NHS - Have you had your Covid 19 Staff Risk Assessment?

[FannyCann]

Feeling pretty cross about this.
Managers are calling staff in to do their personal assessment.
It's a 7 page document.
Starts with Age, deduct 5 for gender female. (Yes, I know, and as I got exasperated I pointed out it should be sex not gender but let's leave that for now).
Then add scores for a list of variables:
Ethnicity (different scores for different ethnicities, eg black = 6, Asian = 4)
BMI (30-34.9 = 4, 35-39.9 = 5, 40+ = 10)
Then a long list of co-mordities eg Asthma, diabetes, and lots of others with varying scores to add on.

Comes up with your individual score which is then categorised to various Covid 19 "Age" and risk levels with advice and recommendations for each band of risk level.

I work in a small team. We are nearly all approaching retirement age and some have other factors and it means of six of us only one is low risk. She is now the only one who is allowed to do any of the aerosol generating procedures which amount to about 30% of our work! Or work with any Covid +ve or suspected patients.

We are being advised that as we fall in the moderate risk group, (the next band above low risk) we should avoid AGP or covid +ve patients. We could insist on continuing to work as normal (obviously using PPE, as we have done throughout) but we have to sign to say we have discussed it with our manager and are going against advice. If we refuse to do the work we may be redeployed to a low risk area.

As I pointed out to my manager, I'm not particularly concerned for myself - I've managed to survive exposure without being infected so far, we have strict procedures in our department and I feel safe. The point (for me) is that this isn't just about our department, there is a hospital to run, patients to treat, and this must be happening NHS wide. They can't redeploy everyone to a low risk area. How can we be expected to sign our rights away?

I know staff at a neighbouring tertiary referral centre who have had their assessment. I assume this is happening NHS wide.

So have you had your assessment and how is it being handled?

[Pomegranatepompom]

Ours was very basic and didn’t really exclude anyone from doing their job. The fit test filtered those who couldn’t do aerosol procedures.

[hastingsmua1]

OP said we have to sign to say we have discussed it with our manager and are going against advice. If we refuse to do the work we may be redeployed to a low risk area.

Some posters read that and theatricized about death and “family payouts” why are people on this forum so dramatic? Are you alright in the head? As there’s no logical basis upon how you reached that conclusion from the above quote.

Realistically OP, you’ll have to read the information on accepting risk thoroughly and if you think the terms are unfair either raise a complaint with HR or contact a union/ACAS/a solicitor for further advice. Personally I’d just move to the low risk tasks and once your management see that it is unfeasible, in time they will alter their approach. With novel coronavirus, procedures implemented across all industries are frequently changing and adapting as it’s an unprecedented situation.

For what it’s worth, I don’t see a problem with the COVID age calculation. It’s already public knowledge that these same factors make someone more susceptible to death or serious illness from COVID, it would be prudent for the NHS to carry out risk assessments