Is anyone else hating their NHS life?

[hayfeverhellish]

NHS during covid was awful, obviously. But I think we were running on adrenaline but the ‘recovery phase’ is something else.

I’m in therapies so we are never thought about - it’s all cancer screening, operations and bed days that matter. But we are the people that get patients back on their feet, eating, talking and looking after themselves.

Currently, half of us have been forced to work at home with ‘virtual appointments’ (which doesn’t work for a lot of the patients and the tech is crap) and basically forgotten about in the new struggle for rooms / staff / PPE to restart services.

Everyone is tired, arguing over rooms and services, loads of people on long term sick with stress, unpaid leave due to lack of space in schools, and now we have to wear masks ALL. THE. TIME.

I could cry at the thought of Monday. The job I loved seems to have left the building and the patients are suffering

Just me?

[DontGoJasonWaterfalls]

Yep 🙋‍♀️

Starting to see so many "what makes the NHS workers so special" type posts. They've put us on a pedestal we never asked for and are now acting like we've asked for the world and trying to knock us off the pedestal. I feel like that was the government's plan all along.

[hayfeverhellish]

I'm almost tempted to flout the mask rule in the hope I get sent home....there have been no cases in hospital pitch for 2 weeks and NOW they want us to wear them 🤷🏽‍♀️. Either that or maybe it's my time for prolonged sick leave.....

[abbidabbi]

I'm a hospital doctor and yep I'm exhausted. Getting lots of abuse although not as much as the nurses seem to get. The emergency rota is exhausting and I'm almost always in. No such thing as two consecutive days off. Have worked every weekend for months. Aren't being paid correctly either. I feel like we're getting shit on from quite a few angles to be honest and I'm knackered.

[ladyandthechocolate]

I’m glad to hear other people feel this way too. I’m in therapies too at a private hospital which is currently doing nhs work but really, as it’s just urgent cancer surgery there hasn’t been much we can get involved with. I miss all my lovely patients and don’t get me started on the masks. I feel grumpy just thinking about it.
Fundamentally we are all bored now, we’ve done all the audits and planning we can possibly do and now we are thumb twiddling a bit. Apparently things won’t pick up until September

[hayfeverhellish]

Did everyone else's hospital/trust buildings get massively reshuffled awaiting the storm and now the puzzle is too complicated to put back with the 'red zone' and social distancing in the mix? My hospital just doesn't seem to know where to start and won't let anyone really restart work until a team have specifically decided who is most important. A team who really know nothing about anything.

[girlofthenorth]

I go back to work on Monday , in my office , got the mask memo on Friday - I spend all day now in the phone talking to patients so that's going to be a hoot . I miss seeing my patients face to face , they struggle with phone calls and we all struggle with the technology . I love my work mates , now we are all split up , totally missing having a laff in the office . The good bits that keep us going .

[ohwhattodowithmylife]

I'm hating phone consultations with my patients and miss my work colleagues. Work is utterly depressing at the moment

[cheninblanc]

I'm nhs, facilities and am OK at the moment. At the start I was totally fed up. Getting the sites covid secure though is a huge job, it's very stressful and imagine it will get worse, if they reduce the distancing our floor stickers all need changing across 12 sites, I just wish there was a firm decision on things

[Biffsboys]

Quote -your jealous of the furloughed ? Myself, my Dh and ds are all furloughed, so much less money coming in. And now my Dh is being made redundant... ??? Still jealous?

[raviolidreaming]

Whilst I feel desperate for anyone who has been made redundant or is concerned about redundancy, if furlough came without the risk of redundancy I would have gladly and willingly dropped 20% of my salary and not worked during this.

[KnobChops]

It’s exhausting. We lost >half the staff to covid efforts and those left behind were run off feet (I work in an area that stayed busy). Then the wards were slow to return staff despite the peak coming down very quickly.

Don’t get me started on tele consults. I must’ve asked a patient three times with suspicious symptoms if they had chest pains the other day. They denied. It didn’t feel ‘right’ so brought to A&E and of course she’d had chest pains for days. It’s a nightmare if there are other comms issues such as hard of hearing, language barriers or poor connection. I just know we’re going to be asked to carry on with this afterwards.

Feels like everyone was thrown under a bus for covid.

