How have you shown your appreciation for the NHS this year? Share your artwork or stories with Uber - £200 voucher to be won

[CeriMumsnet]

This year, NHS workers have been working harder than ever in order to keep us safe and well. Doctors, nurses and support staff have isolated themselves from their loved ones and put their own health on the line to go above and beyond in the fight against Covid-19. Uber is celebrating their hard work by offering free rides and eats to NHS workers from 23rd - 27th December, and would love for you to join them in that celebration by sharing the artwork that you and your family have created this year in appreciation and support for the NHS.





Here’s what Uber has to say: "This year has been hard for a lot of people. But especially for those working for the NHS & HSC. As a small gesture of thanks from all of us, Uber is committing two free rides and a free meal to these workers this Christmas.

We loved seeing how many people displayed their messages of thanks to health service workers through drawings and artworks this year. We’d like to encourage everyone to show how grateful we all are by sharing these here and creating more of these wonderful messages of support.

And if you’d like us to share these drawings or messages directly with NHS workers this Christmas, just post it to Instagram or Twitter and use the hashtag #GratefulUK. We’ll find it, and do the rest."

So, did you paint a rainbow in the window at the start of lockdown? Perhaps your children were set an NHS themed arts and crafts homeschooling project? Or will the NHS be featured in your DCs festive drawings or your Christmas cards this year?

If art isn’t your thing, we’d love to hear how you’ve shown your appreciation for the NHS in a different way. Maybe you were eagerly lined up to Clap for Carers every Thursday evening or perhaps you volunteered in your local area? Have you encouraged your children to think about the work that the NHS does?

All who post on this thread will be entered into a prize draw where one lucky MNer will win a £200 voucher for a store of their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck with the prize draw!

MNHQ

Insight T&Cs apply

[HerFlowersToLove]

I just wanted to say how disappointing Doctors, nurses and support staff is as a phrase. There's are thousands of staff in NHS trusts who aren't doctors, nurses or support staff. What about physios for example? In the front line of caring for covid patients. Radiographers, OTs, ODPs, there are many more. It's just so lazy to use that term. How about just 'NHS staff'?

[Desnol]

What alternative reality did this post come from? Do please tell me where to find it, because the reality is very different for me and my family.

This year, NHS workers have been working harder than ever in order to keep us safe and well.

I'm quite sure that ICU doctors and staff are working incredibly hard and are under a lot of stress, but that is a minority of NHS. Everything else has gone away or been shut down.

I'm a full time unpaid carer for my brother who has been very sick for many years, and when the COVID-19 crisis started, all his appointments were cancelled, rescheduled or changed to useless telephone appointments.

Cardiology, endocrinology, neurology - all postponed - cardiology appointments were postponed three times!

His regular mental health appointments were cancelled altogether - the twice yearly follow up with the psychiatrist - gone! The fortnightly appointments with the mental health support nurse - gone. The named contact replaced by a phone number for emergency contact only.

Even the A&E no longer function normally - it took 12 hours of constant phoning to find a hospital A&E willing to give an anti-Tetanus jab after he accidentally hurt himself while weeding in the garden.

GP services have also stopped functioning - no appointments, no physical examinations, no diagnostics - all we get is a telephone conversation which doesn't help.

Even the prescription services have gone haywire:- instead of getting medications for 12 weeks, the NHS directive was to reduce these to 4 weekly reordering. Some of these medications have to be ordered by the pharmacist, and these take time. Every time that I request a repeat prescription, there is a mistake in the disage, or the request email is ignored (e.g. ordered one day too early). Every single time I have had to make phonecalls to follow up or to act as a go between between the pharmacist and the GP practice, why hasn't some prescription been issued and when will we get it?

Eventually in November, my bro managed to get a Holter fitted at the hospital (measures ECG automatically over a period of time) and a BP Monitor (measures blood pressure at 30 min intervals), vital diagnostics for someone who keeps getting faints and dizzy spells, occasionally falls, and sometimes looses consciousness and just collapses to the floor. Even that was fraught - the hospital nurses, in a nearly empty hospital invested most of their energy into trying to stop me - his carer - from attending with him. For someone who has severe mental problems and no memory, it's impossible for him to recall what he was instructed to do or to answer their key questions about medical history. What a waste of effort and emphasis! As for the printouts of the BP readings that we were previously able to get when we requested them, the answer was - "the hospital doesn't do this any more, you have to request this through the GP".

There is only one part of the NHS which continues to function unchanged, and that is the Clozapine Clinic service - perhaps because the medication is regulated by law. It can't be issued without a satisfactory blood test, because it's high risk.

The previous NHS support of home carers has become non-existent, or more difficult (often unnecessarily so) since COVID-19. The NHS staff don't seem to realise that we, the unpaid carers, are also struggling during the COVID crisis, and instead of getting more help and support to continue to look after our charges, the health service has just additional obstacles in our way, and passed on all the effort and responsibility onto home carers. The NHS has taken away all the support which we previously had in order to be able to perform our care.

