To be fed up of the "I'm a key worker" line now

[Chishelled]

Fair play, I do understand that not every key worker is pulling this out at opportunity and that not all key workers are acting like entitled selfish twits, plus the fact DP and I (although only on day two) are both NHS - him as a doctor and me within mental health.

Our entire local facebook page is full of "I am a key worker, I need to get petrol, people are being so selfish" BUT why do key workers expect to be prioritised for petrol now, particularly when many of the ones posting work in our local hospital which is a 20 minute walk away??

It's just all adding to the scare mongering and hype by trotting out the "I'm a key worker, I need petrol priority...[it's going to run out again], plus plenty of people are having to commute back to work due to the end of furlough and the fact that offices are well and truly reopen - are their jobs seen as lesser?

I propose on the spot fines for anyone who uses the phrase "I am a key worker" to get preferential treatment from this point forwards [unless of course we go back into Lockdown again]

I'm sure my end of life patients will be thrilled I can't get to them at 3am to relieve their symptoms because of lack of petrol.

There is a scale of necessity when it comes down to things like this, it doesn't make one person more important than the other, but one person being unable to work can lead to many more suffering, and this is why critical workers were prioritised during the last fuel shortage.

I think key workers and people undergoing medical treatment as outpatients all need to be prioritised.

However, as we proved with face masks, people in this country don't like being told what to do, even if it's sensible and for the greater good, so good luck with that.

It'll just be a big fight with knives and survival of the fittest.

The company I work for trades internationally, we receive and ship many packages every week.
Yesterday, a driver from DHL said that he had enough fuel in the van to last until Wednesday night. If he can't fill up until then, he can't deliver on Thursday. His colleagues are in a similar position, and I reckon it's not just DHL.
If he can't deliver, he can't collect, either and we will get problems with our customers for late deliveries. There is usually some contingency built in by us, but who knows how long this crisis will go on for.

If doctors/nurses/HCPs can’t get into work this would equate to longer waiting times, things being missed & possibly deaths. So of course they should be given priority for fuel. But equally should be using public transport if available, but then again shift work & times starting/finishing can make public transport unusable.

If me or my DCs needed to attend a&e in the event of an emergency I’d want doctors/nurses, if my house caught on fire I’d want fireman, if someone attacked me I’d want the police!

I’m in a HCP role (currently on mat leave) so haven’t filled my car up- I’ve got 50 miles that I’m making last! I’ve never used the key worker status & wouldnt, but what would happen if I was at work (40 mile round trip!) & had no fuel? (Start at 7.30am, first bus leaves my area at 7.36am 🥺)

I'm classes as key worker find it ridiculous . I do a job I choses to do and get paid for .

The worse thing is the people that barely make the list of key worker are the one who shout loudest about .

@Crinkle77

BUT why do key workers expect to be prioritised for petrol now, particularly when many of the ones posting work in our local hospital which is a 20 minute walk away??

What if someone is working a night shift? I think lots of women would be worried about having to walk 20 minutes in the dark.

But only "key worker" women should be protected from walking in the dark?

It's the scarmongering that is causing the panic buying which is causing the queues etc. That's not just the media.

On the BBC this morning, there was David Wrigley, deputy chair of the BMA whingeing about the Govt, saying medical staff couldn't get to see patients, taxis couldn't take patients to/from hospitals, etc. Scaremongering and political posturing at it's best (Well what do you expect from the Doctor's union!).

Less than a mile away from where it was filmed, the village petrol station had both unleaded and diesel, no queues this morning. Yet, there he was scaremongering, political point scoring, etc. They'd not just had a delivery either. Yesterday, they had fuel and no queues. Over the weekend, they had plenty of fuel and just maybe a short queue of 3/4 cars.

Yet, according to Wrigley, he was intimating that his staff couldn't get fuel to see patients, taxis couldn't get fuel to transport patients.

What a load of bullshit. People like him need taking to task for their ill-founded comments.

He did the same last year with the alleged shortage of PPE. He was scaremongering how bad it was, and when asked directly by the presenter whether any areas, trusts, hospitals, GP surgeries etc had actually run out of PPE, he was forced to admit they hadn't.

He really should stick to his day job as a GP. Apparently there's a shortage of GPs - we certainly have difficulty seeing a real GP at his practice. How about he spent less time political posturing and more time actually doing his job of seeing patients!

So by your reckoning a doctor who saves lives should be fine with the fact people who work in an office can go to work but he/she can't?
Thing is I'm a key worker too but I still know who I'd prefer to get the petrol.

YANBU. I’m a key worker - and I think that’s the only time I’ve said it 😄 I’m a teacher, and I remember during the second lockdown the the list of key worker jobs - so people who had children that were entitlement to be in school - became ridiculously long… I think we should call it ‘essential workers’ because key worker became completely meaningless during that phase.

During WW2 it was rationed according to distance traveled to work.
Hearses, police and fire, doctors and nurses were first. School buses were second. Farmers were third. After that, you were issued coupons that depended on how far you traveled to work. Shopping and visits and leisure trips were not provided for with coupons.
My mother and aunt were school teachers, so they were allowed to ride the school bus to and from their school every day. They saved their coupons and put them in the church collection plate so that the pastor could visit the sick and provide transport to those needing it.

@Angrymum22 Wishing you all the very best for your surgery

There is a scale of necessity when it comes down to things like this, it doesn't make one person more important than the other, but one person being unable to work can lead to many more suffering, and this is why critical workers were prioritised during the last fuel shortage

Who gets to decide and how? Does a GP working from home in a city really need fuel as much as their counterpart in a rural area doing visits?

