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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'!
FunkyDunc - as a doctor in the frontline I know for a fact PPE is almost non-existent in some hospitals. We are being asked to go in with simple surgical masks in many places simply as there isn't any higher grade PPE available. People comparing it to Chernobyl where soldiers were ordered to run into the fire despite no radioactive protection. You are not on the sharp end of all this and would be best served to listen properly to those who are. Your statements to not indicate you have a real grip on what frontline staff are going through and preparing to go through. Be careful of defending the indifensible.
In our Trust there are 3 meetings per day, 7 days per week now where any H&S concerns are resolved.
As long as there's plenty of meetings we all know we're safe.
Let's face it, you can never have too many meetings.
I think the Guys above have confirmed my fear. My point is that in most circumstances, if you don't have the PPE or its not safe to do something you just don't do it. In the current circumstance the NHS staff have no option but to carry on working without all the PPE or without the necessary breaks or prospect of being relieved on shifts that are already too long/frequent. If they say no then someone else will have to step in and face the same risk or patients will suffer/die.
My wife is not long in from a nightshift in CCU.
Extra PPE is non existent for all but ITU.
She and some colleagues had a mask fitting a couple of weeks ago for the proper masks (sorry, not sure on the terminology!) They all failed, but one.
The next step after that was basically, meh. Radio silence on it since.
They'll all get stuck in and get on with it, but preparation to actually keep staff healthy and available to work has been woeful.
The lack of PPE seems a common problem/issue.
My wife (nurse) has 4 patients on her ward confirmed as having the coronavirus, yet they are not in isolation from other patients, there is no testing for staff, and there is no PPE for the staff caring for them.
As gowerboy correctly states, NHS staff have no option but to carry on and do the job. Its not like some emergency services who will not put themselves at risk if they do not have the correct breathing apparatus to go into a building, NHS staff have no such safety net.
Just been sent this
My wife is still trying to resolve the conflict between “You must not see these patients without wearing this PPE” and “We haven’t got any of that PPE for you”.
Slopping sound of poo hitting the fan in pharmacy land. Public going mad over ordering worse than at Christmas time. Script numbers three times what I’d normally expect at this time of year.
No deliveries from wholesale on Thursday then everything turned up on Friday along with normal order. Wholesales say there’s plenty of stock in the system but can’t fit it all in the vans at once. They’re going to be dropping to once a day deliveries instead of two. Doesn’t sound bad but if we urgently need a non stock item it’s now next day instead of same day.
Only just finished labelling Thursday’s script pick up on Friday night, god only knows when they’ll be assembled if we’ve even the stock.
Fed up of customers coming in looking for inhalers then saying that it’s ok because they still have two boxes left!
At least the health board have seen sense and let us reduce our patient facing hours. Currently doors closed for first hour and last half to let us getting caught up without dealing with people looking for loo roll or hand sanitiser.
Just finished six days straight of this and now looking forward to a few days off, but not convinced I won’t get called in for double cover on Monday.
As long as there’s plenty of meetings we all know we’re safe.
Let’s face it, you can never have too many meetings.
Oh so you would rather we didnt check in that staff have the correct PPE (where possible) and that oxygen supplies are still sufficient, that ward reconfigurations happen at the right time to avoid contamination?
Mrs_H is on the covid ward tonight.
I must confess to being a trifle concerned.
I guess I'll find out how it went tomorrow morning.
My neighbour is self isolating with CV-19 after contracting it on the local CV-19 ward at Addenbrookes. Although not tested, but given she was dealing with CV-19 patients, pretty likely she has it. Does suggest PPE isn't really working given this is the calm before the storm. Also seems very odd they're asking all the retired doctors/nurses to come back and take her place given their ages and heightened risk of dieing...
Well daughter just finished a shift. Over 12 hours today, yesterday, day before... you get the picture. She say the PPE feels inadequate despite reassurances. A plastic piny and a cloth face mask. Hell, she'd do better to use the air fed masks that asbestos workers use. Nowhere proper to change/shower - yet their Facilities people don't hire a unit in the car park so they use a spare ward shower. They have to treat very ill patients and deal with stressed family members with the complication that they are now potential C19 vectors... surely the family liaison could be taken over by a seconded social worker or similar. She says student nurses are staying on and are being relied on.
