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.

Well the test was a bit pointless if it took 10 days to get back, and not great for your patients. But from friends / family point, you followed guidelines so nothing to feel guilty about. If you worked at Tesco you would have done the same but just been oblivious to the fact you were positive. Hope you all stay well.

OP this is dreadful, I am sure you have lost all faith in their testing systems now!

If its any consolation, there is a lot of evidence out there that asymptomatic people may not be infectious. There is also a chance that this wasn't even your result, it is hard to trust it when it was so delayed. Were you tested again on the 27th, what was that result?

Please be kind to yourself, it sounds like no one has become unwell as yet and it may well stay that way

I have reported to the relevant people at both Test and Protect and my work. I will be speaking to my clinical nurse manager tomorrow as it’s quite a serious clinical incident.

@InsideNo7 It's worth raising a DATIX. I'm not NHS anymore, is there a COVID specific DATIX now or other SE reporting for COVID?

My current organisation has a specific lead that we have to copy SE reports to if they are COVID related.

That’s awful, you must be so worried x

@Wigglegiggle0520 thank you, these lovely supportive messages are making me tear up!
I might not have done everything right, but I have tried my best, and that included seeing some friends and family as safely as I could (to support them as much as me). This has been a horrible year for everybody.

@InsideNo7

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.

Would an antibody test pick anything up at this stage? I still think the test is probably wrong.

look at the regrowing hair I have from when my teenage hair pulling habit resurfaced during first lockdown

Ha, I have trichotillomania too! I have managed not to be too bad, but my hairdresser said that there is definitely some evidence that I'm subconsciously pulling bits again.

Sorry for the delay, I was FaceTiming my parents. My mum is getting to put the tree up early and is in her Christmas jumper, so she’s happy just now .
My lovely friend had symptoms earlier in the year, and one of her contacts had to cancel a holiday, so she is being very understanding and sympathetic.
And the lovely kind messages on here have been a tonic and have cheered me up- thank you everybody.
Haven’t been tested since the 20th, or offered an antibody test. Would I have to go private for an antibody test? I think it will be a proper DATIX shit storm at work- if I were a different person the local paper would love this (I’m not though so they can do one)

@InsideNo7 sorry this has happened to you. I'm a patient safety lead in an NHS hopsital I'd want to know about a 10day result in communicating a positive result to a member of my team - that is far too long. I wonder if it is a systems error or a simple omission. Please report via datix (or equivalent system).

Some of the posters on this thread may find it helpful to know that the vast majority of covid we are seeing in my workplace appears to have come from external to the hospital social contact. WE have low rates of transmission from patients and between staff. Illustrating that social distancing and PPE work. It is important that everyone sticks to the rules. And OP did so I am not criticising her.

I have friends whose children suffered terrible stigmatisation as a result of their parent being a HCP during lockdown 1 eg. parents telling their children not to play with X, Y or Z in key worker school because their mummy/ daddy is a doctor) If any of you did anything like that please go and give your head a wobble it is disgusting behaviour and it totally unacceptable to project your fear onto children. The evidence about primary school aged children transmitting covid doesn't exist and most HCPs are OTT about not bringing it home on their clothes/ bags.

A bit of standing on the doorstep clapping doesn't make up for the shit way HCPs have been treated prior to covid and during covid by the government. The rhetoric this weekend about the fact the government are lying about the NHS being overwhelmed when I know that ICU beds in the East Midlands are very stretched and the fact that the giant fuckign white elephants of Nightingales lie empty not because there are no patients but because there are no staff.

We are reaping the rewards of government policy:

1. remove nursing bursary thereby making it harder for people to train to be nurses
2. invoke Brexit thereby ensuring that a significant cohort of european nurses move home
3. introduced minimum income criteria for UK visas which are higher than entry level salaries for NHS staff.
4. treat staff so poorly that the retention rate is dismal and fail to systematically tackle this.