Unless you can genuinely classify critical on site/travel as part of job workers easily then the system will be abused. That doesn't matter if you have a small number of critical workers but when you classify millions of people as key workers its not surprising that everyone knows examples of abusing the system.

@Rosebel Most doctors really don't wan't fuel to be prioritised to key workers as they understand it's essential for any one who needs it.

None of the doctors we know are going to line up to buy fuel - DP and I both have used a combination of cycling / running / public transport - his colleagues have done the same with some car pooling. We have a community team / home visit car where I am working and that is not being prioritised for fuel even though it keeps people out of hospital and drives the team around for sectioning assessments. Most of those teams have managed to find alternative ways to reduce the fuel consumption already (pre-this whole shit storm of selfishness).

Personally I'm done with being a key/essential worker. All we've had is grief since March 2020 and we are exhausted and fed up. If I can't get fuel to get to work then brilliant but I wouldn't put it past them to prioritise staff just so we turn up and have no excuses 😂 (I work in retail and we have a PFS)

All we've had is grief since March 2020

Really? Did you miss the very public out pouring of thanks for all the key workers that happened, did you miss all the donations / freebies, discounts, tickets to events, priority areas to watch events?

@Savoury

It's an interesting point. I've read posts from doctors and other key workers on my street whatsapp plead for fuel but there's a bus from the end of our road to the hospital they work in - literally door to door. Meanwhile my kids' bus has taken an hour to go 3km because of queues and there is still a long way to go. I hope this is a wake-up call for our government on many levels - they're nowhere near being ready for carbon neutral and we need immigration to grow.

Do these buses to hospital run 24 hours a day every 15 min?

@Mummyoflittledragon most people who work in hospitals work 9 - 5 roles or 7 - 7 roles; they aren't all on shift patterns at all.

It shouldn't be about your exact job it should be about showing a need for travel for work. Employers should be able to issue passes rather than just showing an NHS badge.

I am happy to accept that an ICU nurse is more 'critical' than I am but if she works in a hospital then she just has to get there and stay there unlike community midwives, district nurses, community mental health workers, home carers etc who cannot do their jobs without travel and if these services fail it will lead to bed pressure in acute hospitals which we can ill afford with Covid and the backlog already piling on pressure.

With the NHS shopping hours during Covid I sometimes used those and was really glad as I could not shop at normal times or have time to queue because of long shifts and I was desperately worried at one point early on that my family would not have food (kids too young to be left so DH could not shop whilst I'm at work). On my days off though I waited in line with everyone else rather than flash my badge because that is fair behaviour.
I did not use up key worker school places although I would have been entitled to because DH was wfh so our need was not as great as others.

If people would behave fairly and not misuse the 'keyworker status' then it would not have become such a dirty word.

@vivainsomnia

This thread is hilarious when not far from it you have numerous thread about the nhs falling apart, bit fit for purpose, long waiting lists, not being to access treatment, how outrageous it all is...

The NHS is failing simply because of the catastrophic lack of staff. It's not just one doctor, or even nurse, it's the whole chain of people required to treat one person.

The NHS is desperately trying to hang in and for that needs ALL the staff available to be there.

It's not about paying ones mortgage, it's about saving lives. Utterly despairing that this thread would be started by someone who works for the NHS themselves!

Try a catastrophic lack of the right staff. I’m positive we all know of bureaucratic chaff that could be cut and many staff who could work from home if required and not just within the NHS after all this thread wasn’t just about NHS staff but people terming themselves as key workers

I work with adults with LD and the home is in rural Norfolk in the middle of now where. We all drive to get to work
If we do not have fuel to get there what happens to our service users?

Therefore it is KEY (pardon the pun) for us to obtain fuel.

@user1497207191 he’s speaking on behalf of all doctors, not just himself. The fact that a petrol station local to him has fuel is irrelevant. There are plenty of people who rely on GPs visiting them at home. The alternative is an ambulance. You may have noticed we are also very short of these. If GPs can’t do home visits then there will be even more strain on the ambulance service and that affects ALL of us. He’s absolutely right to speak up.

Admin staff/outpatients/other services might work 9-5 or 7-7 OP, but the majority of doctors/nurses do shift work especially in emergency care! These people absolutely need to have priority getting fuel if they have no other means to travel to work!

I’ve worked 20 years in the nhs & work 7.30am-20.30pm or night 20.00-08.00 & have a great 40 mile round trip, no public transport option for me!

I fully understand that others could use public transport but equally there will be lots in my position that can’t!

@Lalliella how do you decide who is a key worker? NHS clinical is fair enough but my brother works for BT, if him and his colleagues don’t get to work then people working from home won’t happen as the are needed to keep communication systems online. My husband worked for a major supermarket during the pandemic arranging deliveries for elderly, disabled and vulnerable customers…essential I’d say. Essential workers might not fit a role you think they do. We can’t jump queues!

@seb342

Personally I'm done with being a key/essential worker. All we've had is grief since March 2020 and we are exhausted and fed up. If I can't get fuel to get to work then brilliant but I wouldn't put it past them to prioritise staff just so we turn up and have no excuses 😂 (I work in retail and we have a PFS)

Me too. Also work in retail and I don't think we did anything special. I just did my job because realistically I had no choice. The thanks we got from management and customers was nice but unnecessary. Morrisons staff wearing "i'm akeyworker" t shirts was cringeworthy.

We run a caravan storage facility and I was asked if they could have a discount because they have a blue light card. Erm no, you can pay the usual fee just like everybody else!