I am of course speaking as an onlooker and I have no experience of a clinical setting, but I have managed incidents for years and understand the principles of risk management. Something feels wrong about this.
Gowerboy - the problem with healthcare is that you cannot walk away even if the risk assessment / ppe is crap. Building a building and the risks are two high you down tools. But in healthcare you cannot.
I hope when this shit storm is all done anyone who has put themselves on the front line gets the recognition they deserve from this country
Seriously folks, it's truly humbling the work you are doing..
Footflaps - the fact they are asking generally older retired NHS staff shows the gravity of the situation. Also the measures a Tory government has taken to try and prop up livelihoods and the entire system, basically. Your neighbour could easily have contracted it out with work I guess.
Gowerboy - this is the reality. Staff are/will be going above and beyond. Council I work for is creating a bank of workers who are not ‘essential front line’ normally but can redeployed/quickly retrained to provide essential services. For instance, a council plumber delivering medication to the elderly.
Tj. I know. That's exactly my point. You nurses, doctors, HCSW deserve better precisely because you can't say no.
Without even thinking about the incident planning that hasn't happened as that ship has sailed, what worries me as an involved bystander is that, right now, some of the issues are still sortable. Not all of course but some. Not easy I know, but not impossible either.
Wales has Silver/Tactical commands set up for this incident. What the hell are they doing about the wellbeing of their most important, vulnerable and valuable assets.
I recognise that talk is easy and I declare a strong interest here, but I wish it my girls felt like someone 'had their back'.
As long as there’s plenty of meetings we all know we’re safe.
Let’s face it, you can never have too many meetings.
Taken off the front line last week, this weekend and next week to have “plenty of meetings” about eg how we are going to choose which patients will and won’t get care when we are overwhelmed, which services to cut first because we don’t have any staff without people dying, making sure people wont go without life saving drugs because they haven’t had blood tests or there aren't the staff to get it to them, where we are going to put the numbers of bodies we are told to expect and how we are going to support each other through the trauma healthcare staff are suffering in Italy and Spain. Perhaps we shouldn’t be bothering Notmyrealname and you could just pop along to sort it all out for us.
Guys - please don't bicker on this thread. Thanks.
Funky Dunc - perhaps unintentionally - made it sound like everything was under control and this is at odds with what those on the front line were seeing.
But please - this thread is for mutual support
Funky Dunc – perhaps unintentionally – made it sound like everything was under control and this is at odds with what those on the front line were seeing.
I can obviously only comment on my views from the hospital I work in, and the one Mrs FD works in. We are trying our hardest to ‘do the right thing’ for our front line staff, and so far on the whole it is working, speaking with front line staff in my hospital. Unfortunately though it appears this will change in the coming week.
Having just read a doctors account in London though, what is coming sounds horrific.
I'm really worried about my best friend.
She's a senior occupational therapist. She's a very strong person but even I feel she is about to crumble.
She's trying to balance working 6 days a week with bringing up 2 boys (separated husband is absolutely useless).
She can no longer get help from her parents (over 70yrs of age) because they are sensibly staying indoors. She is missing them and is worrying about them. Her father is 83 and has had cancer. Getting the shopping she needs has been difficult too.
The large hospital she works in, is closing the outpatients dept and retraining all the medical staff to work on the wards.
She already works on the wards (but not yet with CV patients) and has in the past 12 months worked in A&E due to staff shortages.
She and her colleagues are the very backbone of the NHS and need to be supported.
This last few days she hasn't even had time to answer my texts (for help).
tpbiker
Member
I hope when this shit storm is all done anyone who has put themselves on the front line gets the recognition they deserve from this country
I very much doubt it. The New Year's Honours list will be full of those higher management types who self isolated and skyped throughout this crisis getting Knighthoods and CBE's ... Maybe a handful of nurses will get the lower baubles.