Your post also says Doctors, nurses and support staff have isolated themselves from their loved ones and put their own health on the line to go above and beyond in the fight against Covid-19.

I'm sure that some of them have done so, mostly in care homes. But in reality, the majority of doctors, nurses and support staff have isolated themselves from their patients. When did you last see a doctor face to face for a physical examination?

So, in answer to your question: How have you shown your appreciation for the NHS this year? the answer must be this one -
Where are you NHS? Missing you and wish you were here.

[Mumisnotmyonlyname]

I think the thread title is really patronising, even though well intentioned.

[suziesue45]

I thanked them by working far more hours than I'm employed to do with no pay rise, extra support, breaks etc just to help keep the department running as covis has hit our hospital hard.

[wellingtonsandwaffles]

Checking in on my loved ones who are NHS workers, following the rules, and making sure I vote for those who actually value the NHS

[ivfbabymomma1]

We did paintings 🖼

[TheEndisCummings]

By trying to protect myself and others so we do not get ill. And by denouncing Tories at every opportunity, and mourning the fact the Labour Party capitulated and swerved off a meaningfully radical path.

[MadisonErin]

I left £5 in an envelope along with a letter of thanks on the windscreen of an ambulance so the paramedics could get themselves a hot drink

[ApplesinmyPocket]

My DD is a nurse, so we've been very aware of how Covid has meant huge amounts of extra stress and strain on NHS workers.

She'll be glad of a free Uber ride and meal as she can't even come home for Christmas.... her shifts have fallen inside the Covid amnesty so we shan't be seeing her

Other DD and I painted these for our window during lockdown

[RugsEverywhere]

Followed all the corona rules

[Redburnett]

I never vote Conservative.
I have not formally complained about the fact that the only NHS dentist consultation I could get was by telephone so no treatment available (broken tooth since March).

[HannahLI]

We made a rainbow to pop in the window, I felt it was important for the kids to understand why it was significant and the thankfulness we have fir nhs staff

[Theimpossiblegirl]

I have shown my support by following the rules. I also volunteered delivering prescriptions in my local area when I wasn't working myself.
I shall continue to support the NHS by not voting Tory.

[voyager50]

My neighbours and I clapped for carers each week.

I avoided contacting the local GP and nurse for minor ailments that I would normally have asked fro advice about in order to not put pressure on a busy NHS,

[fishnships]

Followed the rules, clapped weekly and put a rainbow in the window.

[sharond101]

I supported the NHS by working overtime in my Pharmacy attending to patients, giving flu jag and dispensing thousands of prescriptions every week.

[PickledChicory]

We stayed home, followed the rules and I carried on working. I'm a key worker but not NHS. We clapped for the NHS and I baked for the NHS in my free time.

[MrsFrTedCrilly]

My family like many others up thread are NHS front line staff, exhausted and continuing to deal with covid and the usual day to day shit that working for the NHS brings.
We didn’t clap, as to us it felt meaningless when there was no PPE and every single day they were at risk (and continued to be)
DH reckoned clapping was encouraged as it was free...
My kids were terrified that family members including their dad were going to contract covid and die.
I’m going to continue to help the NHS by never voting for a Tory and minimising my and our family risk of getting unwell.
I’m sorry for being so bitter 2020 has been shit for us.

[sheilads105]

I showed them respect by staying-in when I could, washing my hands, wearing face coverings and distancing. I also ran a virtual 5K to raise money for NHS charities. I owe them so much and could never repay them

[Kakiweewee]

I thanked them by supporting my NHS worker mother. We moved in together for the first lockdown and I took over meal planning, shopping lists and bulk meal prepping so that there was always fresh healthy food available for her at work and at the end of a difficult day.

We both managed to lose weight this way. Or current total sits at about 144lbs between us. That's 67lbs for her and 77lbs for me.

[Asuwere]

I thanked them by following the rules and being careful to try and reduce the need for the health service.
I also think carefully about who I vote for.

[Stargirl84]

We kept to social distancing rules in order to reduce the spread of Covid and the impact on the NHS. We also painted rainbows to go in our front window.

[Moondust001]

PS - I doubt very much that my contribution will win, but if I did, please send it to a food bank. Uber workers need it more than I do.

[Moondust001]

I thanked the NHS by continuing to be in a union that defends the public sector; and which fights for workers rights, something that Uber don't remotely believe in.

Free rides to NHS workers provided by workers who have been denied sick leave, holidays and the minimum wage? A free meal paid for from the profits made on the backs of workers who can't afford to put food on their own families tables thanks to the appalling employment conditions of Uber.

I'd be pretty disgusted by any NHS worker who took them up on it; and I am certainly disgusted that Mumsnet is promoting Uber and their shallow attempt to jump on the bandwagon of support for the NHS to drum up their own profits. Nice bit of free marketing though, for a company based in a country that doesn't believe in providing health or any other kind of care for the poorest and most marginalised in society.

[jellybeanpopper]

I went to work for them everyday. Overwhelmed by all the lovely people who were grateful to have the support and care during these strange times.