@Elephantgrey thank you, at the end of the day it was my decision to stop all but one of the carers coming in, all of the others work with several other clients and they have other carers too. Once I'd factored in their own families it just felt like too many contacts and too big a risk to me. Being sent substitute carers is all well and good but some of them had zero experience working with ventilation & suction equipment and although I can talk people through what needs to be done and DH can show them, the first few times they need supervision and you never know if they are going to ever come again, it's exhausting.
DH is more than capable but I don't want him to be my carer, I want him to be my husband but for now this is the safest way to work and manage my respiratory failure.
I have become a total keyboard warrior on the local support group because last night just highlighted that their system is only capable of serving the very wealthiest members of our community.
I've arranged for volunteers to drop off shopping lists at the corner shop three times a week, two volunteers to go in after closing and make up the orders and sixth form students to do the deliveries.
Payment can be taken over the phone or done by bank transfer and can be combined with deliveries from the market stall holders fruit and veg and meat from the butcher, payments can be combined for all three.
It all means that people who need to budget can eat good wholesome food at a reasonable price.
The rest of the village can eat all the pickled caper berries, dehydrated fungi, wild boar salami and squid ink pasta it can get its hands on.
Someone else has set up a village patrol squad which will do a walk around the village passing each address where someone is self isolating three times a day.
Each vulnerable person has a red, amber and green piece of paper to display in their window. Green = everything is ok, Amber = I would like a phone call, Red = please knock on the door as I need immediate help.