NHS workers do you support school closures.

[Teeninabeanie]

Just that really. Do NHS workers feel that the current situation in hospitals justifies some teaching unions telling members not to work tomorrow?
I reckon one of the main justifications must be to save the NHS from being overwhelmed. Do you feel like this action is necessary to support you in doing your jobs or is it OTT and not going to make any difference to your work?

@Iliketeaagain I think they didn't call for S44 then as the data didn't support it and neither did SAGE as far as I remember. There were a lot of us shouting then that going back as we did was going to see transmission rise etc but our voices were silenced due to the voices of Jenny Harries, Chris Whittier, JVT etc signing that document saying schools are safe.

@Iliketeaagain
I think they have been building up to it for a while, but it became apparent that the government were going to be reckless in the face of lots of data about the new variant and in the end they had no choice but to act.

I’m an NHS cancer doctor. School closures fill me with dismay. As I’m not the main breadwinner, I’d probably have to take time off work to look after the kids.

Sorry to say that there are much worse things than COVID. A few of which are:

1. Destroying the education of a generation of kids.
2. Destroying the employment prospects of a generation of young adults.
3. More deaths from cancer due to delayed presentation and disrupted investigation and treatment.

I know that COVID causes suffering and death. But other things cause suffering and death too (cancer, unemployment and poverty!!) and I don’t know what the right balance is but I feel very uneasy about the way the UK is managing it.

I would support a 1-2 eek post Christmas closure and reassess numbers.

*Whitty lol not Whittier 😂

As an NHS worker, I do support the school closures, it will be tough for many to have kids at home, but we need to take a wider view - the NHS resources are finite, and once the tipping point is reached things will quickly spiral out of control. It's not just covid treatment we need to think about, every other ailment is still out there, and there will be people who need urgent care. I support the teachers who feel that it is too risky to go back to the classroom, and would ask those parents who are questioning the need for closures, would you volunteer to go and work in your local school? Let's stay home and ride this out.

@BetsWishes

As an NHS worker, I do support the school closures, it will be tough for many to have kids at home, but we need to take a wider view - the NHS resources are finite, and once the tipping point is reached things will quickly spiral out of control. It's not just covid treatment we need to think about, every other ailment is still out there, and there will be people who need urgent care. I support the teachers who feel that it is too risky to go back to the classroom, and would ask those parents who are questioning the need for closures, would you volunteer to go and work in your local school? Let's stay home and ride this out.

Thank you x

@KitKat1985

My concern is that it will result in so many NHS staff not being able to work due to childcare issues that it will in many ways just exacerbate the crisis.

I don't understand why teachers can't just go in and wear PPE like healthcare workers do in order to reduce the risk to them. I would like teachers / TAs to be prioritised to be vaccinated.

Remember masks protect others more than they do the wearer although I agree that teachers in primary schools should wear masks rather than being told (by govt) that they are not needed. However special school seem to be getting lost in this, I work in a special school and tried myself to wear a mask ( I am ECV) but children with autism could not cope with this and quite frequently ripped it from my face. I completely understand that some children lack understanding about PPE but in special schools we are frequently bitten, spat and and generally there's a lot of body fluid exposure! Usually I accept this as part of my job and get on with it but covid makes me very anxious about what I am exposed to

No I don’t, but I do think the government should have predicted a rise in numbers and put more stringent measures in place in December and January.

I would support increased or regular testing and online learning for an extra week before and after Christmas. I think this would have minimised the spread.

I would also have supported no Christmas Day mixing of households, apart from support bubbles.

This is because I think education is so much more important for so many reasons, and can’t be done adequately at home while working.

Our hospital (NW) covid positive numbers peaked in early November and are now dropping. Schools stayed open, and managed ok with a few isolated cases only.

However it is great to hear what valuable people think. Thank you for all your hard work NHS workers! Really don’t know how you do it.

@Panickingpavlova I don’t know what you mean by am I happy now?

I understand that section 44 is an individual action but my colleagues in the NEU are feeling like the point of the union suggesting this is to not protect them as individuals but to protect the community and nhs by reducing mixing. My bubble means I mix with 52 family bubbles. I am not particularly at risk if I catch COVID but would feel like if my bubble was reduced to keyworker and vulnerable children then surely that would help the community. If I ignore the advice then am I potentially putting extra pressure on the NHS? That was the point of my question.

I would also support one week in, one week off for high school through January, to allow only half the classes in at one time. The other half could be live streamed in.

Or even ppe for teachers.

So much that could have been done with plenty of notice and pre planning, but as usual the media and unions are holding the government to ransom.

My neighbour is a nurse and is keeping her kids home for two weeks, whether they close schools or not.

@Changechangychange
As I've said where there is a genuine need for childcare it should be provided, but that should be regardless of occupation as at this point any job that generates tax revenue is just as essential, and those key workers with stay-at-home, furloughed or unemployed partners shouldn't be prioritised in the way that they were in March and childcare should be limited to the days that people are actually working (rather than assuming everyone needs it Monday-Friday) in order to limit the numbers in school.

@Teeninabeanie
How does it benefit anybody if you agree to look after the child of a senior NHS doctor and her stay at home husband, but not the child of 2 full time vets or the child of 2 full time accountants?