I'm sorry for your situation OP. It sounds like you have worked your ass off and been treated like shit. Absolutely disgraceful failing in the testing procedure, but tbh, Britain is now a nation that specialises in failure across the board. I am British and live in England. It's a shitshow.

I hope your parents are OK re covid and I hope you are OK re being isolated living alone.

@MaxNormal

The posters banging on about lockdown seem to assume that the world begins and ends in England.

Yes quite. Maybe they have never heard of the mystical Scotland? I am English myself but was lucky enough to go to school, where they taught me that there were other parts of the UK, and even other lands across the sea.

That’s dreadful.

My sister is an NHS front line worker. She works in a team of 5. Two weeks ago, one staff member felt run down/unwell. No ACTUAL symptoms as such and was told she couldn’t go home. She phoned in sick the next day and received a Covid+ result within 48hrs. However, by then two more colleagues had gone down with it which left my sister and one other receptionist at the surgery. They were told... under NO circumstances were they to go off work or self isolate as neither were symptomatic. The manager said that the outbreak showed how they had not been following the rules as well as they might. Not the surgery...the staff 🤦‍♀️

THIS is how it’s spreading.

My sister (who’s being investigated for a heart condition) has had to take unpaid leave and it’s caused much bad feeling.

I’m so sorry OP. I do hope you feel better soon. The whole thing is a disgrace.

I havent RTFT, apologies. I am also a front line HCP and was contacted last week from internal T&T to be told I'd had a positive result, after already being contacted with a negative result previously (same swab). After some digging the positive wasnt correct, someone had messed up on the admin side of things. It caused no end of stress though!

That's unacceptably slow. You must be furious.

Hope you're physically feeling well

@HeraInTheHereAndNow that’s absolutely appalling- am ugly blame culture is developing which is less helpful than some people seem to think. Your poor sister and her colleagues, I hope they are all well now and your sister manages to recoup some of her leave.

@opinionatedfreak I agree with everything you’ve said. The government love to criticise the NHS while covering over the negative impact of recent (and not too recent) policy. I love my job, and count the NHS as a good employer. I don’t think that will be the case for much longer. I really hope this is taken seriously as safety issue at work.

@PeppaPigOinkOinkOink I would love to hear more about that- who did you contact to investigate?

The test results took too long but you haven't been very cautious.

I hope your friends and family are ok but we all know people can have this virus with no symptoms or be contagious before symptoms show, so every contact, particularly those inside, would have been a risk regardless of you being tested.

Lindy2 Do you live alone?

@Lindy2 read the full thread. I’ve answered your question multiple times.

Its mumsnet. You'll get people responding just to the original post for days. They seem to like to think that after pages of posts, we've all just been waiting for their penetrating insight.

Ignore the wankers.

You can't do enough to please some people. Break the rules and they'll go mental. Carefully follow all the rules and it's STILL not enough.

I don't know why you're replying to every other tweet with nationalism here, I'm not from England either but parts of Scotland/Wales/NI are in lockdown, and you are acting like there's a hard border between England and Scotland already. There isn't, and even if there was, it would only be marginally better at keeping the virus out than the soft border. Viruses don't abide by laws or pay any mind to government restrictions. Going out with friends and seeing parents is fine, but there's ways to do it even if you do live in the magical kingdom of Scotland.

Sorry @DraftDodger I don’t really understand your point. I’ve only answered to point out I’m not in a lockdown area, to posters presuming that I am. And as for ways to see people, you’re right. And I did them. Thanks anyway.

@Nicknacky

TingTastic So you expect a single person who lives in a job like the op to isolate herself completely from friends and family for almost a year even though that isn’t necessary and she is doing nothing wrong?

Are you single?

Almost a year, yes maybe for health workers. For others under 65 it could take up to two years in that we may not be vaccinated until the end of next year. Two years of being in constant self-isolation? No way!

Same happened to me. A contact had a positive test but as I have always worn mask, handwashing etc I wasnt overly worried, had no symptoms, did my test and it was positive too. Felt really guilty. Have still had no symptoms, isolated for two weeks, all of my contacts were negative