Forum menu
Community pharmacist, so I’m definitely going to catch it at some point. Ultimately unavoidable no matter how hard we try to stick to best practices. Also type 1 diabetic and high blood pressure but generally healthy and not particularly worried.
Pharmacy services will be hit badly. Companies I work for have been cutting staff hours for years and we’re already below bare minimum. Branch I was in today has been 51 hours a week short for the past year. WTF happens when the entire staff have to self isolate?
Looks like a lot of you are rather more sanguine than I am about the chances of catching it! Its partly I have elderly parents with pre existing lung issues so I really need to keep free of disease for them in case they need me
I am also concerned about being redeployed into acute areas where I will be at risk and not really have the skills and have no faith at all in the UK government doing the right things
Maybe I am over reacting but I really feel very unhappy but thanks for putting my fears in perspective
My wife is working as a nurse in icu for the next two nights, so I’ll no doubt hear some stories after that. She appears anxious, but wouldn’t want to overly show it and will want to do all she can. She’s already agreed to do extra shifts.
I am concerned for anyone who has to work in hospitals over the coming months. It’s clear that things are going to get desperate beyond imagination and from my experience of nursing/hospital management poor decisions will be common.
The fiasco already over masks is both unbelievable and entirely predictable.
Anyone who assumes that ITU style nursing is easy, or that we can simply ask other nurses to step in is not being realistic. Anyone who assumes that once on a ventilator things are OK is not being realistic. Anyone who assumes that we can bodge ventilators together at JCB is not being realistic.
I couldn’t agree more. However, I fear those that make the decisions are truly clueless. Nursing and medical staff are going to be put under impossible pressure and when things inevitably go wrong - they’ll be hung out to dry.
Staff nurse and work in theatre recovery for three years after 24 years of ward/trauma/ENT/ experience with intensive care experience albeit back in 2001-2002.
Just had 3 days off so out of it a bit. I'm back in later. But I've got the skills and work under pressure which IF it does get worse, there will be loads of very difficult decisions. I hope there'll be more compassion to nurses from above. I'll probably expect to see the Chief Executive. Never seen one in 24 years on the wards.
They've cancelled elective surgery only doing emergencies and trauma.
Just woke up to be told that one of my wife consultant colleagues is isolating because their son has a persistent cough.
Not too much of an issue you would think, but it’s a consultant unit of 3 dealing with super specialised cancer work.
Ridiculous that she can not be tested, especially given she was in work yesterday in close contact with all medical staff in the unit.
One of the announcements yesterday was that all symptomatic healthcare workers would be tested early to allow them to know whether to return to work or stay away.
But I had wondered about how they would deal with a symptomatic member of the household.
Although in her case it sounds as if she could be responsible for some very stick people so maybe best to stay away
@FunkyDunc - it’s ridiculous. My wife’s ward have suddenly grown a conscious and sent all pregnant staff home and have been worried about Mrs D. They advised her to call 111 which she did this morning.
Whoever she spoke to didn’t even know about the whole household isolation thing!
That said after half the workforce calls in today saying child/husband/wife has symptoms etc I think they’ll bring in testing pretty quickly.
This has left me feeling very vulnerable – partly because my skills are out of date and partly because my profession will mean I am at increased risk.
Aye, my wife is pretty much in the same boat as you TJ, been off the wards for a few years now, in macular clinics, and worries about going straight back in at the pointy bit.
I'm sure she'll be fine, she's a bloody intelligent woman and works like ****, but I still worry.
If her clinic were to be mothballed for a period of months, a lot of people will go blind, that's a reality. I know preserving life is a priority, but it's a bloody horrible thought.
All the best TJ, and everyone else at the front line.
Mot Healthcare but planner manager for social care including care homes and home care. We can barely cope on a normal day, times are far from normal. A tsunami is coming our way and, frankly, we have no idea if or how we will cope.
Mrs S is a GP.
Our kids are not going to see much of us over the next few weeks.
Edit, we have 6 care homes and 2000 community visits per day. We currently have only 500 face masks.
