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?

[Mum2jenny]

I’m sorry op for what you’re going through but it’s crap for everyone working in the NHS. I’m seriously thinking about retiring. I am not really old enough but I am so sick of it so maybe???

[wickedgames]

Utterly fucked off with it all. Today I've spent the day alone in a sideroom with a ventilated patient sweating my arse off in full PPE. Cba with any of it anymore, wish we could be furloughed.

[missmeg3leg]

Echo all above comments, after 25yrs this year I’m done, spent all morning scrubbed (theatre sister) for a trauma case, so lead gown & FFP3 mask & visor = feeling v v faint at end of case, tried to take a breather leaning against corridor wall & got a bollocking for not wearing the now deemed necessary 24hr/everywhere paper mask......answers on a postcard what you think my response was!.....oh & as we are a big dept with small rest room nowhere to sit & the changing room was full with people desperate for a quick lunch break.....

[hayfeverhellish]

I can't get my head round how literally NO ONE CARED about PPE, paper masks, social distancing, cleaning of clinical areas and high touch surfaces and toilets etc all through covid and the staff in each area quietly got on with dealing with it in the best way we could. Now all of a sudden (with zero cases left in my area) everything is A. Big. Issue.

Government and NHS managers can all fuck off quite frankly, for all different reasons!

[hayfeverhellish]

I'm very ranty. I do apologise...think I need to go to bed!

[BBCONEANDTWO]

@hayfeverhellish - you rant all you want you absolutely deserve it.

It's bloody shocking - get the NHS managers and the Government to do a full shift - wonder how they would take it!

[KnobChops]

@hayfeverhellish

I can't get my head round how literally NO ONE CARED about PPE, paper masks, social distancing, cleaning of clinical areas and high touch surfaces and toilets etc all through covid and the staff in each area quietly got on with dealing with it in the best way we could. Now all of a sudden (with zero cases left in my area) everything is A. Big. Issue.

Government and NHS managers can all fuck off quite frankly, for all different reasons!

Nuts, isn’t it?

[m0therofdragons]

Managers should be ensuring staff can eat and drink! We’ve set up a well-being hub and are definitely encouraging staff to drink regularly. As a manager I had all my leave cancelled (managed to take 2 days off last week) and have been working flat out, as have all my colleagues. I always feel really sad when nhs managers get slated. I’m sure there are bad ones but my hospital management is trying so hard to navigate the government guidance and implement what’s asked of us while prioritising staff and patient safety. We’re one team where I work so it’s sad to read that’s not the case elsewhere.

[mouldygrapes]

Oh god, I share all your pain. Utterly fed up here. I’m in outpatients.
Our trust is being massively risk averse about opening up even tho we now have most of our staff repatriated from the wards and occ health.

Patients have mostly been understanding, but are getting more pushy now. We are mostly doing telephone consults and there’s so much we can’t do via that route. We’re getting people ringing up in tears every day, and it’s getting to me. Also a lot of staff have become very used to it being quiet and are not pulling their weight now it’s busier.
Don’t even get me started on masks but the words stable door, horse and bolted come to mind.
I am really not enjoying a job I normally love at the moment. The “crisis” phase brought out the best in a lot of people but I think completely depleted everyone’s energy, drive and enthusiasm, and none of us are performing at our best now. I worry about all the stuff we’re missing, and the awful backlogs to come

Solidarity, everyone. You’re all amazing

[Weepinggreenwillow]

@hayfeverhellish

I can't get my head round how literally NO ONE CARED about PPE, paper masks, social distancing, cleaning of clinical areas and high touch surfaces and toilets etc all through covid and the staff in each area quietly got on with dealing with it in the best way we could. Now all of a sudden (with zero cases left in my area) everything is A. Big. Issue.

Government and NHS managers can all fuck off quite frankly, for all different reasons!

^ This totally! It's just bloody madness. We have been getting on with it all from the start. Going into work every day, right through the peak. Left to use our own judgement and make the best of it. Now, as infections are right down and we are lifting restictions my community mental health base looks like something out of a war zone with people in full ppe all the time and staff being told to only set foot on the premises if absolutely neccessary. So, if you work in Primark it seems now is the time to be getting back to work and embracing some level of nromallity, if you work for the NHS it is basically back to full shut down and battlefield working conditions.
One of my colleagues suggested we move our clinical meetings to the loacal supermarket or B&Q so we can at least have a conversation with each other without being PPE'd up! (Obvs joking!!)

[DontGoJasonWaterfalls]

I'd love one day where I don't get home and cry. One day is all I ask for 😢

[Weepinggreenwillow]

Don'tGo I cant remember the last time I had a day when I didn't cry. I've been up since 5am with anxiety, now just having my usual cry into my coffee before getting ready for work.

[DontGoJasonWaterfalls]

Weeping I hope today goes as well as possible for you ❤️

[LouJ85]

Another huge YES from me. I miss being able to breathe at work. The masks are really getting to me at the moment.. especially on hot days 😕

[GlassOfProsecco]

Me too!

I'm an AHP & it's like working in a call centre.

My head of service still wants us all in, even if there is not enough space to social distance effectively.

Am full-time & round here (Scotland) you can only get hub childcare if you are both key workers. So I'm trying to homeschool 2 young children on top of that.

I am frazzled, not sleeping well & have made a few minor mistakes in the last week, which my manager has pulled me up about.

Desperately need a holiday but everything is closed here until 15th July at earliest. Want to book a wee cottage in the middle of nowhere & get a break.

