Concerned over NHS gagging

[ACertainSupermarket]

Not in healthcare (obs) but how do you feel about the news that NHS staff are basically being gagged, banned from talking to the media and even having their social media accounts monitored?
There is more info available from health services in other countries than our own in UK news.

Healthcare professionals are being silenced and threatened with disciplinary action for speaking out about their work during the coronavirus outbreak, the Guardian can reveal.

www.theguardian.com/society/2020/apr/09/nhs-staff-forbidden-speaking-out-publicly-about-coronavirus

They have never been allowed to do this so why is it any different now?

I said this on another thread - dd could publish the emails she is getting as a book. The number of different messages about PPE alone are unbelievable (as are their contents).

I've given up telling people what she is telling me, as no-one believes it.

@menora we don’t usually expect or health care professionals to risk their own health on a constant basis. I think people are entitled to speak out when they feel they’re being expected to risk everything without even acknowledging what they’re being asked to do.

There's a thread started somewhere from a nurse who is very dissatisfied with her particular hospitals situation, governance and PPE etc. The majority replies she has had from other nursing staff were that they had a completely different experience, and in the main were coping well.

I have noticed over the last couple of days more reporting from inside hospitals trying to convey a more positive outlook. I think all we see from the media is the worst case, the dissatisfied, the badly run. When probably/possibly/hopefully the situation is never as bad as is made out by the media, because that's just not news, right?

You can’t wipe out the entire legislation for NHS workers in one swipe because there is a pandemic!

And yes, positivity is what most HCP are trying to achieve here. There will be major investigations into what has happened and a lot of higher level questions asked. The clinicians where I am are challenging back on everything they are unhappy about and it’s not being dropped and let go but trying to find a resolution

One nurse speaking out about her trust has a wider impact
Patient confidence starts to suffer badly
Patients who should be recovering are even more afraid. This is detrimental to their treatment
Relatives are even more scared
Increased staff anxiety. Sickness levels go up productivity goes down, patients suffer

DP works in NHS - non front line in an area of uk with low numbers of covid cases still. Non front line staff were being trained up for other duties as and when the the number of covid cases increase in the area.
During the initial talk and training several weeks ago, 2 co workers jumped on the "no PPE" bandwagon...

• they wanted to not return to work until full PPE provided .... you have not been deployed yet.
• they wanted "FULL" PPE including hazmat suits, sealed full face masks etc before competing training.... you have not been deployed yet.
• they wanted to contact the local papers and radio to let everyone know how bad the situation was .... you have not been deployed yet.
• they questioned every piece of advice on PPE on the training, as to why FULL PPE was not available .... you have not been deployed yet.
• they questioned every day looking for confirmed dates when FULL PPE would be guaranteed to be available .... you have not been deployed yet.

These are not the people you want to get your information from within NHS from... and their response would have been very different from others on the training.

As it turns out ... 2 weeks later everyone from the course is still awaiting deployment, because thankfully the number of covid cases are still very low here. Appropriate PPE is now available... and the much requested hazmat suits and respirator masks will not be required in any of the roles they would be capable of doing or in the hospital areas they would be going to :)

I think it’s a good thing. Nurses are massively underpaid, under appreciated and overworked.
But they’re not Gods or public health experts and I’d rather not be emotionally blackmailed by them.

I mean ... it’s scary enough. I think nurses are being used by the media.

I have a staff member making demands and threatening all kinds of things. She’s in an office! She is afraid. I understand but her perspective is irrational

You have to take everything with a pinch of salt. It’s so easy to get dragged in to people’s personal vendettas and gripes and it be over inflated. There are issues with PPE. No one is hiding that. But no one is ignoring it entirely to my knowledge and all trying to come together to get things to work

It's always been like that. We've never been allowed to speak to the media, and always had to be very careful on social media. Nothing new.

