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.

Yep, total cannon fodder.

I do wonder how many staff will either stay off sick or just quit.

How the hell are all these seemingly well footballers and famous people getting tested when we can’t test nhs staff? Going to be so many off with common colds which will just add to the staffing crisis.

Ex NHS here sending positive vibes. Could I just ask a question of those saying mental health is low risk? Are a lot of clients not also vulnerable due to poor physical health/reduced ability to self-care +/- substance misuse?

Given how stretched MH services are, its worrying.

Ex NHS here sending positive vibes. Could I just ask a question of those saying mental health is low risk? Are a lot of clients not also vulnerable due to poor physical health/reduced ability to self-care +/- substance misuse?

Oh absolutely. I guess the reasoning im saying lower risk is becasue we have long stay patients so we dont have just anyone coming in. However should any of our patients ts get it we're buggered becasue we could only realistically isolate one of them with our current facilities and whether they would react well to that isolation is another matter (could also argue it would put us in a sticky situation around the mental health act and excluding people). We have 4 with copd at the moment so they would be quite high risk.

So I guess it's a case of risk of transmission is quite low in comparison to say an a&e department however risk of complication should patients get infected would be quite high.

I might secluding people not excluding. Putting people in seclusion for their mental health is quite tightly controlled. Not sure how it would work if they needed it for quarantine purposes.

I am admin based but with a history of clinical so I've filled in my forms to say I'm happy to go back to clinical for whatever is needed. Not something I thought I'd ever do again. The advice is ever changing and confusing

@Al1Langdownthecleghole I’m very worried about my patients. I work in an eating disorder service, and some of my caseload are at BMIs~14/15 with chronic malnutrition & everything that goes with it. I honestly don’t know if they’ll all survive the next few months

Nurse here on the front line. Been FIT tested but that's it so far. Just awaiting any further instructions. They've set up some tents in the car park for testing and they've had a couple of cases confirmed I think.

Worried about staffing really. Don't feel too prepared at all. I'm on all weekend and we'll see how it goes

In the neighbouring acute trust my friend in the ED says they have only been allocated one fit mask. Not one per shift, one total. If more than one patient comes in with coronavirus symptoms what are they supposed to do? They are on the frontline working in the most risky conditions for transmission but aren't being given the equipment or support they need.

How the hell are all these seemingly well footballers and famous people getting tested when we can’t test nhs staff?

I don't know. Seems like a false economy not to test NHS staff. I've had a bad cold and a mild fever this week. If I tested positive for Coronavirus, then when I (hopefully) recover and go back to work I would be able to do so without worrying about contracting or passing on the disease as I should be immune. Instead I'll save to keep taking 7 days off every time I get a sniffle. Surely that's worse for the NHS in the long run.

Private sector here. Seems to be business as usual in the operating theatre. Lots of patients have cancelled themselves. It’s worrying as our consultants cross between here and their NHS bases..

GP married to a hospital doctor. We can’t figure out which one of us should stay at home with the kids if schools and nursery closes. Not being able to help out when things get really bad worries me a lot.

Have been issued with aprons, gloves, surgical masks and sanitiser for my car for home visits. Plenty of PPE in the hospital. We have cancelled all group education classes, all study days, all meetings etc. We have been told from Monday we will be doing the absolute minimum only in terms of home visits and clinics. Some of us will be called to work in the hospital to cover staff shortages. I am feeling extremely sad about it. I don't see how we will be able to provide high quality care under these conditions. I adore my job and feel very passionate about giving people all the care and support they require, I am so upset that I won't be able to. Also very concerned that it will remain this way after this crisis is over.......

Yes Karentookthekids I am worried about that too. Some things will be good- improved telephone/video calling type access to care could be beneficial to a lot of people but the worry is that if we somehow manage to keep people safe they will say we should be able to manage with less resources even after its all better.

I work in a large teaching hospital and today was very calm.
We have strong plans in place, empty beds and at the moment most staff are upbeat.

Our trust has a policy but it inevitably keeps changing. The workload is steadily increasing and unless we start to turn patient away who do not need to be there it's going to worsen. Everyone with a sniffle wants to be tested which is making a already difficult situation even worse.

The preparations seem to have really ramped up towards the end of this week where I work. We are still carrying on as normal with out patients etc at the mo, but as yet (as far as I am aware) we don’t have any confirmed cases in our immediate area, I’m sure this will change if cases are confirmed.

Plans for elective wards to be cleared and used as isolation wards if the need arises are being put in place and extra ventilators sourced. All clinical staff are being fit tested for masks and plans drawn up for cross hospital working, if and when staff shortages become an issue.

I’m sure there’s plenty more going on behind the scenes, I’m not party to much info. But it feels like we are becoming prepared now. Hopefully it won’t be that bad, but if it is, I’m glad that it will have been planned for.

We've got quite a good plan in place now.
Plenty of masks which are locked away from thieves.
Changed their minds again about staff with underlying conditions, we will be sent to non respiratory wards instead.
Feeling less chaotic today so we will see what the weekend brings 🤞

Pregnant staff and people with underlying conditions have to notify the condition to
HR / OH .

Everything seemed to come together today, we work on one issue and another five come up but feels as though we have good plans in place

But it does feel like this will be constantly changing

Signing in

Front line emergency care and feel like I'm in the dentist waiting room.. something horrible is coming and we just have to wait

Wow, my trust is finally kicking into action. No, still no alcohol gel or face masks, still no guidance on how to handle home visits to vulnerable elderly patients, but today we got emailed a set of posters to put in our waiting room telling patients to wash their hands. Yay!

Mental health, plans in place to ensure continuity and to relieve mental health pressure on medical wards/A&E. Plenty of patients with new persistent coughs came in as normal today.

Got fit tested for masks today.
Met the team of drs who will be working on our ward.
We all still need training on how to put on & take off the gowns & visors safely.
I still have lots of worries & questions.

Like; does alcohol gel actually kill the virus?
How long are the masks safe for?

I can see it's not going to be too difficult to transfer germs from the ppe onto our uniforms really... I can see that we're all going to go down with it.
Feeling despondent.

Advice has been consistently inconsistent and I have a feeling that a lot of it is determined by a lack of PPE. Which is a rubbish position to be in given the much lauded 'the NHS will get what it needs' promise.

I'm a mammographer. We're still screening 100's of healthy asymptomatic patients daily. Our faces get within cm's of the patient each time.

We also have mobile screening units which are still fully booked. Ours have no running water so we screen 50 patients a day without a hand wash. We have clinell hand wipes instead.

No idea when or if screening will be suspended, but when it is, surely the best place for us would be carrying out x-rays in a&e and main department as per our original training (if we haven't already been infected by screening that is!)