To ask what NHS frontline staff think of Breathtaking?

[CloudyYellow]

I have watched all 3 episodes. I worked on the frontline during Covid. I found it very triggering and my fury is back.

Completely agree, still thankful for everyone out there in the NHS and all they did 💐

Well, you're nice.

Only managed around 10 minutes of it then had to stop. I've compartmentalised those years and I'm not ready to deal with those emotions quite yet.

Front line workers were allowed to skip queues as there were working vastly longer hours then usual and it made no sense to spend their limited spare time in queues when they could be working.

Our hospital gave free food, which was fairly disgusting to be honest, however all of us worked vastly more hours than usual most of it unpaid. I would have been happy just to be paid for the hours I worked rather than have a free £4 spag bol a few times.

To be honest it was partly attitudes like yours that made me leave the UK post pandemic and you've just reaffirmed my decision.

Yes, completely free. It’s just their catch up, but like the BBC they often put a whole series up at the start. I have it as an option I added to my Roku box.

Many thanks - we have sky and its on the stations as you guys mentioned

again, I am a bit surprised the gutter press/media has not picked up on this.
I guess they will and hoping heads will roll.

Started to watch this and had to stop. It seems very accurate. Guess I've still got some work to do on how those years affected my mental health.

I can say that I was far too depressed and anxious to enjoy any freebies that's for sure! And far too self conscious to head to the front of any queues. I would have much preferred getting paid appropriately for the insane amount of work I was needing to do above my contracted hours, to keep my patients safe.

I work in a primary care profession that provides 24/7 care, and couldn't even get a fit test never mind the appropriate PPE in the beginning.

Let's hope this programme is well timed and thought provoking enough to help people to vote sensibly in the GE.

I dont understand why the bitterness to people getting free food. People working without protection and putting their lives on the line for others, not having time for toilet break let alone food. No wonder this country is in the mess it is with that kind of attitude. I worked in Gp land, we saw patients less as spent so much time cleaning. Also shopped and befriended 3 elderly ladies. We did welfare checks at work by video or phone. Referred people to charities for support. We saw that the majority of the great British public were lovely and looking out for others. How things have changed.
I thought it very good but found myself seething at the bits with Hancock and Jonson. Both shits.
This country is f----d and so is NHS. 😢

There's no news for the press - it's not a revelation that the NHS is fucked and the government are crap. Everyone knows already.

I’m an intensive care nurse. I ummed and ahhed about watching because for a long time I could not tolerate anything Covid or hospital related on the TV. I did watch it, and thought it was very accurate and quite triggering. However, I’ve never really stopped living it due to the environment I work in. I think I’ve processed what happened much better now but it has also made me realise how much of that time I’ve blanked out.

That time was horrendous. Me and my colleagues have a shared trauma bond that people can’t really understand unless you lived it.

What disturbs me more now is all the conspiracy nutters that believe it was all a hoax, and all the mad anti vaxxers. I try to block them out like I did with the worst parts of Covid.

This is it. I want there to be the same uproar that there was in January after Mr Bates was broadcast but there won’t be (and that’s not taking anything away from the Post Office scandal, that uproar was very much needed and should have happened years ago)

But in this case I fear that the press will stay away as it’s not “new” news to most people.

Everyone knows the NHS is fucked and all decent people (a few exceptions from this thread and the other one too) know that this mess is not due to the people working tirelessly day in and day out. All we as a country can hope for is that people now understand why they are quitting and striking when they reach that ballot box in the (hopefully) near future

It was very true to life, the government failed the NHS and the frontline staff massively.
Whilst people were losing love ones who died alone in hospital the tories were partying and having affairs. Utter disgrace.

I believe that the doctor who wrote the book is a palliative care doctor and also Labour activist, so there is probably political motivation in writing it (although I do also think the Government handled it terribly).

@LoveItaly Given what her and her colleagues have been through it's highly unlikely the tories are gonna be her heroes .

it didn't trigger anything I just couldn't watch more than 10 minutes because it was like being back at work. I just can't watch hospital or medical dramas at home I need a break from it all.

Her comment was out of line. But then yours is as well TBH.
Only a minority of people were furloughed. For most working from home wasn’t the holiday some think it was. Of course we weren’t living the hell that is described in the documentary - not even comparable! - but we were expected to work as much as if we were in the office + look after small children + home educate older children. And then, even years later, still hear comments about how lovely it must have been.

Someone upthread mentioned ‘groups’ of people being angry with one another instead of angry with the ones in power. Spot on.

I don't know what peoples problem is with the free food. The only time I had to eat was going home in my car and no shops where I live out in the sticks open.
That free food was the only thing keeping me going.
When I got home all I wanted to do was have a shower and go to bed.

Perhaps she is a Labour activist because she is a palliative care doctor - having experienced the horror show of working in the NHS during 13 years of Tory rule.

When I look back at that time I don't remember it as being as bad as it actually was.
It all came flooding back in stark reality when I watched it.
I didn't realise how much of it I'd completely blocked out. It's made me feel really odd and like I can't trust my brain.
It's obviously the brains natural response to trauma which is well documented, it's just not something I've experienced myself before.

Quite probably the case. I do remember her being called out for misleading and inaccurate tweets many times during the pandemic though.

I'm sorry you felt my response to a disgusting poster was out of line. Covid was awful for everyone but it was far worse for those on the front line. I was lucky in that I had no children whilst working in ITU, I'm not sure what I would have done.

I would count yourself very lucky you were able to be at home with your family, even if your situation was hard. You were in a very privileged position. That isn't me saying your experience wasn't terrible btw but i can guarantee you NHS staff had it worse then juggling childcare and working at home.

Someone else did some digging and it turns out the poster was a stay at home parent, so didn't have to worry about working from home and looking after children either.

I think this show/thread has been triggering for lots of people. It has certainly brought back lots of things I had buried- both personally and professionally.

Oh definitely I was privileged, and if I didn’t realise how much I was, just reading this thread would be enough to.
It still is a sensitive topic as it was hard times, we cried most days from the stress, I yelled at my kids when they were noisy during meetings, this type of things, and still regret it to this day. So, triggering as well to think others think we were having the time of our lives.

Anyway, very interesting thread. And thank you for answering in such a polite way BTW, I know this is a sensitive topic.

This.

My husband WFH. Longer hours as they laid off a fellow manager and his workload doubled, as did his hours which ran 20hrs a day to allow for everyone else WFH in the US and Asia who seemed to think he was on call.

One especially delightful wfh afternoon involved him having to make someone in Italy redundant - they had just had twins, and both he and his wife had lost a parent due to covid. Whilst he was having this conversation, right outside his office door, our 15year old autistic (at that time trans identifying) DD was screaming hysterically and literally been talked off the attic window ledge by me and paramedics. Our son was sobbing quietly in the room below and I was going through the menopause so was absolutely out of my depth.

WFH was absolutely not the idyll that many seemed to think it was.

Working in a school was extremely worrying.
Especially because the children still attending were living with key workers.

I wanted to lockdown sooner than we did the first time...what were they waiting for ?

It was absolute hell, and like I said I don't know how I would have done it with childre so well done you for getting through it all! I can't imagine how hard it would have been to explain "the rules" to littlies whilst holding down a job (presumably with the threat of redundancies too

Please don't feel guilty or have regrets, you were doing the best you could do during horrible circumstances.

I ended up having a bit of a breakdown during my first pregnancy and left nursing (was pregnant Feb 2020). I'm fairly certain covid was the reason as I was pretty robust before but I have to say I'm relieved I am no longer working for the NHS.

The Tories have a lot to answer for.