To think they won’t lock us in work

[SooticaTheWitchesCat]

I work in a care home, admin, not care staff, and my colleague thinks if one of the residents gets coronavirus then we will all be made to stay at work, that they would refuse to let us leave the building until it was all clear.

AIBU to think they cannot do that? They could ask us not to come it but not lock us in the building?

[HappyHammy]

It wouldnt.matter what job people did. It would be because of.contact .

[HappyHammy]

What do they do when residents have norovirus. Staff go home. Staff can catch it but they dont lock people in.

[Ferretyone]

@SooticaTheWitchesCat

It's an interesting scenario isn't it. The best plan surely is for everyone to go home and self isolate. That will teach care homes to pay sh*t and provide dreadful conditions.

Of course I have my tongue in cheek. .

Has your employer not told you as @NotStayingIn asks?

While I am not sure who "they" are what would they do if you all simply walked out? Shoot you?

[Mintychoc1]

No one would be locked in at work for 2 weeks!

[HollowTalk]

What would happen to people in care homes if the staff got it? Presumably if the clients got it, too, then they'd go to hospital but what if all of the staff self-isolated?

[SooticaTheWitchesCat]

@HappyHammy when they get norovirus they lock down the floor and as admin we don’t go to that area. People still go home.

I think she was saying that we wouldn’t be allowed to leave in case we passed it on outside. My argument was that what if it was a bank or a shop or an office block, they wouldn’t force people to stay, they would send them home and tell them not to come in.

[SooticaTheWitchesCat]

@Ferretyone, I have no idea how they would stop me leaving. I would literally just wall out!

[InsideIndie]

This is so silly.

If all the workers have to go home and quarantine themselves then the temps come it. If another patient ends comes down with it then all the temps have to self isolate.

Won’t there be issues with running out of temp workers? And won’t someone have to remain to do a handover to the temps?

Or am I missing something? The quarantine policies don’t seem very practical to me.

[gamerwidow]

InsideIndie you won't be able to quarantine forever, once the infection rate hits a certain level it's pointless. It's used at the start of outbreaks to slow down the spread of disease to give the hospitals and other agencies a chance to put plans in place.

If you can slow the spread of disease down it also means that you don't have loads of patients hitting ICU at the same time. It this stage while there are still a low number of cases quarantine is still viable but in future this will change.

[halfsoaked]

They locked the surgery doors with a waiting room full of people and kept them there for two hours

That's ridiculous - what are people supposed to do if they have to collect children from school?

This nonsense is why I will not be going to any doctors/hospital setting unless it's a case of life/death.

[Bargebill19]

And what if the care home doesn’t have an agency contract - never mind that they won’t know the residents and their care plans.
I don’t know that the contingency plan or the govt plans are for care homes. But I guess it will be “please do carry on as before, just don’t let any visitors non essential persons into the building and wear ppe”

[kateandme]

could a healthcare worker say what you do if your nursing someone with the virus.do you volunteer to catch it?because people cant stop being looked after can they?sorry if this is the stupid question on the planet!
and then if two people or more have it can you then just be around eachother touching what you all touch because then youve got it.or can it kept being passed back and forth so therefore you have to isolat?

[joffreyscoffees]

Aside from the question OP is actually asking.. how many posters don't understand what a care home is?!

Of course there's places for staff to sleep, eat, shower, toilet etc. Because all those facilities exist for residents of the care home. They might have to share with each other at points but if we were in this locked in scenario, that's what would have to happen.

[BlueEyedPersephone]

Stop asking on here and ask your line manager. There is a clear set of rules and guidelines via cqc, if you don't know ask. Spreading fear on here to care home relatives is NOT constructive.

[Bargebill19]

Err no there aren’t places to sleep for staff. Care homes don’t have empty rooms - they fill them as quick as possible with new residents. They need to turn a profit and generally (like hotels) need 95%+ occupancy to cover costs. Of course there is always the floor.....

[LilyMumsnet]

We're just moving this over to the right topic now.

[Bargebill19]

Cqc advice - same as nhs.

[BMW6]

It would be much better to detonate a nuclear warhead in your immediate vicinity.

Better safe than sorry..........

[InsideIndie]

Gamewidow thank you so much for explaining. I really think some more advice about this should be released.

I know my grandmother was in hospital as a child with whooping cough (she said herself that she wasn’t very ill herself and spent a lot of her time helping the nurses care for the babies and toddler while she was in hospital) and my parents were home quarantined with measles and whooping cough as well so I was thinking that this illness would be similar to those.

But the costs of living were not so high and there were more sahm back then and more people lived near extended family who could provide childcare to sick children, so this was not as hard for parents to quarantine their children.

I feel society has really changed since then and if parents have to stop work to quarantine themselves or their children then there also be an increase in homelessness. I know my own family cannot go without work for more than a month or else we can’t cover rent, and we are not even low income earners and we don’t get any benefits, we rely on every penny we earn to pay our bills so if we don’t work we will be in a hard situation.

At the moment we are taking as many shifts as we can and hoping we can build up more savings. Plus we will be increasing the limits on our credit cards, which is also not ideal as this means we will be in financial stress paying off these debts in years to come.

It is very helpful to know that this is not the case for this illness. And the quarantining situation is a temporary measure.

[manicinsomniac]

Idk, it's an interesting one. If we were serious about minimising spread then staff should surely either go home and self isolate or quarantine within the care home. As staff are needed in the home, you couldn't all self isolate.

I work in a boarding school. Logically, if we had a case in the boarding house, we should close it down with us all inside - including boarding staff to care for the children.

But I think parents would insist on taking their children home to spread it among 50 different families instead.

[Beebityboo]

I work in a care home and have also been told that this is what would happen (by a senior member of staff). I don't understand how they could enforce it and along with some other reasons, it's making me incredibly anxious to go in each shift.
She basically told us that they can effectively hold us hostage . I have three children (one who has had health issues for a while) and I can't imagine being forcibly kept from them for two weeks. I also have a health condition that would also put me at risk if I were to catch it.
I adore the residents and care about their well being a great deal but I need to be there for my children too. Quite scary to hear that other homes are being told this .

[BarbieAdventuring]

Would you be allowed to resign and leave?

If not, I think I would be resigning now and finding a new job.

[Beebityboo]

I'm thinking of leaving anyway for several reasons, but this is playing a part. I'll feel horribly guilty but I'm terrified for DD if she catches this (and myself tbh). I have a four week notice period but am on probation so hopefully they won't enforce this.
It's just a mess and I'm losing sleep. Italy has shown how quickly things can get out of control .

[Sunshine1239]

Surely they can’t

It’s in hospitals now and health scare staff can go home at the end of the shift!