@ElleDubloo

I’m an NHS cancer doctor. School closures fill me with dismay. As I’m not the main breadwinner, I’d probably have to take time off work to look after the kids.

Sorry to say that there are much worse things than COVID. A few of which are:

1. Destroying the education of a generation of kids.
2. Destroying the employment prospects of a generation of young adults.
3. More deaths from cancer due to delayed presentation and disrupted investigation and treatment.

I know that COVID causes suffering and death. But other things cause suffering and death too (cancer, unemployment and poverty!!) and I don’t know what the right balance is but I feel very uneasy about the way the UK is managing it.

sorry but this sounds like usforthem tripe rather than a genuine nhs doctor

Ok op, fair enough 🤷‍♂️

@ElleDubloo

I’m an NHS cancer doctor. School closures fill me with dismay. As I’m not the main breadwinner, I’d probably have to take time off work to look after the kids.

Sorry to say that there are much worse things than COVID. A few of which are:

1. Destroying the education of a generation of kids.
2. Destroying the employment prospects of a generation of young adults.
3. More deaths from cancer due to delayed presentation and disrupted investigation and treatment.

I know that COVID causes suffering and death. But other things cause suffering and death too (cancer, unemployment and poverty!!) and I don’t know what the right balance is but I feel very uneasy about the way the UK is managing it.

@ElleDubloo where are you going to put your cancer patients when the hospitals are full of Covid? Do you find that patients are still happy to come in for treatment with rates so high in the country?

As a GP we had so many people delaying presentation due to being too scared to be referred. When rates were lower over summer there was an avalanche of patients. As long as rates are high in the community you'll get delayed presentation and delayed treatment. If we can suppress rates, patients will be able to get treatment for non-Covid issues. Rates will not be suppressed with schools being open right now straight after Christmas mixing.

@Teeninabeanie

I apologise for saying that teachers are being advised not to work. I honestly just wanted to know whether school closures would help the nhs. Is that better? Not trying to upset anyone or to pick on teachers (I am one). I should have planned my wording more carefully.

Went to Wisley I was amazed at the number of groups meeting up so the problem is that people are not following the rules hence the increase in cases. The kids meeting up in these groups are then meant to be going to school

@StatisticalSense

And honestly I find anyone who wants teachers added to the vaccination list (despite their being no evidence of increased risk of death relative to the general population), but doesn't care about those in other (traditionally working class and often ethnic minority) occupations such as taxi drivers who are actually at increased risk being added to the list to be rather distasteful and selfish.

I'm neither a teacher nor a taxi driver, but the key differences here are that teachers are currently not allowed to take precautions which taxi drivers are, and that while there is a need for some level of taxi service, the vast majority of rides are not essential to the functioning of society in the way that schools are.

That said, I'd still.question whether a 30 year old female teacher in good health and with tiny risk of death or major complications from covid should be vaccinated before the average 65 year old, or even a 55 year old who is.still at much higher risk especially if they have health, living or working conditions that increase their risk.

Many of these replies.assume that anyone who isn't a teacher has perfect PPE, anyone who knows about the working conditions of.most people having to go out to work know that they are extremely risky still.

@StatisticalSense I don’t make the rules about who qualifies as a keyworker or whether it needs to be one or two parents being keyworkers. My local authority decided that two parents had to be keyworkers (or single parent) to get a place during last lockdown.
I guess thinking about the whole community in a global pandemic I’d rather look after the children of two doctors than two accountants.

Yes, definitely.

And no, my kids don't get a place as I'm a key worker, because DH isn't. So DH, who is our higher earner, has to do all the childcare.

But it's necessary. We'll be turning people away soon, as it is, we have people in ambulances waiting 6-8 hours for a bed, essentially waiting for someone to be discharged or die.

NHS (frontline) and everyone I work with feels the schools need to shut immediately. I think the teachers are brave and I fully support their actions. It is appalling that they are being forced into this position by our feckless government.
It will have no impact on childcare for NHS staff as they are still allowing keyworkers children into school.

Yes .I think schools should be closed . And teachers should be vaccinated ASAP .

Nurse here. Yes I think they do need to close for January apart from keyworker and vulnerable children, (and I would look at being more robust about who qualified for keyworker places) with furlough for working parents who aren't critical keyworkers.

But the focus then must be on opening on 1st Feb with PPE for staff, school staff across UK having been vaccinated and MUST in my mind be in the context of a robust full lockdown. I also think families for the rest of this academic year should have option to keep their children at home with Oak Academy input and with reviews of their progress with a teacher from their own school (maybe a staff member who has to shield??) without being fined or losing their school place. I think this would take lots of pressure off for families who are ECV.

I cannot accept that children would miss something as vital as education whilst others can visit national trust properties, go to garden centres, play golf, do lots of getting together in ever expanding 'bubbles' etc - it doesn't doesn't give the message that there is a risk when the message is so muddled.

The issue for us as a small community team is that I have had to juggle several lots of weeks of managing work whilst having totally well but self isolating children at home after w case in their classes. There is real risk that community services will collapse if lots of staff have to stay at home with well self isolating children for 10 days at a time. There will simply not be enough people to do the visits and those patients will be at increased risk of ending up in hospital as a result and add to the pressure