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?

@AaronPurr

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.

Why? NHS staff are key workers and their children will be able to attend school.

This is not the case at our local primary. I have colleagues who are front line physios and cannot send their dc into school as key workers unless they are a single parent.

Secondary teachers cannot get their kids in as kw at primary level

No, definitely not.
But I would vaccinate teachers at the same time as healthcare workers.

I am also an NHS nurse and have dc in years 11 and 12. I agree schools should shut BUT school staff should absolutely be priority for the vaccine amongst us NHS staff. We have back office workers able to access the vaccine but not teachers - thats just not right!

15 years experience in the nhs. Yes 100% the schools should shut. My dd still eligible to attend as we are both key workers. She won’t be going.

I work for the NHS. I don't think schools should shut. I think teachers should be vaccinated so they stop complaining and continue to educate the next generation.

No.
But I think school staff should be made to wear PPE except in certain situations (wear lip reading is needed for example). They should be prioritised for vaccines along with social care staff. Students from year 2/3 should have to wear masks. Parents should be told to STFU about complaining about windows being open and to dress their child more appropriately.

I'm an NHS Dr and a school governor. I have DC at primary and secondary.

I definitely support secondary school closures (well 'remote learning')

I probably do support at least a few weeks primary closure although that's more finely balanced as primary pupils get less out of remote learning, have smaller bubbles and are a bit less likely to be the index case than secondary. Plus I do worry if staff will be off work due to childcare.

I am aware through both my roles of what shit home lives some children have. Although they might be eligible for school places some parents don't send them anyway. A quarter of our parents did not engage with home learning at all and when the kids came back to school it was sad to see how the attainment gap had definitely widened. Teachers had such good plans to catch that up and I am sad to think of the long term effects of this which are absolutely real

But short term people are dying of Covid on my wards right now. Bed occupancy in this area is higher now than it was in April and cancer surgery has been cancelled again. Only priority 1 surgery will take place ie immediately life/ limb saving.

I think we need another full scale lock down at this point. A proper one like we had in March.

I didn’t want to send the section 44 letter. I hate teaching from home. I’m likely to be up another four or five hours tonight sorting it out. My wifi is shocking even by rural standards. It costs me a fortune calling families every day.

However, I was persuaded by a message from a nurse friend today to change my mind. She told me exactly what’s going on in her hospital (SE but not London or adjacent), how they are at crisis point and need transmission down now, and asked me to pass the message on to all my colleagues to help with their decision making.

Areas of high transmission should go on the rota system before school closures. It shouldn’t be open or closed and it certainly shouldn’t be national closure because certain areas are high when others aren’t.

No but how schools were opened was stupid
Imo small bubbles and a part time time table should have been created
I'm at the vaccine roll out. Wtf are they thinking. Nhs/ carers/teachers and essential workers should have been first, those who cannot isolate because they need to work

@Serin

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.

Thank you x

@Livelifetotheful

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

But they are vaccinating people who are at risk of death or hospitalisation first (rightly so), and their carers eg care home and frontline healthcare, to prevent nosocomial spread.

Teachers, unless cev who are shielded, do not fall into this category and nor do children. They are unlikely to be severely unwell.

I support schools closing in the areas that are struggling most. I also agree with offering the vaccine to teachers as a priority. However I don't trust the motives of the teaching unions and I don't actually think they should be calling the shots.

Why are you all so sure that closing schools will dramatically reduce transmission? Schools have been closed for 16 days and rates are going up. It’s adults spreading it, not kids. Like that group of people caught playing dominoes in a restaurant today. And the various parties over the festive period. Oh and all the people who went out socialising when London was (bizarrely) put in tier 2 in November!

Mixed feelings due to our situation. Both myself and husband are NHS workers. Have to be in work. Would prefer to be at home with kids. Child’s school is not providing key worker coverage for a number of reasons. Our child would have to go to an unknown school with teachers and children unknown to them. A pretty traumatic experience for a primary school child. If it wasn’t for this I’d say close the schools.

@Timeturnerplease thank you will read this out to my DH (also a secondary teacher and hates using computers let alone remote learning. Hope our internet copes with two of us teaching remotely!).

@Serin of course it will impact nhs staff. The keyworker places last time we’re 9-3.30. No wraparound Care. My friends where both work frontline NHS couldn’t coordinate this so had no choice but to get their elderly shielding relatives to care for their children. Shift work or even 9-5 patient facing roles does not work with 9-3.30 schooling.
My colleagues are beyond stressed at the decisions they will have to make if schools close.

We have recently had a number of outbreaks at work that closed 2 wards and a crisis team. One patient died and others are seriously ill.

In each case a staff member was unknowingly infected by their secondary school child and came to work causing an outbreak. Lateral flow tests BTW failed to pick any of these up.

In a previous outbreak in the first wave we had one staff member die after being on ITU and ECMO for many weeks. A young man with no co-morbidities apart from being BAME. Statistically that is rare I know but it did happen to a colleague of mine. We are 60% BAME staff where I work, quite a few in their 50s and I'm terrified that we lose someone else.

My kids hated being off school. My poor DH had to bear the brunt of home schooling whilst trying to run his business. It was shit and we all hated it but I still think another full lockdown is needed at this point.

I support secondary schools shutting for 2 weeks but not for weeks on end and some primary schools. I don’t support all primary schools shutting. There hasn’t been a single case at my son’s primary school yet it’s shutting for staff safety reasons. Last minute with no key worker provision yet. I’m worried about staff shortages at my work made worse by this. I have to go into work despite being pregnant.
I do want teachers to get the vaccine first though, even before care home residents if it will mean children get an education. They should have the lovely blue surgical masks too. Remote learning does not work for primary children.

@Bagamoyo1

Why are you all so sure that closing schools will dramatically reduce transmission? Schools have been closed for 16 days and rates are going up. It’s adults spreading it, not kids. Like that group of people caught playing dominoes in a restaurant today. And the various parties over the festive period. Oh and all the people who went out socialising when London was (bizarrely) put in tier 2 in November!

Because it has been modeled repeatedly that school closures have a big impact on the R (0.4-0.7), far bigger than any other options right now (and also bigger than hospitality as was).

@threebeautifulboys

I work for the NHS. I don't think schools should shut. I think teachers should be vaccinated so they stop complaining and continue to educate the next generation.

This

@Bagamoyo1 would be nice but it's not forthcoming at the moment. Right I'm going to be one of those teachers that needs to shut up now.

@Bagamoyo1

Why are you all so sure that closing schools will dramatically reduce transmission? Schools have been closed for 16 days and rates are going up. It’s adults spreading it, not kids. Like that group of people caught playing dominoes in a restaurant today. And the various parties over the festive period. Oh and all the people who went out socialising when London was (bizarrely) put in tier 2 in November!

Yes this is not being discussed enough.

We need to know more about where it is spreading most....