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.

Had no real guidance in our trust. We’ve only been told that all face to face training has been cancelled and that front line workers in acute departments (and also physio, for some reason?) are being fitted for PPE.

I work in a community team and we’ve not been told to stop visiting our patients.

Physios will be doing chest physio on the pneumonia cases I expect

I’m ex-NHS, I used to work in pathology. I now work for a pharmaceutical company. I don’t know if pathology depts are being affected/going to be affected, but if they are, Trusts could do far worse than asking local pharmaceutical manufacturing companies for help/volunteers. We have chemists and microbiologists, equipment managers, and hundreds of people (both in the labs and manufacturing) already fit-tested. What they’re analysing might be different, but the principles are the same. And then there’s the fit-tested manufacturing staff if you need help in the wards. Just something for NHS people to think about.

Best of luck to everybody, I know how hard you all work.

I too have heard that 3rd year student nurses with less than 6 months to qualification may be needed to work without completing their training if the shtf. I imagine in this scenario it would be restricted/supervised practice but obviously issues around accountability/competency/safety.

@Rosehip10 totally agree with you. Shorty behaviour to be slagging off admin staff. If you're really convinced they're laze, @IheartNiles, you should be asking their line manager to deal with it, rather than tarring everyone with the same brush.

*shitty, not shorty

I'll read the thread in a minute, to understand what your situations are. However thank you. Thank you for what you always do, and for whatever you may find yourselves having to do next.

Please tell your communities if you need support- I would want to be a good neighbour to you, if I could.

I too have heard that 3rd year student nurses with less than 6 months to qualification may be needed to work without completing their training if the shtf. I imagine in this scenario it would be restricted/supervised practice but obviously issues around accountability/competency/safety

I wonder if it would be more like they would lose their supernumery status and be counted as actual staff rather than actually working as a nurse. More like enhanced health care assistants.

A and E nurse here, feel like I can’t keep up with the changing daily plans. The department j worked in last week now is completely unfamiliar with areas being closed off and particular rules for different areas which seem to change by the day.

Email from manager saying “get plans in place for childcare in anticipation of schools closing as you WILL be expected to work your rota-d hours “. I understand we need the staff in, but can’t magic up child care. All I have within 200 miles is an immunocompromised 86 year old. Staff already kindly offering to care for each other’s children so we can all work, but my son is autistic and would never cope with being left with strangers.

Thank you to all the HCPs looking after sick people
@Asterisktheknackered I have pm you xx

I wonder if it would be more like they would lose their supernumery status and be counted as actual staff rather than actually working as a nurse. More like enhanced health care assistants

Hopefully it would be something along those lines - a lot of pressure on them if expected to come out as a band 5 in those circumstances.

Just to show how dis-coordinated the NHS response is to this:
This afternoon my (mental health) trust sent out a mass email asking if any of our staff would volunteer to be seconded to the community healthcare trust which has just set up a new community swab service for coronavirus, to do drive-by and in-home testing for the virus to meet an expected surge in demand. Lord knows how much money has been spent on this already. A couple of hours later the government announce there will no longer be any community testing for coronavirus

As of this afternoon my Trust has backtracked on those with underlying conditions being exempt from nursing suspected cases.
I have an underlying condition and I'm pretty pissed off now that I will expected to look after suspected and confirmed cases when we don't even have the correct ppe.

I have an underlying condition and I'm pretty pissed off now that I will expected to look after suspected and confirmed cases when we don't even have the correct ppe.

It really does feel like we are just cannon fodder sometimes doesnt it.

There are no official plans regarding medical students at the moment. That letter is about trainees. Trainees are qualified doctors. Its saying that people are going to be moved around, surgical trainees (qualified doctors in surgical training programs), GP trainees (who are an extra person in a GP practice but are qualified doctors with experience of hospital wards) and other specialities are going to be moved around to go where demand is.
Study leave and training days have been cancelled.

If final year medical students are brought in and no official as of yet, say they will be, most of them have already or are about to sit final exams. They would be junior doctors in less than 5 months anyway.

negomi90 yes you are quite correct, I misread the document

I’m a registered nurse but work independently in the private sector. I would return to the NHS to support staffing numbers temporarily, but I can’t find any info on whether it’s needed or possible. Anyone know?

@Atla

100% on dreading the deluge of sick patients - feels like standing on a beach watching the approaching tsunami, powerless to stop it or, indeed, escape!

This is EXACTLY how I feel today. As pp have said, there is a definite undercurrent of fear and panic across the NHS now. We are people who witness the most horrific things day to day and now we are scared.

We will however, do our utmost to help everyone that needs healthcare throughout this. This is what we do best.

@Dontrainonmyparade- I'm the exact same. No info for those us with current registration, and in my case specialist virology experience, who would and could help out!

I heard about 3rd year student nurses too, not sure how true it is or at what point, but it did say that they would (rightly) receive a proper wage for doing so. It is frustrating that the childcare issue is not really being addressed, although in reality I'm not sure what environment would be suitable seen as though the likliehood is they are at more risk than children without parents on the front line as it were. I am worried about non Corona patients who require ongoing or indeed emergency care, and where the lines will be drawn and how risky stepping into hospital is for them.

Community MH nurse here, we’re making plans to cancel all non-essential appointments but haven’t been officially advised to do anything yet. Unfortunately some of our patients are very high risk due to physical health factors, but also require intensive support from us so I’m not sure how we’ll balance risks.

Our order of hand sanitizer that was made back in December still hasn’t arrived so won’t be holding my breath for any coming soon. My team is based in a health centre with GP, phlebotomy etc so I’m sure we’ll get a case in the building soon. Haven’t seen any PPE & haven’t been given advice about what to do if we come into contact with an infectious patient.

Fully expecting to be pulled back onto the MH wards when this really hits & staffing levels are affected.

Hi valley!! I have replied, hope you get it I'm not the best at the technicals is you hospital doing anything yet?? We are just telling patients not to come if ill. But business as usual.

Nurse in a major NHS trust - but at the “poor relation” hospital on the edge of the city. The “flagship” hospital of the trust no doubt is prepared. We are not.

We’ve cancelled all elective surgery and non urgent outpatients.part of Pacu is changing to an additional , as is one of the wards, we have a “dirty” area in ED and the emergency admissions ward. No hoods and very few masks and fuckers keep nicking the handgel. Today has been eerily quiet. People kept telling me how much space there was in the car park. I’m really worried about staff absences. I read that 50% of those who will get it will get it 3-4 weeks either side if the peak, which is estimated to be 10-14 weeks.

Our 3rd years are losing their supernumerary status. Nobody is going into the community and physios and OTs are being deployed on wards. I guess along with anyone else who usually works in a clinic/daycare environment.

Additional HDU that should say