Those in our social work team were informed last week that we could/would be redeployed to cover care agency staff when their numbers start depleting.
@devbrix, It's a comment borne out of frustration having heard this pretty much non stop from the management at my trust the past couple of weeks. Despite all the meetings we're told they're having, nothing is improving, in fact things are getting much worse but we still get to see and hear them in the local press telling us how things are going well and we don't have kit shortages etc despite hundreds if not thousands of frontline staff knowing otherwise.
Apologies if you think it was aimed at you, it certainly wasn't. Good luck with what you're doing though as it sounds like you'll need it over the coming weeks.
My wife is still trying to resolve the conflict between “You must not see these patients without wearing this PPE” and “We haven’t got any of that PPE for you”.
That will be a recurring theme. When the dust settles on this there needs to be a day of reckoning for the political shits who have run the NHS down year by year, always on the cheap, always to the bare minimum then minus another 10%, always preying on the altruistic motivations that make people want to work in it.
Over the years junior doctors have taken on responsibilities that should belong to surgeons, nurses have taken on responsibilities that should belong to junior doctors and so on. Even receptionists in hospitals have roles that would have made people’s jaws hit the floor in the 1980s. Funnily enough their wages have not risen to compensate, though.
It’s not just the NHS either. Police and firefighters are not much different.
I’m an Occupational Therapist - Community Neuro Rehab. Still working with our normal caseload last week - this is likely to change next week to only urgent visits. As such I am requesting that I can support my local big acute hospital out on the wards supporting discharges and trying to clear beds. I’ve worked with them before, and my friends there are asking for a show of hands for some additional numbers. Weirdly, I am looking forward to getting back into the acute setting and getting stuck in where I can during this crisis.
Adam
Healthcare Assistant here, our Orthopaedic trauma ward has been reduced from 5 bays for Orthopaedics to 3 and the bottom two bays are for suspected Covid 19 patients. We have blocked it off and reduced our visiting rules to 1 person per patient for 1 hour only.
We got a fit test for Ffp3 masks on Friday, mine seemed to work during the test of having some obnoxious tasting liquid sprayed in my face first, then having the mask fitted whilst being sprayed again.
But I’ve not seen one available yet since, just regular surgical masks.
We take it in turns each shift to do the COVID bays.
Personally I’m not worried about me but I worry about my family getting it due to peoples not taking it seriously enough.
Each meeting I go to leaves me with an ever increasing sense of doom. Waiting for a battle at dawn the whistle to sound and go over the top.
Then there are the pictures of loads of people out on the hills when we are struggling to keep mountain rescue viable.
Ripping half a hospital apart to build a COVID (Ebola) assessment unit that will create a high viral load zone to be run with basic PPE and risk a cytokine crisis.
And today the AED patient with the Stanley knife lac on her leg
Me “ you on a work shut down doing diy?”
Her “no I’m off on two weeks self isolation”..
You couldn’t make it up
Echo last post, the mood has changed in our hospital as of yesterday.
A lot of planning happened last week, we are by no where near ready but better than we were, what is normally a busy acute hospital is like a ghost town. Has anyone else noticed that or the ‘normal’ sick people have just disappeared?
Day by day the numbers of very sick COVID19 is going up. I spoke to a few consultants yesterday and their normal self confidence/bordering on arrogance has gone. They are more fearful of what’s coming and very much a sense going over the parapet.
We are starting to send home all none essential staff, not only for their safety, but so that they can come back in when staff start to go off sick (although large numbers are doing so already)
Mrs FD has had to tell a patient yesterday that more than likely they will not unfortunately be able to have their elective surgery, and the consequence of that is that if they are ‘lucky’ it means in a few weeks time they will end up loosing their leg, or ‘unlucky’ die. As a surgeon she has never had to tell a patient that before.
I’m just about to head in for another long day, and I count myself as being fortunate as I am not working on the frontline.