And the masks! And risk assessments! Now, when it’s almost over...

Corporate arseholes sending memos about staff support when they treated a lot of us like disposable commodities and threw non covid patients (I’m talking about the many who still needed treatment to continue despite covid) under a bus when it all kicked off.

[getoffthatbloodytablet]

Those of you based in the community, do you have to wear masks in the office too? We're based in a health centre, and haven't been told we need to wear masks in the office.
Tbh I feel our office is the highest risk place for me. People don't take social distancing particularly seriously and I drives me crackers.
It's interesting reading about everyone still doing all their work via video call. We've moved back towards face to face, which is good but equally the risk assessment and plan around this happening has been really unclear and haphazard. Sadly my manager is awful so trying to get clarity as to eat we should be doing is nigh on impossible

[Ritasueandbobtoo9]

We work from home but nearly all my team have children and we can’t properly do anything as our area - community is really busy.

[Anotherunimaginativeusername]

In my organisation no masks required for community staff in the office if the building is not entered by patients. So it depends on the nature of the base really, and what other services are running out of it.

[getoffthatbloodytablet]

@Anotherunimaginativeusername there's a GP surgery based there, and a health visitors clinic, so members of the public do enter the building. We walk through the waiting area to get in and out, though our floor has no patient access. So I wonder what that will mean for us?

[hayfeverhellish]

We have to wear masks in all trust buildings unless we are in a non clinical office by ourselves, or the office is covid secure. However, the guidance therefore seems to suggest we will have to put a mask on to leave the office and go to the toilet.....🙄🙄

[Ginfilledcats]

Thank you for all you and your therapy colleagues do, in normal circs snd covid. It's down to you guys that patients get discharged.

Sorry you're having a rotten time and feel forgotten about xxx

[ChestyNut]

🖐🏻
I feel constantly confused.
So many different messages and new guidance dropped on us with little notice.
It seems like a giant game of jenga to get services rerunning whilst staff are redeployed still and wards reconfigured.

I honestly feel like my head will explode some days. Days off being no relief, I’ve spent the weekend trying to relax while running through my head how many staff will now need mask x how many a day x how many days a week.........

I just want to retire ( only 25 years or so to go )

[Nighttimefreedom]

The mask thing is ridiculous. I'm going to be sitting in my office in Estates wearing one all day. What's the point??
I'm hoping our area will be assessed as covid secure.

[Jennyie1]

Nothing much to contribute but THANK YOU.

[Jennyie1]

@Incrediblytired don't be jealous of the furloughed. Jobs are at risk, including mine. It's not all fun.

[Chocolatecake12]

There is a general sense of everyone being fed up. No one wants to wear the masks all the Time as quite frankly it’s now too late.
Annual leave was suspended and now we can book it everyone wants the same weeks and some are disappointed.
Rules are made and changed at next to no notice and we are just expected to adapt and get on with it.
So many nhs staff are frustrated, exhausted and fed up.
I’ve contemplated going off sick with stress but that’s not me- never has been. I’m dreading tomorrow with the new mask rule and it’s ruined my weekend thinking about it.

[LoLo2020]

II too work in the NHS and have not worked as hard and for as many hours as I have the past 3 1/2 months . Exhausted!

[Poppiesway1]

Hate my role, Ive regretted my choice of degree for a few years but now absolutely wish I’d never done it and chosen something else.
We’ve now been threatened with disciplinary action if we don’t do something the hospital wants us to do, even though it goes against our governing bodies recommendations and we feel is dangerous. Almost the entire department have started a grievance process against the higher managers.
The risk assessments were done to fit their needs, missing out vital information and refusing to acknowledge social distancing. Patients refusing to wear masks as they don’t like things on their face... their asthmatic and have apparently been advised not to wear a mask... masks make them anxious.. no regard for the safety of the people looking after them.
The sooner I can leave the NHS the better.

[VioletCharlotte]

I'm not hating it, but finding it exhausting and at times, incredibly frustrating. I work in corporate services, I'm wfh which for me is great as it means I don't have to commute. However the constant changes to guidance, which are often unclear and delivered very late in the day generate a huge amount of work. Also, so many meetings! I seem to spend my time on back to back Teams calls. I've never been busier in all my working life.