Why wouldn’t the Chief Nurse confirm how many NHS staff have died?

[Skybluepink123]

I’ve just been watching today’s press briefing and don’t understand why Ruth May refused to confirm how many NHS staff had died from Covid?
She cited a lack of family consent which prevented her from talking about individuals but that wasn’t the information that the reporter sought. Also, I’m cross that she started her speech by acknowledging her happiness that the PM was getting better but failed to acknowledge the near 1000 families who are grieving today.
One more (trivial) thing. How comes she’s managed a hair cut in between press briefings?

If she doesn't know how many NHS staff have died well she blinkin well should

Quite. A colleague of mine has just walked from a shift in a MH unit he was due to do a one to one in. The patient is COVID-19 positive and has already passed the virus on once, yet colleague was given a substandard mask and no other protection and there was no one available to fit test a mask because it's a night shift. This, despite staff dying daily is unforgivable, but still happening. I am so angry that this is how little our lives and protection are worth.

If a patient comes into hospital, very sick, who then sadly dies, I don’t know how the hospital would know that they work as a medical secretary 5 miles away, for example.

@starlightgazers, it sure is beyond you, u dont work in the field. If you think risking the NHS collapsing cuz workers decided it is too much of a risk for them, then let me tell you, yes a collapsing nhs is a threat to national security. Why the hell r we in a lockdown if not to protect the NHS?? Is that too difficult for ur brain to decipher? Or is the conflict of interest (being nhs) clouding ur vision?

I did read some info last week that said any nhs employee off sick with Covid is now having to be reported along with other Covid stats so they are monitoring this.

If you think risking the NHS collapsing cuz workers decided it is too much of a risk for them, then let me tell you, yes a collapsing nhs is a threat to national security

Don't be silly, we are not protected from knowing NHS workers are dying - we are seeing it ffs.

Do you think keeping deaths quiet so NHS staff don't leave would be or is ethical? Whether in the interests of 'national security' or not? And I repeat - by the same analogy as yours, do think it would be acceptable for the government to keep the numbers of school children dying from it quiet in case parents stopped sending them, or do you think parents would have the right to know so they can assess the risk of sending them.

Is that too difficult for ur brain to decipher

No need whatsoever for personal remarks, but I can decipher your daft comment quite easily thank you. Hence my reasoning above.

I also noticed that the journalist who asked the question wasn't given the chance to follow up their question. Maybe they need to get the NHS CEO at one of these briefings. I am sure because of her non-answer the question will keep on coming up.

We NEED good, truthful journalism to uncover the unpalatable truths.

Governments shouldn't be allowed to fudge the issue just to avoid answering hard, probing questions.

If it hadn't been for the Telegraph? journalist, we'd never have found out about the MP expenses scandal...

We need the truth.

It's confirmed on the BBC website that 19 staff have died so far. Here's the screenshot:

Can I just say thank you to the people on this thread since I posted last night who have been kind about journalists. I’d genuinely been thinking of quitting my job because of the awful abuse my colleagues and I have been taking on social media. It’s hugely cheered me up.

Honestly, those reporters who behave irresponsibly are a stain on our profession but it is so, so few people that we shouldn’t all be judged by their standards.

@JaniceBattersby
This pandemic has shown the true value of a free press.
The good journalists are saving lives.
The early report from an Italian hospital (from Sky News?) and other reporting from abroad forced the government to act. Without those early reports the public would be in the dark.
The extra ventilators, PPE crisis, testing etc etc. The press are holding the government to account like no one else can.
When we praise the nhs, other key workers etc I think the press needs to be included in this.

Did anyone notice she’s had a hair cut In the last week or so. So unless she’s Vidal Sassoon she’s been within two meters of someone.

I suspect the data is incomplete. But also, stating that “50 NHS staff have died of the virus” automatically implies - or encourages us to infer - a causal relationship and that they caught it during the course of their work, when it would only be a supposition (albeit a likely one) that they had: they might have caught it on public transport, in the shops or from someone in their household. There would then likely be a further supposition encouraged that they had caught it due to inadequate PPE, when again, this might not necessarily be the case. It would be irresponsible reporting to politicise their deaths like that.

