Pressure on frontline NHS staff

[addictedtotheflats]

Im a senior nurse in an a&e department in a Tier 2 area and its SO busy. I’ve been so resilient and positive (mentally not covid) but I think its getting a bit much now. Im sick of see posts in the media about how hospitals are empty and NHS workers are basically dossing. A&e is constantly full, we have 25+ covid patients waiting for beds upto 18 hours who we are expected to care for on top of 60+ other patients. This wave is different to the last one, people werent coming in for minor ailments in april-june but now people arent scared, we are the easy option for people to get seen by a doctor on the same day. Symptomatic patients lining the corridors because we have no more isolation space, staff going off for 2 weeks either positive or exposed in the household, I just feel like its beyond unsustainable, my team all work so hard 24/7. I’m not sure what I want from this post, just finished a hideous 13 hour shift, half of which felt unsafe because of acuity, high attendances and staffing pressures. Anyone else in the same situation?

Ecosse, stop bloody taking over every thread with your nonsense and let people vent. Your advice is both unwelcome and shit.

Tier 3 area.
Critical care nurse.
With over 30 years experience I have hit a wall and can no longer continue.
I am off unwell, profoundly unwell.
Multitude of reasons, overriding reason is that I can’t do it again and it is much much worse this time.
I have handed in my notice & found another job.

I’m one in a huge army of broken people.
I do not think that I shall ever recover.
I have been allowed 4 whole sessions of CBT funded by the NHS. Hoping that this will help me.
My beloved NHS is beyond recognition.

I will never recover.

So sorry, Pickypolly. Really, so sorry.

Ecosse is a troll, who always post on corona threads and 9 times out of 10 states: "I'm a management consultant" (management "consultants" are contributing SO much to this outbreak ) and "My DH was a trainee solicitor and had to move to another area for a month!" as a justification for sending nhs staff from Exeter to Liverpool.

The NHS has been beyond breaking point for years. Held together by staff goodwill and paper clips. I can't say too much about where I work as it's outing but prior to covid we had been working 2/3 above capacity for 18 months (moving day rooms and doctors offices to make inpatient beds) we have now gone from one specialty to multiple, all which require specialist knowledge to manage safely - think chemo and similar and have a VERY junior team as our experienced staff went off shielding (due to age / co-morbidities).

I'm band 6 and trying my best to support my colleagues. I cry all the way to work and all the way home. I have staff burst into tears randomly at work - I do it at home. Our higher ups treat us like numbers and expect us to look after 12-15 acutely unwell patients. Re-deploy is to a new wards on no notice. Today is my first day off after a 10 shift stretch (7-8 mixed days and nights). We are walking into the worst winter in living memory with a large percentage of staff already at breaking point.

I get it. Covid is shit for absolutely everyone, but please think of people like me and the OP who haven't had a break since March and don't have one in sight. Mask. Face. Space. Not too much to ask really. Write off 2020 so we can save 2021. Cornwall, Christmas, birthday parties and holidays will be back. Please help us to help you. I'm with you OP.

Thank you all for everything you do.

@Pickypolly . I'm so sorry. My DF left the ambulance service due to PTSD after 30 years of service. He stepped off an ambulance after a night shift and was never able to get back on. Unless you have done the job, holding together while someone's life falls apart. Seeing and hearing things that others can't even imagine you don't understand.

Take care of yourself xxx

To be honest it’s shit all the time in the NHS and every winter is horrific. All year round ambulances queue outside our A&E for hours. Last Wednesday night there were 13 ambulances queuing, one for 3 hours! We are a tier one area with only 13 Covid patients.
This is about years of underfunding by a conservative Government. It’s a fucking scandal and Covid is simply exposing the mess.

@Ecosse also believes that COVID deaths don't count if you have a pre existing condition.

That’s just nonsense I’m afraid. There have only been 307 deaths without underlying conditions under 60.

I am sure they matter to the families concerned and the NHS staff treating them.

Thank you to all staff.

Our health board has been in special measures for five years. Held together by chewing gum and string. As the population has grown capacity has diminished. If only the wages offered to admin. were available for nhs workers. We keep throwing consultants £££££ at it but nothing improves. Consultant friends admit it is broken, before covid they would assess patients do theatre lists on the basis of urgency, which the managers would then mess with cancelling ops. because of lack of money. They were forty million over budget well before covid.

There are some solutions but management do not like them. I do not know how anyone stands it unless they are bank staff and dip in and out as and when they want to, thus avoiding the politics and god awful working conditions.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/explainers-54623919

@originalusernamefail absolutely - we’ve been working over capacity for ++ years
@Pickypolly your post is heartbreaking. I hope your new role is not as stressful

Honestly, the goodwill is wearing thin now, I’ve also been on the nhs for almost 30 years, last week was probably the most stress I’ve experienced at work. Staffing is horrendous, patient numbers are ++ but the worse thing is the urgency and how ill people are. You can’t just walk away from that, so people put on extra hours and are then in a vicious circle of never being able to switch off. Very worried for my team and we’ve also still got a degree of pstd from colleagues dying/in itu earlier this year.