😞
Mrs FD has had to tell a patient yesterday that more than likely they will not unfortunately be able to have their elective surgery, and the consequence of that is that if they are ‘lucky’ it means in a few weeks time they will end up loosing their leg, or ‘unlucky’ die. As a surgeon she has never had to tell a patient that before
My son is a surgeon, and also explained that necessary operations that over 75 year olds were getting as routine the other week have now been cancelled; so I guess they pretty much doomed!
My wife is an agency nurse; last week she worked what is now called the covid-ward, and today goes to a new hospital. She was had no testing to see if she is carrying the virus - in fact she was told because she is not NHS she won't get it unless she becomes ill and her agency kindly offered to test her if she paid £200 ..
The people making the decisions safely in the background do not have a clue.
Wife's an itu doc in major centre - similar tales as elsewhere of poor supply of ppe. Only couple cases so far thankfully, but building. She's Busy training other specialists to help with covid as theirs won't be priority / busy areas so 2ill be retasked.
Shes mildly terrified about whole thing and stressed about bringing it home to our 10 month old. I work from home as occ health nurse and will likely have to stop to look after our lad as her rota is about to go mental. Conflicted as ex-itu nurse and could potentially help, but no family in England to look after lad. Priority is him, and I guess 1 of us on front line with the sickest in hospital is a big enough sacrifice??? Dunno???
Wifes youngest sister is a nurse, she usually works on palliative care ward in a provincial London hospital. She says if you've got symptoms try and get to St Thomas's or Kings - if you end up at her hospital you'll probably die.
Her other sister is a kids speech therapist - her usual work has been cancelled, shes's currently at home self isolating with a persistent cough but watching training videos on-line as directed by work as she'll be helping out on a ward when she goes back to work.
She also has a very difficult (violent) 14 year old son who's mental health provision has been frozen. I think i'd rather be self-isolating with a hungry tiger than him.
I guess 1 of us on front line with the sickest in hospital is a big enough sacrifice??? Dunno???
I would say so. We all have our limits and I think mine might be tested.
I'm not a healthcare worker at all. Reading this thread is quite sobering. That's all I've got.
As an office seat shining IT contractor, I can’t begin to imagine how you guys do it. Just incredibly humbling
I approve this message
As an office seat shining IT contractor, I can’t begin to imagine how you guys do it. Just incredibly humbling
I approve this message
Plus 1
A friend is an ITU nurse. She is sounding increasingly, seriously, worried. That scares me more than anything else.
At the start of last nights shift there was near 60 beds in the medical directorate in the hospital. Unheard of these days.
People are staying away.
The Corona ward was brimming. The staff had their lovely rubbish pinny and basic surgical face mask to deal with it all.
Ward managers are telling us that matrons and higher are not even stepping over the threshold whilst telling the fodder "not to worry" and to deal with it.
My friend as a heart failure nurse specialist in the community had 36 referrals in one day as the hospitals empty out
My wife as a palliative care nurse specialist in the community has had her case load double in a day.
Will not be long and the beds will be full. ED will be full as the community services will not cope and everyone will be readmitted.
Palliative Care Specialist Pharmacist. Work at Acute Trust and Hospices. Concerns really ramping up about potential shortages of key end of life medicines and also syringe drivers.
Yesterday was 9-5 at hospital trying to make plans and then at home after dinner was up until gone midnight last night basically writing guidelines for second / third / fourth / fifth line options we could use for end of life symptom control if we run out of standard treatment options. Back in today for more of the same including linking in with primary care to support GPs and community teams with the same for those patients who won’t get into hospital. Sobering.
I'm not frontline, just in supporting IT for 96 GP Practices. I am genuinely in awe of frontline staff, worried for them, concerned for them, half wishing I was qualified enough to be in there lending a more meaningful hand and at the same time half glad I'm not because I'm shitting it enough with what's being asked of me and my team and we're just the supporting cast.
We've been flat out for 3 weeks now just working on getting several hundred extra laptops imaged and out with remote working capability so GP staff can self-isolate if needed, and we've had other practice staff bring in laptops they're having problems with for repair and re-image. No real PPE needed, but still a box of latex gloves and a bucket of isoclene wipes to wipe down every device before we touch anything. Team members who are immunocompromised have been working from home dealing with standard support calls as much as they can - we can remote on to some devices where needed. Other engineers still have to go to GP practices if a call dictates it. The rest of us are working in the same office, knowing if one of us gets the virus, chances are we all do.