This list of nhs workers is a few days old now, some more have sadly died since it was published.

The whole briefing is increasingly annoying, a list of excuses from the government stooge to try to second guess the questions, fluff about how wonderful the nhs is and how much better the pm is and how wonderful rainbows are from the Tory nurse, then the only useful bit, the graphs that explain exactly what is happening then more flannel from kuenssberg et al. I despair of the government being held properly to account.

The campaign group Keep Our NHS Public is saying on its Facebook page that 24 healthcare workers have died so far.

I've seen it's 28. Either way, Hancock apparently can't even get the figures right.

Yes I’m afraid the chief nurse is coming across as a fluffy blonde who simply trots our the party line. It’s a shame really.

Yep that’s corporate level nurses for you. They toe the corporate or party line, they have to be ambitious arselickers to get to these jobs. None ever blow the whistle. And despite her uniform she won’t have nursed for more than a decade.

they might have caught it on public transport, in the shops or from someone in their household

How likely is that when people are working with infected patients, unprotected a lot of the time?

Yep that’s corporate level nurses for you. They toe the corporate or party line, they have to be ambitious arselickers to get to these jobs

Quite - bloody depressing.

19 NHS worker deaths, out of 8,958 deaths in the UK overall = 0.2% of deaths.

I'm not trying to belittle the lack of PPE or the risk to NHS staff, but surely there will be a cross-section of different professions amongst people who have died?

Does anyone know how many retail staff, postmen, retirees, civil servants, bankers, lawyers, cleaners etc etc have died?

Of almost 9,000 people who have died, there will be groups of people across all professions. Every death is sad, and I totally understand why it hurts even more when people on the frontline are affected - but these are people who lived as part of a wider society that is affected by this deadly disease.

Numbers in isolation are not particularly helpful, unless the number-crunchers can provide more context.

I think this mornings “now’t to do with lack of PPE supplies” statement from Mr Hancock might explain a lot. It would seem that there is no direct link between this...and the deaths of young drs and nurses of the NHS. When this is over, the Govt. will want to deny deny deny a link so at the moment, if we knew the real death of professionals on the front line figures, there’d be uproar.

Fucking Govt. And as a retired nurse/senior sister in the NHS I’d imagine the RCN chief representative has been told to keep her mouth shut.

Yep that’s corporate level nurses for you. They toe the corporate or party line, they have to be ambitious arselickers to get to these jobs

Precisely. I’d imagine she’s never had her hands dirty in her entire career.

For me, it's not that she couldn't answer that particular question, it's just that she generally makes me cringe.
Her presentation/public speaking skills are rubbish.

She does absolutely nothing for the image of Professional Nurses.

"Fluffy blonde" sums her up perfectly @missyB1.

She just about manages when she has her script but the minute it's think on your feet time, she really flounders and waffles her way through, not always making any sense.

I'll give her the benefit of the doubt that she has some knowledge and skills, given the position that she holds, but, front of camera is not her strength and I wish they would stop using her.

Yet again I despair. MN is full of posts lamenting the lack of knowledgeable persons in high level jobs ie: ones who have worked in the NHS. The reality is that many, many, NHS management staff come from within the job. So, you get one who happens to have risen to a senior role, and now you are berating her for being "corporate arselickers". Nice.

The skilled nurses stay clinical, you won’t hear from them. Sometimes they tweet, then they’re threatened for speaking out.

The ones who get these corporate level jobs are usually not much cop clinically, they’re often not the brightest or most capable. They are good at pushing themselves forward, take every opportunity for promotion, they get and then stay where they are by being yes people. People who speak out get bullied in the NHS.

We’ve had quite a lot of nurses and HCA voice concern about being redeployed to covid wards without FFP3 masks, visors and gowns. Often their own work is still active and those patients are effectively being thrown under a bus for covid patients. The HCP are not given a choice about moving to areas which are high risk or where they feel unskilled. People have been told either they move or take unpaid leave or resign. Where is Ruth May on this issue, hmm?