Not really I healthcare worker as such, I work in a large pharmacy (I am not a pharmacist). I have to say things are changing daily but for now we have no issues with prescription meds but our OTC products such as paracetamol are fast running out. We have tens of thousands if people in the shop each week and lots of them can be sick so I am resigned to getting it at some point. People often come to us first when they are ill and the number of people coming in saying they have a cough/ temperature is unbelievable. PLEASE DO NOT COME TO YOUR PHARMACY IF YOU HAVE SYMPTOMS! We don’t seem to have any restrictions as such in place at the moment (trying to implement social distancing, but it gets ignored, and limit some purchases, with talk of restricting hours/customers in the days ahead) and if I am honest some customers attitude towards us I beginning to make me a bit angry. People seem to respect GPs and doctors etc way more us shop/healthcare workers (that may change when our pharmacists are all sick and we cannot dispense their meds). Other people can work from home and limit their contact with others but we carry on as normal doing our best, for now. It is not nice being on the commercial side right now with bosses weighing up running a business and keeping our jobs while balancing the needs of staff and customers.
My sister is a recently retired senior nurse who now does community driving. She reckons there will be a steep increase in neurosis and anxiety, as well as domestic violence and even murder. Imagine being stuck at home with somebody abusive or alcoholic or a child with Asperger's and no chance of respite.
I'm an agency worker. Work in NHS hospitals. Normally the same one. Apparently soon to be cancelled in favour of the students and retiree staff due to politics over sick pay and the fact I'm seen as a parasite by fellow colleagues and managers.
Luckily I've savings.
Didn't think in the worst health crisis that I'd be out of work becuase I generally want a better life for our family.
Yeah, some great typical NHS thinking going on in my wife’s trust too. She’s signed up for the Bank, as an ACP. Despite all the ED consultants and the ED managers and various directors agreeing the rate of pay (same as a Registrar basically) the head of nursing won’t approve it as ‘it’s not on Agenda For Change pay scale’. So if she does work extra hours on the Bank, she will be paid less than her normal hourly rate for doing her job. And they wonder why none of the ACPs want to do extra hours...
Shes in bed at the mo as she's about to start a run of nights. On the plus side at least that means I won’t have too much contact with her over the next 4 days.
Superficial
Healthcare workers with ill and isolated household members told to report for work as per normal until they become unwell themselves.
Consultant and director and Mrs Devbrix is a respiratory ward sister. Loads of planning for the inevitable. How are we going to run services in the midst of it when we can barely run them now due to chronic staff shortages and high demand? It’s going to be very grim but staff are being absolutely amazing as usual. Was on a national planning call today and it was not reassuring in terms of staff testing and equipment - no answers.
Preparation at home has been to divide the house up so we don’t infect each other, loads of distraction and long contemplative silences.
Intensive Care Doctor here, there is a lot of planning going on, not too many patients yet but a real sense that we are in the calm before the storm, and the storm is going to be a massive one.
Jeepers - a fair few of you a lot closer to the real front line than me! Looks like my ward will end up being used for " well" folk awaiting to go home rather than anything else so we should not have high risk of getting infected nor a risk of being sent into the general hospital so in many ways I look to be better off than many! time to find where I misplaced my stiff upper lip ( I appear only to have a rather wobbly one) 🙂
Good luck to those of you who are ( or whose other halfs are) close to the real front line
thanks - for what you do and for giving me perspective
As an office seat shining IT contractor, I can’t begin to imagine how you guys do it. Just incredibly humbling.
Old shoes - there are some very positive things about working in healthcare which is why we do it. You get thanked a lot, you get respect from folk, you can always get a job. It makes us feel good to care for folk, Pay is decent and its steady work, and most importantly its often fun!
Wife is HMForces nurse working on NHS wards. Basically been told to enjoy a day or two of non medical duties before it starts to really kick off. As a Forces family kind of used to cracking on and having the inevitable hanging over us, but this time it’s a bit different.
The effects have already been felt in our Trust despite no single case of COVID19 in the Trust.
