian restaurants serve chips alongside very creamy curries.

The racism on this thread is frankly disgusting and a good lot of you should be very ashamed of yourselves.
Having travelled a lot on business I struggled with real Indian food in India, in the UK its not Indian as the Indians know it! I spent a week in Delhi living on nan breads
OP I'm so sorry this has happened to you and you have my deepest sympathy. I had to quit a job to be able to spend the last week of my dad's life in hospital with him, and the funeral is some form of closure.
Ignore the nastiness if you can, but if you need a shoulder feel free to PM.
I can only imagine what you're going through but feel free to PM and I'll send some food more to your liking to the hotel. Thank you for your sacrifice in nursing in the last 18 months!

@PurpleOkapi

I'm not sure I'd call those photographs Indian food or any other kind of food. Doing so is hardly a compliment to India or its cuisine. Regardless, Indian food is distinctive and spicy enough that it's really not suitable fare for a captive audience outside of India. The digestive systems of many non-Indians simply can't process it. If they aren't going to let people choose their meals, then they need to at least provide meals that everyone can eat. I would say the same thing if the government of a country where most people are lactose intolerant required people in quarantine to choose between dairy-based meals and going hungry.

I don't understand the point of this policy. People with known confirmed exposure to covid aren't forced to quarantine in hotels - they're allowed to do so in their own homes, if they're required to quarantine at all, and there's no real enforcement. So why the stricter rules for people flying in from high-transmission countries, even without any confirmed exposure? I'd feel differently if the UK had managed to stay at "covid zero" in a manner similar to Australia before Delta got loose, but since it's everywhere anyway, I really don't see the benefit of the double standards.

I always say this about Singapore airlines...they serve quite distinctive, spicy foods to their largely Australian and English clientele and who wants to smell hot, spicy curry and the aftermath of that on a 12 hour bloody flight!?

Nobody.

I've always said they should serve sandwiches, plain soups, fruit, salad and crisps and yogurts.

Much better for people sitting still for 12 hours and far less smelly.

So much plastic in those meals as well...

Surely they could serve it in something more environmentally friendly.

I love curry and can eat almost limitless amounts of it. However, it's not racist (for goodness' sake!!) to point out that this isn't suitable as a default defacto diet for people with no other options.

For this kind of situation, you need Bland International Cuisine.

Steamed/raw veggies with a choice of a few dressings. Rice or bread offered. A protein optionchicken, lamb, fish or vegetarian item, with only light seasoning. Dessertpiece of fruit and a yogurt. The kind of things almost everyone on the planet will recognize and eat. It is not very exciting but it will do for a week or two for almost everyone.

Indian food is a distinctive cuisine in its own right and not everyone loves it (strange creatures!). Curry aroma is also notorious for getting into wallpapers and curtains and furnishings, and stale curry smells in confined spaces that people cannot leave are an obvious issue.

@NumberTheory

People with known confirmed exposure to covid aren't forced to quarantine in hotels - they're allowed to do so in their own homes, if they're required to quarantine at all, and there's no real enforcement. So why the stricter rules for people flying in from high-transmission countries, even without any confirmed exposure

This is in large part down to practicality - we can’t provide that many hotel rooms, and you can’t morally require people who don’t have the money and haven’t made a choice that increases their risk to pay out for it (there’s enough questionableness about not picking up lost earnings fully). Whereas people who choose to fly to a country they have been told they should not fly to have very deliberately taken that action (however understandable their reasons). So it is much more ethical to require them to fund the cost of making sure they don’t increase the risk to the rest of the population. Especially since the trip itself is probably beyond the means of many of the tax payers who would, in part, be funding the cost of cleaning up any fall out from the increased risk.

But it’s not just the practical/ethical trade offs between isolating people exposed at home and people exposed abroad. It’s also about the need to slow the spread of new variants - which are more likely to develop in hotspots and for which it is not a good idea to facilitate international transmission.

Which isn’t to say the current red list is the most optimised way to protect the UK. Just that there are different pressures on the decision to require home quarantine/isolation and decision to do so for international travel.