@dollychopss

NHS ladies is it true cancer treatments etc being pushed back or the media stirring ?

I work in a role assisting cancer patients, not clinical but I hear their stories. A lot of palliative clients have said their chemo has been paused during the pandemic, they are distressed because they don't know when it will start again. I had one distressed client with melanoma this week saying he had been told he had 3 months left to live without starting Immunotherapy but had no idea when this would start. Not sure if this was covid delayed or just that there is a back log of people still waiting to start treatments and the unit is overwhelmed. We have many others who have had surgery/ diagnostics delayed and have ended up being diagnosed in A&E. There also seems to be more people being declared palliative at diagnosis, I have no idea if this is due to covid delays, but there just seems to be an increase.

to all NHS staff and carers.
Sons girlfriend is an A&E nurse who qualified last year. She coped really well during the first wave of the virus and loves her job but has said that the staff shortages due to experienced staff leaving or being off sick, coupled with the steep rise in both Covid and non Covid patients is starting to take its toll. She is often exhausted and pretty much just sleeps when she not working. Fortunately they don't have children to worry about. I expect she'll be looking to move out of A&E before much longer.

Sad that my posts has attracted possibly the most un empathetic person ever. Having said that @Ecosse, I don't expect you to understand. I am sure your role in management consultancy doesnt involve being suffocated for 12 hours of your day. Stick an ffp3 mask on while you are probably sat in the comfort of your own home, you might be able to take it off for a drink at one point during your day...

8That's about half the NHS staff off work then! Plenty of doctors, nurses, and other HCP are over 45, or have diabetes, or hypertension, or are overweight, or have another high risk condition putting them in the vulnerable group.*

Don’t worry. I’m sure NHS staff, teachers, military and emergency services will all be exempt ....

@Pickypolly

Tier 3 area. Critical care nurse. With over 30 years experience I have hit a wall and can no longer continue. I am off unwell, profoundly unwell. Multitude of reasons, overriding reason is that I can’t do it again and it is much much worse this time. I have handed in my notice & found another job.

I’m one in a huge army of broken people.
I do not think that I shall ever recover.
I have been allowed 4 whole sessions of CBT funded by the NHS. Hoping that this will help me.
My beloved NHS is beyond recognition.

I will never recover.

Unfortunately, you’re not the only one. By a long shot. Look after yourself.

Just popping on to say that I'm an ex-management consultant (left in January) and that Ecosse doesn't represent my views or most of the other management consultants I know.

Then again, most of the ones I know wouldn't be arrogant enough to jump on a thread of NHS staff and presume they know more about the NHS.

It's management consultants like Ecosse that give the whole profession a shit reputation TBH.

Thanks for everything you guys do

I'm sorry that your thread for support has been hijacked by a complete dick.

[quote Ecosse]@shitonitbambinos

To be frank staff should not be leaving critical care units for other NHS departments in the middle of a pandemic.

The government should not be allowing it to happen.[/quote]
Are NHS staff conscripts now?

Be careful what you wish for, Ecosse. If we’re bringing back National Service you could find yourself redeployed to anywhere, with inadequate PPE. Is this what you’re advocating?

You clearly know fuck all about how the NHS is run, and how much relentless government interference and lack of funding affects its effectiveness. You know even less about the virus and the care of people suffering with it, and have no empathy with clinical staff who have been caring for very sick and dying patients. So what motivates you to comment on here?

@wheresmymojo

Just popping on to say that I'm an ex-management consultant (left in January) and that Ecosse doesn't represent my views or most of the other management consultants I know.

Then again, most of the ones I know wouldn't be arrogant enough to jump on a thread of NHS staff and presume they know more about the NHS.

It's management consultants like Ecosse that give the whole profession a shit reputation TBH.

Thanks for everything you guys do

I'm sorry that your thread for support has been hijacked by a complete dick.

A friend of OH is a director of an international management consultment company, an employee like the pp well her feet would not touch the floor as she was booted out.

Just popping on to say that I'm an ex-management consultant (left in January) and that Ecosse doesn't represent my views or most of the other management consultants I know

😂❤️

I actually highly suspect that anyone who feels the need to declare "I'm a management consultant" as a way of suggesting they have a great deal of knowledge about an area they don't work in is, in fact....probably at best a very junior member of the team who hasn't yet learned emotional intelligence.

If I was Ecosse I'd be spending less time on MN and more developing my people skills if I wanted even the tiniest chance of getting further up the ladder.

Nothing clients hate more than the attitude displayed on this thread.

I in no way think @Ecosse represents all management consultants, sorry for any offence caused 🙈

[quote Ecosse]@shitonitbambinos

To be frank staff should not be leaving critical care units for other NHS departments in the middle of a pandemic.

The government should not be allowing it to happen.[/quote]
In fairness, if they are leaving critical care units at the present time, it suggests that critical care perhaps is not the profession for them, so probably for the best.