[LouJ85]

@GlassOfProsecco - I hear you! A cottage in the middle of nowhere by myself would be bliss right now! 😫
I'm also apparently (according to DD's father), a shit mother because I'm failing at adequately homeschooling her whilst simultaneously working long shifts on an inpatient ward. Receiving that text last night after arriving home with her another awful migraine from the PPE was just what I needed. I forgot about that super power where I can cut myself in two and send one of me home to homeschool an unmotivated teen, and the other half support unwell patients ... silly me.
Hugs to everyone struggling with this shitty time! X

[MeadowHay]

@Drogonssmile just out of personal interest does your department have dates for F2F consults to resume? Just interested as I was having acne treatment which got paused and an appt made for August. But the way things are going now in the NHS I'm not confident that will be kept.

So so sad to hear how you're all struggling so much. I would really urge you to speak to your union reps about it all, they should be making this all public knowledge and pressurising the government to rethink things like the constant mask wearing. As a lay person surely wearing one mask all day with patients and then in places like the shop and taking it on and off to eat and dri k etc is actually increasing the risk of transmission of illnesses than if you didn't wear one at all?! Given the cross contamination into loads of different areas etc .

[WhatInFreshHell]

I'm not NHS but honestly, I don't know how you're all doing it every day!

[coffeechocolatecoffee]

Agree with what everyone else says. Mental health too and we are now seeing a massive increase in need for our service which is probably only going to get worst. Shambles doesn't even describe it.

Our inpatient wards are on the same site as an acute hospital that was severely affected by COVID-19 and frequently in the media for high number of cases. In April when things were at their worst, we had numerous patients coming from everywhere with COVID symptoms plus COVID positive patients on our unit, we were instructed not to wear masks unless in a room with a known positive patient (even though that patient was known to breach infection control multiple times over the prior 2 weeks and therefore could have passed onto anyone). So many colleagues went off sick, and a couple were admitted to ICU after contracting COVID.

Now there are no cases in the acute hospital plus very few locally, we have all these ridiculous expectations to wear masks when at our desk, walking around all buildings, constant temperature checks and endless additional IPC measures. Our office is unbearably hot with no adequate temperature control and a window that doesn't remain open and they would now like us to wear a mask and feel suffocated whilst in there.

And @GlassOfProsecco and @LouJ85 I'm with you on the childcare front too. Put my children in childcare on my working days only so absolutely no downtime without them around and no end in sight

[WearyandBleary]

I feel so much better reading this thread: I thought it was just me. In HR role and working from home for the last two months. Everything i do feels utterly worthless and pointless. The whole point of my job is to meet and engage with people and now I can’t do it. I’m forgetful and feel like I’ve aged ten years in the last few weeks. I’ve thought about retraining but honestly just don’t care about anything any more.

I avoid all radio and tv because every half an hour it’s the news which is just Covid which just feels like I’m working all the time.

Life feels utterly pointless and my work feels utterly meaningless.

[GlassOfProsecco]

And don't even start me on the remobilisation of services!

It's one thing to stop services, but we haven't been given proper guidance on how to do that.

We don't know when we can go back in to GP clinics or see patients face to face.

And there's not enough office space for us to social distance, or run clinics from work.

Plus our head of service doesn't like us working from home.

It's a headfuck

[Sewrainbow]

Bloody masks and temperature checks this week. Walking in on monday really depressed me...

Talk about shutting the stable door after the horse bolted 3 months ago!!!!

Uttterly pointless exercise. Another off the cuff dictat from government with no thought to consequences; the cost, the manpower (we have volunteers on doors making sure masks are worn) the communication issues, I'm struggling and I'm not deaf. My deaf friend is really worried.

The utter ridiculousness of having a whole team of redeployed staff as ppe monitors (paid and some quite senior so bands 5/6/7) to tell ppl off for wearing masks in corridors between departments and in cafes up until last week who are now telling us all to wear masks everywhere we go.

I could cry it so frustrating....

Andvi haven't even started on the stress of reintroducing services, starting up my post grad study again, staff sickness levels, staff morale, grumpy patients with no patience!

[SugarHockeyIcedTea]

I'm with you all.

I primarily work with the elderly and people with neurological conditions and I'm finding it so hard to communicate with them.

A lot of them are struggling to hear what I'm saying and those with cognitive issues look at me like I'm so scary- it makes my heartbreak

I love working with people and helping patients but I'm really struggling just now.

On a personal note, my skin is a fucking mess from wearing a mask for 12 hours-I've never had spots like it and my head is thumping from not drinking as much as I would normally.

[Drogonssmile]

@MeadowHay it's difficult to say; they are all hoping that patients will be able to come in from August onwards but obviously if there is another wave of the virus then that might not happen. Currently they are doing telephone or video consultations so your local trust may also be doing that. Fingers crossed that yours goes ahead!

[Weepinggreenwillow]

well, had a fun morning. Saw and actual patient face to face.(which I thought would be positive!) She was VV angry. PIssed off she had had to wait for app, pissed off she had to wear a mask, pissed off about other stuff too not related to CV19 so basically she sat for an hour ranting and shouting at me. I actually so nearly just got up and walked out of the room. Normally I would be perfectly able to deal with patient's like this (it isnt that unusual in my line of work) but today it just felt like the final straw.
Now about to sign into another bloody microsoft teams meeting. Got a splitting head ache and actually just want to crawl into bed and never get up again.