No wonder the NHS is struggling - can't quite believe this!

[outpatient]

Today I went to the hospital. On the from door entrance there was a member of staff whose job it was to say "do you have an appointment, so you have any covid symptoms"

That's it. She's was being paid to do that. She was there all morning, just to say that. This is in addition to the receptionist that checks you in when you actually arrive,

Is this not bonkers? NHS is screwed if someone thinks this is entirely reasonable to pay someone to do this.

It is beyond saving, and likely not running out of money just making really shit decisions WITH the money

No. OP is correct with what she saw however what the public are not aware of we have ALWAYS had our own guidelines for covid. So mask wearing is still compulsory for the staff, it's advisable for the patients but they do not have to.

Regarding the member of staff on the door. It's because people maybe covid POS. The door roles are currently being phased out though..

HuntingHappiness, a lot of that paracetamol is being given intravenously in theatre, or post operatively as supplementary analgesia, to patients who can’t just climb out of bed and head down to the local chemist!
In general practice, unless the patient is exempt from prescription charges, they are actually paying more for the paracetamol than it’s worth. So a net profit to the NHS.
And for those on benefits who qualify for free prescriptions, they might struggle to afford any at all if they had to buy their own.

I know the volunteer types pps mention and they generally direct you to the right place if you are looking lost.

At A&E in my local hospital they have a person on the door asking if you have an appointment and do you have covid. When I turned up with dc, they called over a nurse (assume it was a nurse) to look in my dc’s throat as my dc did have covid and was having trouble breathing. We were directed to a side room to isolate while waiting for triage.

Anyway I would have thought they were doing an essential role.

I’m a nurse and my DP works in NHS Finance. While this particular rant is probably a volunteer so pointless. Our anecdotal evidence is that yes, many of my colleagues are off on long term sick and yes, the NHS wastes so much money on anything and everything. It’s a shambles. And most of it comes down to human laziness and greed.

The Tories don’t want it to be viable tbh. Rich people want to pay for their healthcare and see the poor people die. Survival of the fittest innit?!

No this isn't true at all. The only volunteer I've seen in the Trust was years ago and it was a lady with the sweet trolley and newspapers.

It's a clinic role because of the screening and the nature of the questions the admin staff didn't do it and in the height of covid the clinical staff did or may be still doing it.

Totally.

I have a specialist caseload that covers the entire east of England. Please, someone make me redundant or pay me off.

The person on the door will be a volunteer, the receptionist will be on minimum wage and doing other admin jobs whilst listening to patients moaning about the waste of money they are.

Yes a £608,000,000 organisation is crumbling because of someone on a door asking about infectious diseases. With business acumen like that, you should go on The Apprentice.

Volunteers at my hospital, not paid staff

How can you be providing such a fantastically valuable service whilst meeting the of the above comment about people being sat on the arses at home off sick ?

Because I'd finished work for the day, having worked all weekend and since 7 am this morning.

When the Tories finally sell off the nhs I'm looking forward to actually being paid what I'm worth without having to deal with people like you. 😁

It will be a volunteer. The WRVS provide lots of volunteers. They also staff our hospital reception which helps people who do not know where to go, and hand out sandwiches and hot drinks to patients in the discharge lounge.
Generally in hospitals, if you think - why are they paying someone to do that - it is a volunteer.

And if the NHS is totally sold off, no one will volunteer for a private firm. So all these volunteers will vanish.

A volunteer greeter and Covid checker is the cause of the downfall of the NHS.???

MaybeIf people weren’t so silly as to come into a hospital with covid, such volunteers wouldn’t be needed.

But surely no one who pays for their prescriptions would ask for a prescription for paracetamol?

I've been to the GP before now and they have just told me to take paracetamol if I need it. I've never asked for a prescription for it, and if I was given one I wouldn't use it because obviously it would be far cheaper just to buy a pack.

Volunteers do sterling work in hospitals.

If it reduces the chance of some selfish people going into the hospital and making staff ill then I don't see the problem.

My eldest has a couple of dental and allergy appointments this winter and I'd like the staff to be able to work.

Bollocks

I have no issue prescribing Paracetamol for people who need to take it regularly. Means we can monitor consumption and it's immediately apparent they're taking it when new drugs are added. Also they don't have to worry about buying it every few days seeing as you can't buy large quantities. Aspirin 75mg can be bought over the counter too but guess what we prescribe it so we can be sure people who've had heart attacks are taking it.

Loads of geniuses wasted on MN who should be Health Secretary 🤔

Save your energy for the dodgy PPE contracts and failed covid app

This is a really really important point for people to remember when they cast their vote for a party that wants to privatise the NHS. It’s not just volunteers, there are hundreds of thousands of staff who do not want to work in the private sector - they can do that now, why don’t they?

www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-10900889/NHS-spent-nearly-100MILLION-prescribing-paracetamol-aspirin-ibuprofen-year.html
I disagree. Paracetamol, Ibuprofen and aspirin for analgesic reasons is a massive waste of NHS resources.

we have volunteer greeters, who will take you to your outpatient area.

I love how people who have never set foot in the NHS or worked in it think they are experts in this stuff.

It is 100% a volunteer role. The ongoing workforce crisis means ever single hospital relies on an unpaid volunteer network. There is no way a trust has no active volunteers. They usually have 100s.

Perhaps the case for your trust. But for my trust I've worked in for the last 10 years. It is certainly not a volunteer screening the patients on the door and I'm in outpatients too. I can't believe people are still not believing OP.

@Neanov Okay if we agree it is a worker, probably on minimum wage or just above, it really does not matter. They are there to stop covid spreading to vulnerable patients.

I feel so awful for anyone working for the NHS. They’re very aware about the state of the health service, are doing everything they possibly can to help people in need and now don’t even have to be in office to be given abuse from people who know better. It’s lovely when you now can get be exposed to rude people 24/7.
God help us all, since Covid hasn’t everyone turned on the charm. :/