We have had a number of clinicians not turn up (following guidelines) due to potential family isolation.
I was even in a meeting earlier with a senior nurse and she got a call from her sons school saying he had a temperature. Again that meant she had to leave immediately.
Our planning continues at pace but changes hourly. PPE is a real concern, as is testing as we could end up short of staff before we even get anywhere near high levels of COVID19 in the Trust
In my days off we have stopped mobile testing and today I was in a bit of nether world as no one really knew what they wanted me to do as I was loaned to another community health care provider. I ended up just fetching and delivering one box of face masks.....
Staff were thin on the ground as we had a mix of people who suddenly identified themselves as part of the vulnerable so stayed at home, and we are losing people to who are self isolating due to 'symptoms'.
Seems we are desktop exercising being 50% down on staffing, ppe ordering seems tricky. There seems to be a weird belief that we will be able to empty our hospitals effeciently into a lush world of community services, without thinking that home care and care home providers can barely cope with demand at the best of times. And in fairness Adult Care are going to be focusing on coping with increased demand and reduced capacity in the care sector and who will be trying to ensure the most vulnerable get essential care. So really it looks like both organisations are totally unaligned due to their competing demands.
Partner is a nurse, the understaffing was already bad enough before all this, I am concerned what the upcoming months will look like.
Wife is a Consultant Anaesthetist, I am pretty worried about her, partly due to the virus in that environment, but perhaps more because of the incredible amount of stress they will be under and heartbreaking decisions they will be making on a daily basis.
She has taken a Thermarest and sleeping bag into work now, and expects not to come home much once it really starts.
As others have said, dept was already understaffed - quite what will happen in this situation is impossible to imagine, but no one can doubt the dedication of the hospital staff.
So latest the Wife's heard is that the consultants have been to Screwfix to get PPE.
I presume it is for PPE and not one of these. 🙂
There was an item on 5 live yesterday where someone h'official said there is a number to call (presumably for hospitals) that is there to assist in getting supply chain issues sorted quickly in this emergency.
The Wife had not heard of it and when mentioned at work she was told "it's not your problem" (her words).
Maybe start keeping an (audio) diary for the "after".
NHS staff across the UK are working tirelessly to cope with the increased demands during the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.
To say thank you, food and hospitality companies including Domino’s Pizza, McDonald’s, and Pret a Manger are showing their appreciation by offering free food.
Aww at least somebody cares 🥰
Psychiatry trainee here working in big hospital. Just started 7 days self-isolating after persistent cough started yesterday. Feel fine generally. So frustrating we can't find out if it actually is "The 'rona" or not. Could be at work today otherwise. Think we are going to be very busy over the next few months.
So latest the Wife’s heard is that the consultants have been to Screwfix to get PPE.
I know someone who has done this, paid with their own cash, a not insignificant amount. Again, their supplier could not fulfil (social care not nhs)
molgrips
Subscriber
I’d volunteer if I could.
I've been thinking the same -
I'm a fairly healthy (bit Fat) 47 year old With a science/Engineering/Defence background and a first aid at work cert.
I'm pretty sure i could be of some use as a junior lab assistant/pushing a trolley/filling in spreadsheets/etc.
I'd be happy to volunteer out of hours if it helped.
Brother in law is an anesthetist and says he'd be working hard but OK were it not for the fact that before that role he was...a rather senior ICU nurse who still keeps his hours up with the odd bit of bank work.
So he's now being put back into ICU and is expecting some rather severe fun and games.
Good luck to him, and everyone else with them.
You're all hero's.
Hospital worker here. I think this is definately the calm before the storm. I hope Im wrong but thats my suspicion, especailly in London which will get worse first because of the levels of proximity people have
I am now in 2 weeks self isolation as mrs TJ has a temp
Sorry to hear that TJ. My partner is pregnant so is already on 3 months shutdown. Just hoping the information that it's no more serious in pregnancy is correct.
Wife is a Consultant therapy radiographer on cancer unit, she is trying to refresh her memory on CT scanning as they've been told that COVID19 looks quite distinctive on ct scans?
