How could they do this??

[InsideNo7]

N/C because this is a bit outing.
I work in a frontline job where we get tested weekly.

I’ve just been told that a test I handed in ten days ago is positive!
In that time I’ve stayed overnight with my parents (I’m a single adult so am in their bubble), have met friends for coffee and lunch (it was my birthday this week) and done an extra shift in another hospital in another tier.

I’m so angry, I would have done none of this if I’d known. I’ve had no symptoms so would have never known if I didn’t have regular tests. I’ve put so many people at risk.

I’m just here to rant, I feel like they haven’t upheld their end of the deal.

[quote Lucindainthesky]@InsideNo7 so what you're saying is that in addition to being a frontline worker you're also in and out of local shops and cafes and then seeing your parents. It's honorable that you are helping local businesses but again, we all make our choices. But blame it on the testing system by all means. [/quote]
How's the weather right up high where you are

I can't believe how many people are attacking the op for her behaviour! She has kept to all the rules where she lives and is cooperating with routine testing!!! The point of the thread was to highlight how inefficient the testing system is and that people have been put at risk needlessly purely because of the late test result.

Petitmum But then they can’t show how seriously they are taking covid and that no one else is!

Because covid is all that matters, obviously.

I’m not defending myself anymore. I’ve gone above and beyond, and I’m not apologising for needing some support just now, even if other people are able to live in a hermetically sealed bubble.
Thanks to all posters, prior tests have come back within 24-36 hours, so it’s definitely a fluke. It’s even crossed my mind that they’ve gotten results mixed up, but I guess there’s not much I can do about that.

Seriously, are people genuinely saying that if you work in a front line job, you should be isolating yourself the whole time? Are you aware of what it is like in 'front line' jobs at the minute? The mental health impact of just going to work then sitting alone in a room the rest of the time, would then have an impact on said front line industries.

Meanwhile anyone who is a SAHM or able to work from home gets to see family, meet a friend outside for a walk, and in SCOTLAND go for a coffee etc.

I mean that's just mean.

OP. Bad luck, that's crap.

I sure as fuck wouldn't be locking myself up from all human contact if I lived alone. There's a reason that total isolation is a punishment in prisons.

@RuleWithAWoodenFoot yes, I think it’s difficult for some people to understand the pressure FL workers are under, and how that can be difficult to shake when you’re on your own. They’re welcome to look at the regrowing hair I have from when my teenage hair pulling habit resurfaced during first lockdown if they like.

It's not that odd that people assumed OP was in lockdown. More than two million Scots are in Level 4 restrictions which are equivalent to an English lockdown.

But not me, I’m in tier 3

@Oxyiz somebody once said to me “this must be great for you as you’re introverted”. It’s definitely not, it just means I have too much time to think and to worry (and to dance around to Kate Bush records, when I’m finished with the thinking and the worrying)

Yy OP I understand you're not in lockdown. It's just the vitriol from some posters seemed a bit misplaced considering there are currently more places in lockdown than not, atm in the UK.
I hope you get to the bottom of the delay in your results and I hope you and your contacts stay well

@TheCrowsHaveEyes you’re right, I should have clarified in my first post.

It was 10 days ago. Since then you have also had one, maybe two tests, so have those come back quicker and were they also positive? If they come back negative then the one 10 days ago could be a false positive, or not even your sample.

Tests coming back 10 days later is pointless. Something went wrong with the system there. If it had come back within 36 hours then it would have prevented some spread, not all but you would not have been working the shifts. So maybe there needs to be a procedure for what happens if a test result does not come back within a set time period... could that be something which your hospital administrators would look at implementing as this must be happening with other staff.

@dasey

Why have you been having coffee and lunch with friends?

Because the U.K. doesn’t begin and end at the borders of England, and the other home nations are not in lockdown 🙄 how many times do we need to point this out?

so what you're saying is that in addition to being a frontline worker you're also in and out of local shops and cafes and then seeing your parents. It's honorable that you are helping local businesses but again, we all make our choices. But blame it on the testing system by all means

But all those things are allowed where OP is, so she has done nothing wrong at all.

OP, it is really bad that there was such a delay in the testing result. I hope your parents will be fine, the odds are that they will be.

@nannynick no, the last test I took ( the positive test) was on the 20th. I was referring to previous weekly tests, which I’ve doing for about three months.

In fact we started that in August. So for about four months. Haven’t missed a test yet *polishes shiny badge.

@InsideNo7

First, even though I’m not in Scotland I am extremely grateful to you and to all other healthcare workers, teachers, food supply workers and other frontline workers for continuing to keep essential services going through this pandemic, even though that puts you and your friends and family at risk.

Second, from all you have written you sound completely reasonable and sensible in the balanced approach you have taken between precautions, and meeting reasonable needs for social contact.

Third, I think you are completely right to direct your anger towards the system that gave you such a late test result, and your decision to complain about that and escalate was clearly the right thing to do, and it may help to prevent other similar incidents in the future. I share one of the PPs suspicions that it may have been a false positive. If you wanted to get a better idea, would you consider getting an antibody test?

Finally, I feel angry at the numerous PPs who have been criticising you, considering all that you are contributing in the service of others and the numerous precautions you are taking. Your meetings with others were mostly outdoors, and you are in a support bubble with your parents, so meeting them indoors is within the rules. Others might have chosen differently, but I am sure that you and they both understood that there is some risk to them from this, and you decided with them to take the risk, which is within the parameters of what is allowed, making it your and their decision, and no-one else’s.

Thank you again for continuing to do an important and difficult job.

@pinkearedcow thank you, I’m hopeful they will be, as I have no symptoms and neither do they, but obviously I am still worried.

Thank you @YankeeDad, that is very kind.

OP I haven’t read the full thread but I’m so sorry you’ve been let down and I hope your friends and family stay well.

Thank you for all your hard work this year through the pandemic and for sticking to the rules despite living alone and your mental health suffering.

Be kind to yourself it’s been a tough year

Hi OP, totally feel for you, that’s utterly shit, and unacceptable.
In my hospital, we are tested weekly too, and in the beginning, the results were turned around in 24-48 hours. We would get a text to let us know. The text service stopped a few months ago, due to lack of staff to put the results on the text system. We are now only notified when we are positive.
At this point, my colleague tested positive, and was told the results 5 days later. By this time, she’d been to a takeaway, done an extra shift in close contact with me, and another extra shift elsewhere in the hospital. Because we had obviously been wearing full PPE, I and my other colleagues did not have to SI, although she herself did.However, the shitstorm that ensued over the appallingly late results was satisfying to behold.

I wish you all the best, OP, this is not your fault. I too live alone, and care for my vulnerable parents when not working, and it’s not as easy, or as black and white as some posters here seem to think. Should I not see them and let them struggle because I’m FL NHS? Or should I take adequate precautions when seeing them?

My parents decided...and they wanted to see me.

OP, you have done all you could, ignore those who basically want you to sacrifice any semblance of normality, even when you live where such heady treats as having a coffee outside with friends is allowed!!

The system failed you, you did not fail the system.

Thank you for doing your NHS role.

When the vaccine is rolled out what on earth will the self important Covid police do with themselves?
No one to blame. No one to judge.

I suppose they’ll go back to being spiteful to fat people...sorry discussions their concern for the obesity crisis.