Thread for NHS staff

[LucheroTena]

How prepared do you think your place of work is? I work clinically in large teaching hospital and not at all confident we’re ready. Outside of wards there is very little planning and yet we have massive outpatient services. Elective stuff is being limited now but nowhere near enough capacity will be created. Millions in deficit so we’re operating on skeleton workforce and even when we can recruit no one wants to work here. Dozens of calls to our small team each day from worried patients, it’s taking up so much time to answer them all on top of already manic workload. Loads of staff with symptoms that are concerning but we’re not swabbing them and 111 uninterested unless they’ve travelled. Admin staff gleeful that they might soon be ‘working’ from home when truth is it’s difficult to get them to do much work on site let alone unsupervised. It doesn’t feel as though there is much consideration for clinical staff and now we’ll no doubt also be burdened with doing the jobs of admin. Never been as close to saying stuff it and quitting.

We have a robust plan.
We are stockpiling consumables.
We have identified essential life saving equipment plus additional availability throughout our trust so we have a substantial pool.
We are communicating closely with other departments who will overlap with us. We are communicating with other hcp about the lesser thought of stuff...how will we move corona patients from department to department with a corridor full of visitors/patients/staff?
We have a consultant lead who is sifting and communicating in a concise and easily understandable way every thing that comes through from PHE etc etc to our staff every day via our own fb page. This is in addition to her very heavy clinical workload.
We have ppe, we have a dedicated nurse fit testing every member of staff, taking responsibility for sourcing and storing enough ppe to keep us supplied and safe.
We are performing a “dry run” next week to check that we are doing it all and training correctly and not missing a vital element.
We have identified bed areas, wholly inadequate and not in any way resembling government directive because guess what...government won’t provide money to make our old crumbling ward fit for purpose...we will use what we have in the most efficient manner that we can.
We are forward planning, remaining calm, remaining sensible. Staff are frightened but are willing to step up.
They always do.
We still have to carry on with our work as usual. We are completely overwhelmed, I still went home with a bruise from being punched in the chest, I still went home having not had a drink or a wee for 12 hours. And I’m still getting up, taking my child to school then going back for more today.

I’m going to go and work in a lovely garden centre when this is over. I bloody love plants and flowers. They won’t stress me.

I'm frontline NHS but not likely to have to care for any confirmed cases, would be at risk of coming in to contact with people prior to diagnosis though, in a community setting. As PP have said, no advice yet for us. An email came out yesterday saying that all staff are to come in to work in their own clothes and then change in to uniform - my team work in our own clothes and start/finish our day at home. I emailed back asking whether there was any guidance for us and got a reply back basically saying 'good point!' and a suggestion that we may be advised to wear aprons when going in to people's houses - not sure how that will help?!

The Trust in general seem to be putting plans in place though, we have set up an isolation room in our ward and are starting to be fitted for masks and trained in PPE. Doesn't help that 3 boxes of masks apparently went missing soon after arrival though 🤨

I'm a senior sister in a big ED, I thought we were prepared, lots of meetings and most of us now fit tested for the masks etc
However! We had our first positive (quite poorly too) a couple of days ago and the lead consultant needed to be shown how to put the Hazmat suit on....
Doesn't fill me with much confidence. The staff are very reluctant to treat any suspected patients.
Cant blame them but this is our job, they would treat a normal Flu so...

I’m an NHS worker at a very large teaching hospital. We have very busy coronapods and a desperate shortage of masks and hoods.

I’ve actually been off sick this week due to non-COVID related illness but I’m anticipating going back next week to having to work pretty much 24/7. DH is self employed, we need to continue childcare and I have absolutely no idea how we’re going to cope.