It has always been the case, whereever I have worked that one should not talk to the media. There is a PR role who talkes to the media.
If equipment is lacking in anyway (scrubs/ PPE) talk to the right people within the organisation to get them

It’s worse than talking to the media now though.
It’s a stream of friends of friends of friends on WhatsApp , pictures of nurses in their protective gear (or lack of it) pictures of faces red raw from masks , anecdotes of conditions within hospitals.
Everyone knows someone who knows someone else who works in a hospital, who knows some horrifying little fact to be shared online.
Yesterday I read some people on a forum begging to see photographs of inside intensive care wards ‘to scare people into staying home’ .
I find it disturbing.

Most healthcare workers don’t regularly wear full PPE, gloves and apron are generally universal but face masks/respirators, gowns and visors are used where aerosol generation is likely. Most HCP who use the more extensive PPE are concerned about HepC and HIV ie blood born viruses. It does protect you well from respiratory aerosol though ( coughs and sneezes)

It is possible that the increase in PPE use by staff who are not experienced in using it routinely has led to increase in staff infecting themselves while treating infected patients.
Removing it is complicated but when you do it every 15 mins during your working day it becomes routine and part of your normal life.
When I’m cooking I was my hands before and after touching each ingredient I must look like I have extreme OCD however when cleaning the bathroom I wouldn’t bother washing my hands until I finish however I always clean the toilet first then sink then bath, and finish off wiping all surfaces with disinfectant wipe after washing my hands.

When I’m training a new member of the team I get them to imagine every surface is covered with poo after we finish a procedure. Then we work through each surface. This includes face mask, visor, apron and gloves.i make a special noise when they get it wrong.

There will be whistle blowers surely?
Or those who resign and then speak?

Sorry I meant to add that NHSE are a particular sort of institution to work for. There are so many clauses written into your contract to deter you from whistleblowing on the management, most will not be posting their own views on the actual situation.
Confidentially and the new GDPR prevent posting videos or photos which include actual patients or anyone identifiable who has not given permission.
You have to remember that the NHS is a socialist concept and operates as such. One does not dis the system!

I work for the NHS and I am a member of a Facebook group for healthcare professionals

There are a number of alarming posts and it wouldn’t surprise me if they are being monitored

This post made me laugh

I’m left that group for all these reasons!
I’m not going down with them all 😂

I have hidden that group now, it was getting silly.

Look up ‘shroud waving’. I am ex-senior NHS, non-clinical.

We haven't been 'gagged' over this, it has never been acceptable to go to the media with workplace stories or to respond to requests for information. It's also not an effective way to resolve concerns.

People often have their own agenda and a skewed view on things, some of the stuff posted on my trust FB page by staff is cringe worthy! I'm embarrassed for them.

A few colleagues have been in trouble for social media posts on local FB groups... Someone had asked about how many cases of covid were conformed in local hospital and a member of admin staff replied that he worked there and there 'are hundreds' (not true) and the 'morgue is full' (also not true).

He is now whining that he's in trouble

Exactly what @formerchild says!

Well gagging has always happened in the NHS, any glance at a Trust whistleblowing policy will reveal its really a gagging policy. I was a nurse for 26 years and Dh is a hospital consultant.

Having said that both of us are fed up of the nurses and doctors on social media constantly lecturing everyone or venting with long emotional rants etc.. Dh has never posted anything about his job on social media and never would.

I work in a different industry and am not allowed to speak to the media without first going through our central media and communications team. Why would it be different for the NHS?

Having said that both of us are fed up of the nurses and doctors on social media constantly lecturing everyone or venting with long emotional rants etc.. Dh has never posted anything about his job on social media and never would

I'm probably going to be flamed for this, but this is right. Many parts of the NHS are not busy - in some of those horrendous videos of nurses and doctors dancing around in PPE and lecturing us it's obvious that their department is empty. These things do not look good or professional for the NHS and those who work in it and, as someone else said, it is against their professional code of conduct (it certainly is mine).

While the focus is on covid 19 so heavily and the message to the country is to protect the NHS, many possible vulnerable people are sitting at home with potential red flag symptoms and are either unable to get help or feel as if they should not seek help. Messages from HCP about staying at home only reinforces this view in these patients.

It's dangerous and if we're not careful we are going to end up with this whole thing backfiring and a massive backlash towards the NHS.