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.

Yes we urgently need hand gel, only a small percentage from the supply chain is getting through, I will PM you

Can you send me a pm and I will pass it onto my managers and see what they say.

Just seen this on Facebook, the Queen Elizabeth in Birmingham. Not where I work but close by so wondering if they'll do that all over.

When I left work last night it was still one visitor per patient where I am but things are changing constantly so ....

My Trust have got restricted visting in place including Critical Care

Firstly thanks to all of you amazing people.

Now secondly the childcare issue. Surely the sensible thing to do would be close all schools to kids unless their parents work in essential services eg police/NHS/the forces. That way the vast majority of kids would remain home but those in important jobs can still work. Schools could use teachers on a rota basis. Perhaps excluding those in risk groups. Obviously it would be more of a glorified child minding service than providing any serious learning, but its a good idea even if I do say so myself.

@NotDisclosedToday there is a dr on Twitter @RoshanaMN who's is trying to put together details/people for a healthcare childcare co-operative

Just seen this on Facebook, the Queen Elizabeth in Birmingham. Not where I work but close by

No, it says qehkl, so that is the one in Kings Lynn

@NotDisclosedToday Over simplification. Many, many workers are "essential" beyond nhs/police - think food distribution and supply, utilities (gas/water/electric/comms), people who work with benefits (think of new claims due to hardship), transport workers (in larger places many NHS staff use train/bus to get to work).....

Can I join? It NHS but social worker with older people/disabilities. I think it is going to be all hands to the pump for us too.
You guys are doing a great job

I work in a dental hospital. We cancelled all patients Friday but are going ahead as normal tomorrow? Don't really understand how if we weren't equipped for it Friday don't see how we would be tomorrow

It’s the last thing I think about when I go to sleep, first thing when I wake up.
I am absolutely terrified of what is to come.

Just wanted to say thank you here we are worried about family working in the NHS.

I'm extremely concerned how we are going to manage as so many staff have been sent off to self isolate due to illness. This is going to be an endless round of short staffing that is really going to affect our clinics.
We were already at breaking point before all this started and in a short while it will be 10 times worse.
I'm not only concerned about my aptients but also myself as I'm an immunosupressed older member of staff but I can't just not go to work.

Would appreciate more updates from NHS staff as to how bad things are getting at the moment if they are able to update. I work in an NHS setting but not NHS and job could possibly be mainly done by phone. I also only let my Nurse registration lapse three months ago. I have read on the NMC website that they are identifying ex nurses they feel could be re-registered ( like a temporary register). If the situation becomes dire I would consider going back assuming my current employers would allow me too although obviously worried about risk to myself and dh.

I've just finished a 10 hour District nurse shift (not my usual day to day job but I do a shift a month to keep my skills up). Was gobsmacked to be given my work this morning to find around 30% of my list was non essential visits (bed rail reassessments, pressure area skin inspections, updating BMIs). I cannot fathom why we are putting these vulnerable people at risk by carrying out unnecessary visits.....we had to ring every patient prior to the visit to find out if they have a temp of 37.8 or above. Non had their own thermometers so that was a waste of time!!

We’ve been told in two weeks we will be in the same bed crisis as Italy but at the moment it’s still business as usual, feels like the calm before the storm

I work in a mainly outpatient setting, with a huge footfall.

Our patients are screened by reception before entering the waiting room. I genuinely feel for our receptionists dealing with this every day.

Am a HCA in a large hospital and fucking terrified to be honest.
Our ward is, thankfully, not taking patients with any respiratory symptoms (for now, anyway). But always that chance.
The PPE they have given us is not enough. Everybody agrees.
Management is changing advice constantly.
I am seriously considering handing my notice in tomorrow, I can not live with the anxiety for however many weeks. I'm verging on panic attacks daily. With is not normal and is impacting the care I can give to people.

Roomarmoset that is disgusting- what is you had staff with pre existing conditions? People should be able to volunteer to work on that ward.

I'm a nurse on HASU at a London hospital.
The situation is a joke. I've been on annual leave since the 12th. Got an email from my ward manager Friday 13th (which I didn't see until yesterday morning) saying we were all aware we had a patient test positive (I wasn't aware!) and that we may or may not be tested, we should all turn up for work and that if we had symptoms we would only get sick pay if we called 111, got swabbed by occ health and tested positive.
I've emailed and called to see if it was a patient I cared for but not had an answer.

At the moment I am either fit testing, or talking about fit testing, or talking to Procurement about supplies of PPE. It has been the same for several weeks now at my acute Trust.

we should all turn up for work and that if we had symptoms we would only get sick pay if we called 111, got swabbed by occ health and tested positive.
I've emailed and called to see if it was a patient I cared for but not had an answer.

Dont you just love when managers make up their own rules. I'd love to see how theyre going to enforce that one when its against the current government guidance regarding calling 111.

Dont you just love when managers make up their own rules. I'd love to see how theyre going to enforce that one when its against the current government guidance regarding calling 111.*

I know! I thought she was just illiterate going by previous emails. Now I know she's just stupid.
I despair. We work so hard and none of the nursing staff I work with would fake it but having no back up or leadership at ward level is going to have such a negative impact 🙁

I know! I thought she was just illiterate going by previous emails. Now I know she's just stupid.
I despair. We work so hard and none of the nursing staff I work with would fake it but having no back up or leadership at ward level is going to have such a negative impact 🙁*

I used to have a manager like this, she was an absolute arse to work with. I just used to print off the relevant policies and highlight them everytime she tried to fuck us over... even senior managers knew she was a liability but didnt act on it since she was retiring. Poor management really is the utter bane of the nhs.