@DebbieFiderer We had a box of hand gel mysteriously vanish in one morning...now they are out of stock. We've been asked to give remaining hand gel to the swabbing teams. Can't say it looks good going into patients with end stage COPD and no hand gel at a time like this

GP here. No proper masks lots of advice daily. We are thinking of locking our doors and making every contact over the phone and doing more phone consultations for medication reviews and results. Maybe bringing ill patients in at different times to well patients. I'm on annual leave this week at home so only seeing my partner... and a friend this morning... Partner's parents in 90s good health but we may need to curtail our weekly visits to them.

ICU here.
We are being bombarded by constant email updates about changing plans, so much so that staff are starting to ignore them as the amount is ridiculous and you dont have time to read them on a busy shift..
We still have not been fit tested or PPE trained. Training is only now being organised and we have to come in in our own time on off days to do it.
We have hand gel but no equipment as yet.
Our unit is almost constantly full and has been all over winter I,m wondering where they will put any increase in patients requiring ICU.
Were will all the ventilators and advanced respiratory equipment that we will need is going to come from.

I cant believe events like the Cheltenham grand national and aintree races are going ahead. Its crazy, we dont have the capacity to cope with a massive peak of ICU patients.

We will know in approx 2 weeks

@Musicaltheatremum we've seen that a lot locally, heard complaints at the school gate etc, but seems very sensible to me.

I'm a non front line NHS worker. Accountant actually, we are prepared to be redeployed as and when needed as has happened during previous less serious outbreaks. Year end accounting timetable will most likely be relaxed to free us up for more urgent tasks. Obviously there will be a limit to what we can do without proper training but we can soon pick up organisational roles nearer the front line leaving more qualified staff to do what they are trained to do.

I have no doubt that it will be tricky and some people will feel let down but I assure you we will all do our best. My kids are old enough to be left home alone if schools shut and my DH works from home a lot anyway. I am not alone in this situation. I know the nhs has its limitations but it is comprised mainly of a very dedicated workforce who do care about people.

I work for a charity that supports vulnerable people, including residential care homes. I'm not front line, but being trained so that I can support in the homes if necessary (alongside properly qualified staff)

I was thinking yesterday about how all of us can support front line staff and show our appreciation. Imagine any biscuits or treats we send in would be quarantined? Is a thank you card to GPs, wards etc a bit pathetic?

I guess the best way to help is to try to keep ourselves and those around us healthy to minimise calls to 111, visits to GP, needs for hospital stays etc. But surely I can help more than by just washing my hands regularly?

The Italian government is paying an extra 1000€ to their health care staff this month.

I would say my department is completely unprepared!

DH is a cardiologist at a large regional centre and today his day comprises of just CV planning and training
They have already had one case and are bracing themselves

Midwife here. In a large hospital with lots of confirmed cases they have triggered major incident framework. This means little for maternity within the hospital as most of our contacts are essential and most electives are actually not really elective, they are electives that need to happen.

We have not started to restrict visitors which I think we should have done.

We are getting mask tested, I have been signed off already. We also have PPE grab bags by doors incase of an admission.

Told to restrict meetings but apart from handover this doesn't make any difference to the frontline staff.

Some instructions on travel and what to do with symptoms!

Lots of our hand sanitiser is being stolen....

I work in a big hospital on AAU/AMU, we are getting emails and information which is constantly changing, especially in regards to what PPE to wear for suspected cases and confirmed cases. For the past 2 day we’ve had no hand wash spare in stock other then what was at the sink I find this quite scary and no hand gel at all, there is a supply issue and they are trying to sort it ASAP, but it does not fill me with confidence.

We have been testing anyone with respiratory symptoms, some staff HCA’s, porters and caterers are refusing to go near patients who have been tested, despite having the training for PPE, which annoys me as when someone has flu some of these staff can be quite nonchalant about it!

Staffing is a major concern but it always is and I think it’s probably the same in most NHS jobs, I think we can all agree staff can’t be produced from thin air, but then those above us need to be realistic in their expectations of what is and isn’t doable given the staffing ratio and pressures were all under. I’m concerned about what to do if I pick it up, calling in sick will leave the unit even shorter but I could not live with myself if I passed it on to an elderly patient or patient with lots of co-morbidities.

