@Batshitbeautycosmeticsltd
Spare the guilt trips, Redolent. They don't work on people anymore. Nor do the attempts to shame people. And remember not everyone is in the UK and using the bloody NHS. And if people don't want to work for the NHS anymore, no one is forcing them to stay. 'Oh, but then who will do the job!' Why do people always think they are irreplaceable?
They are irreplaceable quite often. There’s a finite number of trained medical staff and training is long and arduous and requires specific levels of education not accessible to everyone. Some medical staff specialise and are very much needed in their field as others do not have the same levels of understanding about particular issues. We’re in Wales and have only had locum GPs since we moved here because fewer doctors want to move to our little village half way up a mountain, it seems. Possibly because less people from this area qualify for medicine as well. It would make a big difference if the only blooming locums we’ve got gave up. Equally, midwives trained in perinatal work or doctors running clinics specialising in conditions that were previously less well understood and may have required parents to travel very long distance to have children seen etc make a huge difference to care available. My bff had an op as a teen at GOSH by the ONLY doctor in Europe who could perform that procedure, his loss would have been significant. He was needed not only for patient care and treatment, but to train others in the complicated operation. Plus, at any level of any NHS worker, without someone in that job (be it kitchen staff to highly specialist researchers) the pressure mounts and the care standard falls. It isn’t as simple as there’s always someone ready to jump in at any level, be it newly qualified or highly specialist. Also, there will be pressure to stay at the moment, from your manager, from your team and from the general public. Most people would feel wracked with guilt/shame dropping out at this time, even if it was for very good reason.
If someone isn’t in the UK and using the NHS, it doesn’t really apply does it? As this was about a new lockdown, which is what the UK press and Gov had been discussing, the suggestion is many commenters would be in the UK and using the NHS and surely those who aren’t would read the comments and say ‘Ah, I don’t use the NHS, so less relevant to me’? I think it’s sad, selfish and lacking in empathy to ignore the immense pressure ALL medical staff in Covid affected countries have experienced, including those from the NHS.