From one of the people who has the minor luxury of sheltering in the backrooms, my heart and my respect to all of the frontline teams. We're all taking a kicking at the moment, hopefully we can collectively pull through it relatively unscathed.
I’m not a healthcare worker at all. Reading this thread is quite sobering. That’s all I’ve got.
Agree
I've posted on this thread already and essentially I'm a community nurse, and I've pretty much accepted I will probably get the virus. I'm pretty confident I would survive it, but my 12 year old has bad asthma, and whilst I am pretty confident she would survive she could have a rough trot with it. Following the school closure, we have ended up making some really difficult choices with one of our neighbour's. We already do abit of shared child care, so our kids spend a lot of time together. My neighbour is a copper, and his wife and one of his kids are also in the vulnerable groups.
So as my youngest also has autism, my neighbour's wife and two kids have moved into our house to isolate. And I've moved in theirs alongside my middle adult daughter and the dog, Barry. My neighbour also feels as a copper he will get it, and was worried about bringing it home so oddly this all made sense. Luckily his wife is a teaching assistant so she is already on with the home teaching.
Lots of what's app video calling going on,and I spend quite a lot of time sat on my front garden wall talking to my youngest. I'm sure I might be seen as some disaster fapper, and whilst on paper the arrangements sound a winner, it's pretty hard. Luckily we are only yards away house wise, but this could go on for months, it's just really weird and yeah, I'm finding it pretty hard.
I must say my fears and my risks have been rather put in perspective by this thread. I am not in anything like as risky or difficult position as some.
If I had been right on the frontline instead of somewhere nearby I really do not know how I would cope. I guess "one foot in front of the other"
Awesome what some folk are doing
As a nurse I feel appreciated more than at any time in my career- by the public, I'm not so happy with the government, there's a huge lack of essential PPE.
I'd like to thank all the essential workers who are less appreciated, particularly the shopworkers who told me yesterday that they are getting abuse from customers who come into their shop to buy essentials, then berate them for selling non-essentials. Like its their decision. They are putting themselves in the line of germy fire for us, be nice to them.
I'm sat at home with symptoms of CV, but not being tested!!
Not unwell as such - I'd normally just go in - but not had any illness for months so bit co-incidental to have cough and mild flu now. TBH I hope it is the CV and I go back to work immune.
I'm a cancer surgeon so all our work is currently suspended. Just phoning patients from home who were due to come in to inform them that their treatment has been put on hold. Hopefully they will be OK and we can catch up when this settles down.
Looking forward to returning to work in a week or so just as the 5h1t hits the fan in our part of the world.
I am not a healthcare professional but my wife is. She is currently in a community setting, but will very likely be redeployed soon.
The stories coming out of the sharp end of acute care are frightening.
The scenes from Italy a couple of weeks ago are happening right now in a hospital near you.
Make no mistake, in these places, things are going to get a lot worse before they even begin to slow down their rate of increase let alone slow down full stop.
ICU in our city hospital is full and we are on a shallow part of the curve right now. This is not a London hospital.
When this is over there are going to be health workers carrying scenes around in their heads that they would give anything to be rid of. They need our help now to limit the spread but they will need looking after later on too.
A stint in any hospital with acute care functions will be like a tour of duty.
Any updates on the situation from inside hospitals and on ambulances?
I'm available via the temporary register (Paramedic) but surprisingly haven't been contacted yet so particularly keen to know what's happening around Aberdeen/shire.
When this is over there are going to be health workers carrying scenes around in their heads that they would give anything to be rid of. They need our help now to limit the spread but they will need looking after later on too.
This inspades! I have been in a couple of situations in my career where a number of deaths of my patients in a short space of time have affected me. There is going to be PTSD type trauma for a lot of staff. It will be a test for the government / NHS bosses how this is dealt with. Will counselling be made available for these staff?