That's true, but many people in the UK get exposed to covid by freely choosing to do things that they know are irresponsible, and sometimes illegal. Even when there were harsh restrictions about gathering sizes, attending a large party or an illegally-open nightclub wouldn't get someone imprisoned in a hotel and forced to pay for it. That's true even if multiple people at the gathering were confirmed to have covid. At most, they'd be told to quarantine at home, but no one would be checking if they did or not. All the same arguments can be made about the risk they're creating and the expense they're potentially foisting onto the rest of society, but for some reason that's not considered a good enough justification even for the relatively small group that's known to be 100% at fault for their own exposure. And I don't think it should be, because if they do what they're supposed to be doing and stay home, putting them into a hotel is just a needless extra expense that doesn't reduce a risk that didn't really exist to begin with. If compliance is a concern, then using a small fraction of those funds to monitor whether they're where they're supposed to be would be more effective and more humane. I just don't see the benefit to treating travelers so much more harshly.

IIRC, current guidance is that vaccinated people no longer have to quarantine after known exposure under normal circumstances. So should we assume that OP isn't vaccinated, or do vaccinated travelers still have to quarantine when coming back from red list countries?

I would contact a couple of national newspapers, send them copies if all your photos, tell them everything & also contact your MP with the same. Someone has given a member of the government a bung to get these hotel contracts & is probably making millions out of it. Contact The Guardian, not one of the scandal sheets.

Really sorry you are in this position suppermumzy. What must grate is paying rates that in normal circumstances would get you quite a nice hotel.

I was not totally surprised to read your post because I had heard a documentary on Radio 4 a few months ago:

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000w4nj

When my mum died my cousin came to the funeral and was able to claim that his flight was for compassionate reasons. I think we ned to distinguish between people going to red list countries for family emergencies and those going on holiday.

Hope you can get through this as reasonably as possible.

If compliance is a concern, then using a small fraction of those funds to monitor whether they're where they're supposed to be would be more effective and more humane.

I get the argument about domestic isolation and quarantine being fairly ineffective. And that laws about gathering, moving about the country etc. were poorly and inconsistently implemented. Some of that was down to a government who didn't want to piss off too many voters, always an issue with democracies. And part of it was that it was not something we had the capacity to enforce.

Your idea that you could use "some of" the funds it cost to stay in a hotel to effectively monitor compliance at home is laughable. The reason for hotels is because that isn't remotely practical. It would cost way, way more than the few grand the OP has had to cough up. And if it were applied to all the self-isolation that is supposed to happen too I doubt you could hire enough security guards to do it.

@Nat6999

I would contact a couple of national newspapers, send them copies if all your photos, tell them everything & also contact your MP with the same. Someone has given a member of the government a bung to get these hotel contracts & is probably making millions out of it. Contact The Guardian, not one of the scandal sheets.

For sure

The food looks okay, but the OP hasn't actually told us if this is what is served every day, or just on one day. There is a big difference. I wouldn't want Indian food every day, but I could certainly put up with it now and again.

Are people really saying that the food in the OP's pics are examples of fine Indian cuisine? Really?

Look, I like Indian food a lot and I've grown up in a part of London where it's been truly excellent (and definitely not served with chips as pp said). But I wouldn't want it every single day and I certainly wouldn't expect to eat curry for breakfast. I would expect toast, cereal, and yes, perhaps some continental options. Just as you would normally find at a typical UK hotel. As a comparison, I would not expect to be served, say, noodles or pickled cucumbers or skyr as part of a typical UK breakfast either (whereas I would abroad).

The good Indian food I've had has always come with fresh vegetables. People are describing the food in plastic trays as slop because for £2k+ you would expect significantly better quality.

Just to point out that this is not what most people are used to as Indian food but it is what most Indian people recognise from an Indian restaurant that might serve other traditional items such as pani puri, Brel puri, vadas, chaats, dosas etc.

These restaurants are very cheap and very traditional. You can eat loads for under a tenner. They are not the kind of place people go unless they are of Indian heritage or are keen on traditional Indian food rather than a curry house.

It is not horrible food, tastes much better than it looks, but if that is all you are being served with no choice, that’s not great either.

This is purely a business decision from the hotel to tick boxes re providing food but doing it cheaply.

HOWEVER, the what should be offered does not automatically jump to no food of any other cuisine other than British, including no garlic etc as a certain pp suggest because in their words the should cater for “British people” “born and bred 'British' and by that I mean no connection with any other country”. If you think like that, you are not a target audience for isolation hotels. You are possibly a target audience for the EDL though.