Ridiculous though, i am working at home from monday as school is closing and because my daughter is t1 diabetic, so supposedly we are self-isolating, but then it is ridiculous that my wife and others here won't be reguarly tested, so she may have virus and then walk through a ward of cancer patients with no immune system... then come home to us, are we supposed to self-isolate from her somehow in same house?
I'm a mental health support worker in the community and the atmosphere at work is very unsettling, I can't begin to imagine how acute colleagues are feeling. I was chatting to a social worker the other day and we both said it feels like before a tsunami where the water recedes and no one knows how big the wave is going to be.
It's looking like our service will cease and we'll be redeployed to where we're most useful, I expect to be working as an STR worker/healthcare assistant on an inpatient psychiatric ward soon and I've told my boss I'll do whatever I can to be useful. I was feeling quite stoical about it all until I spoke to a friend, who's a psychiatrist in London, they told me there are cases on their wards already...
Really concerned Australia seems to be following their own prediction software and not listening to Europe. We seem to be stumbling off track. Also how quick did China seem to stop bew infections? Has Wuhan gone back business as usual?
@stayhigh you at sonewhwre private? I used to work in one just outside market drayton. Not fun at all.
I understand that Apple have bought up large quantities of PPE, and the government are currently getting it off them.
All PPE will now be distributed based on how many cases each hospital has
@aphex_2k NHS for me. For the last two nights I've been responsible for three wards and 30 patients due to a suspected case on one of our wards and subsequent staffing factors. Will be the same again tonight. It has been a little tense at times but one of the really nice things about a long stay unit is the relationships you build with service users which is helping enormously and will do over coming events.
my wife hasn't been on the wards for a few years, but is going to be retrained on tube feeding for those on ventilators. Definitely feels like the calm before the storm.
Two daughters working in hospitals at the 'front line'. I am worried about how the coming onslaught will affect them. It seems that the whole concept of H&S management; risk assessment and control measures, etc goes out of the window in the NHS and that all of you working there have to take risks on the chin that most people would find unacceptable. You have no option because the alternative is too awful to contemplate.
It is interesting how everyone, including the Government, is praising and talking of protecting the NHS now we know we are all about to depend on it. If only they had decided to protect it over the last decade... And if only the emergency planners had done what it says on the tin.
Sorry for the moan... I'm just a worried dad.
It seems that the whole concept of H&S management; risk assessment and control measures, etc goes out of the window in the NHS and that all of you working there have to take risks on the chin
I’m sorry but as a person working on those very things in a Trust, please do not make sweeping statements without knowledge
Policies & Procedures are in place in every hospital. We are trying our hardest with limited national resources to ensure all staff remain safe (and they are doing so). No one in our Trust is certainly being put under increased risk in response to the current situation. There is an element of perceived risk and people thinking they need more PPE than they actually need (in some areas)
There are clear chains of command and if staff have concerns (your daughters) they should raise their concerns through that chain of command.
In our Trust there are 3 meetings per day, 7 days per week now where any H&S concerns are resolved.
Funky Dunc - if there is insufficient PPE then there is nowt trust managers meeting can do about it. Same as if there are insufficient single rooms to isolate people.
There are clear chains of command and if staff have concerns (your daughters) they should raise their concerns through that chain of command.
That gave me a wry smile, as from previous experience unless things have improved dramatically since I was last on the front line, there is no chance of action being taken quickly enough, especially in the current situation, to reduce risk, despite your best efforts and no amount of meetings will alter that.
No one in our Trust is certainly being put under increased risk in response to the current situation. There is an element of perceived risk and people thinking they need more PPE than they actually need (in some areas)
That's a very bold statement. Who are these 'people'? The 'perceived risk' might be rather different for someone at the sharp end in the real world who has to go home to their families at the end of a shift, hopefully uninfected, compared to someone behind a desk who has never actually had to act in an emergency.
I've had my 'Temporary register' email from HCPC (I haven't practised for over 2 years) and am definitely not looking forward having to 'do my bit'!