As a team if we work together I’m sure we can do it.

I’m not panicking and have told my family not to panic but to be aware it is now reality that COVID19 is here.

I’m a staff nurse in ICU. We were all fit tested for masks in September as we are every year. Two weeks ago we were all trained in advanced PPE.

We have had extra training run by our consultants in caring for Coronavirus patients. We are regularly updated on plans.

I feel apprehensive, but lucky to work with a team that is as ready as we can be.

What will we (NHS staff do) if the schools close? Yes, I know school isn't childcare .... but if school is closed I can't work

I am finding it highly fascinating though from a nurse perspective, to see how it will play out (hoping to god obviously it will be contained) . I started nurse training straight out of school so 25 years in the NHS with 21 in my NHS trust. I know the managers well and I have never witnessed the undercurrent of panic like this, we have an ongoing crisis over staffing levels all of the time but I think school closures will push us to the brink. We are a team of 10 nurse and 7 have school aged children and one nurse is immunosuppressed, not everybody has access to other child care options. It will be a disaster when schools close.

Why we aren't cancelling all non essential visits now is beyond me (equipment checks, continence reviews, frailty reviews, support visits) I think it is highly likely my patients will soon start asking me not to visit them as most of them are not leaving the house so visitors pose the biggest risk.

Tinned I was on a conference call yesterday with our managers (second largest community trust in the country). Staff were asking about this and managers just weren't able to give a response. Earlier on this week they rang around teams to find out how many nurses have school aged dc. Many of us work in the community because it fits school so there is a massive proportion of us with dc at school. I dread to think what is going to happen.

I work in a admin role in a gp surgery, we are pretty much business as usual, I come into contact with so many patients a day and can't help feeling pretty vulnerable!

I work in a teaching hospital.
We have a plan but nobody really understands it. Nursing staff on our ward have been fitted for masks but the doctors haven't. We don't have any long sleeved gowns. We don't have surgical masks, only the fitted ones and there are only 3 boxes if them. I haven't seen any eye protection so I'm assuming we don't have any.
Oh and somebody has stolen 50 small bottles of hand sanitizer so we only have 10 large bottles for a unit with 40 beds.

I'm an ED nurse - our site is meant to be a 'cold' site, meaning covid-19 patients should not be advised to come to us, but obv this doesn't stop infected patients walking in.
I'd say we are pretty well prepared in terms of PPE but we do not have adequate isolation facilities and guidance from above is v slow to respond to changing circumstances.
I have to say, as a PP said, there does seem to be an undercurrent of anxiety/panic that i havent witnessed before. Staff are being redeployed - we are all being told we may have to go and work on different sites as needed.
The whole situation with childcare is a nightmare - current arrangements rely on 1) school and 2) me working 15 mins from school so I can drop at breakfast club and pick up from after school club. If schools close, or if I'm working different hours 45 mins away I'm not sure how we will cope. DH can work from home but is expected to work, not doing childcare indefinitely. Manager has suggested we all mind each others kids on days we aren't working

Some staff in my Trust have been mask tested... but have been told to share masks as not enough to go round!!

Fairgame a staff member stole all of ours too (well kindly left 2 bottles). loads that morning but gone by lunch, only us nurses have keys to the cupboard. That nurse should be ashamed of themselves!!

Frontline community clinical lead here - I'm worried. We've had very little direction, masks due next week but no date for fitting. We've run out of hand sanitizer and we haven't got a date for more delivery.

We have a large cohort of very elderly patients and those with co-morbidities which require multiple visits daily from our staff and domiciliary care staff at home and we were barely managing as it was. High levels of staff sickness, unrelated to covid.

Our patients are terrified.

I do have school age children but my husband can care for them. I imagine it's going to be relentless and physically and emotionally exhausting. I'm worried about my team who were struggling with the demands on them before this started.