It already is TJ but probably more geared up on the emergency side ie. Ambulance, Fire service and Police where there is a very high incidence of PTSD due to the nature of the job. From previous experience, counsellors are inundated, how they will cope with the numbers is anyone's guess.
Wife says it’s a bit bizarre in ED at the moment.
Lots of flow so patients getting through the system and admitted to wards quickly.
Less of the people who shouldn’t really be in ED that they are normally full up with.
Starting to see more people, especially younger ones, coming in with more serious Corvid symptoms though.
She and her colleagues thinks that it’s the ICUnand other depts taking the brunt at the moment but they are all just waiting for it to get worse. Expecting that to start happening within next week, especially as a result of last weekends shenanigans.
Definitely a feel of them calm before the storm’.
Finally got a mask fitting. Yesterday had a full day of lectures about ventilators and it's been about 18 years since I left but it's coming back. Thank god for you tube and the draeger videos. Spending two days in ICU next week as we're opening up recovery as ICU. I work great under pressure just desperate to get on with it. Days off spent reading up on things. Trying to keep my work colleagues entertained with tons of humour....
Cathnash, wife's unit has set up a Facebook morale page doing similar to try to keep spirits up.
I've sort of settled with fact I can't commit to help due to childcare but still tough watching wife go out to work. At least she managed get a decent 1/2 face respirator mask with replaceable filters due to her asthma and I've trained her on correct fit/ use - trust face fit tester sound hopeless and giving dodgy advice. Starting to build up her unit now.
My community mental health service has shut down and I'm now working nights on my trust's 24hr crisis line. Compared to colleagues and friends in hospitals I have it very easy!!
I've done a few shifts this week and our service users are really struggling with this isolation, it's to be expected, but it still worries me because we're not even that deep into it yet.
We must isolate to save lives, it's our only option, but it's going to do a lot of harm to people living with mental health issues. So many coping strategies are not an option anymore and a lot of people are trapped in some pretty dire environments, either alone or with unsympathetic family members.
If you're reading this and you know anyone who's living with mental health issues please reach out to them, it makes a huge difference to people if they know they're not alone.
Definitely a feel of them calm before the storm’.
Our city hospital has the entire ED and ICU pretty much full of covid-19 patients. The stories are coming out about how crazy it is, but covid-19 patients are not being left to it. Yet.
Remember the steepness of the curve and think that the 'proper' facilities are now full....
Borders closed between states and territories now.
Our premier has said no travel within WA unless necessary for work or healthcare needs.
Feeling like we're sat at the edge of a big wave that's about to crash.
Kids are at home. Schools aren't closed but are "pupil free" which is an odd way of saying they're closed, but they want to keep healthcare workers working so the schools are open for essential workers, essentially. Wife's WFH too.
Had to nip to the supermarket this morning for milk. Zero distancing. People acting as normal. Quite scary given the prospect of what will soon unfold.
Anyway, just clocked on for my PM shift. Here til 10pm. Have some home visits to give people depots (long acting anti-psychotic medication) and have been issued masks to wear (not n95 ones though) and the usual gloves and hand gel in my depot bag.
I'm feeling fine. No symptoms. Eagerly awaiting the flu jabs to become available as I'll get one at the start of the season and one mid-end of the season (there's usually and A and B variant).
We're expecting a surge of depression/anxiety/suicide with all the unemployment. Also a surge in meth use (and other substances) when the govt starts giving people "extra" cash. Not the kind of fiscal stimulation they were hoping to see. And as more colleagues have to stay at home or get ill, our workload is going to shoot up. Plus I'm T1 diabetic so have to keep myself as well as possible so that I can help others and not be forced to stay home.
Hope everyone is keeping well.
Very odd atmosphere in our hospital the last few days. It’s like a ghost town. The staff you do see all look tired and fearful. Cases are doubling daily, deaths every 2/3 days.
Apparently modelling suggests we will be behind the national curve but will become a national hotspot (a mainly rural county with many elderly)
Will counselling be made available for these staff?
We have a psychologist allocated specifically for staff well-being at this time.
In our CMHT it's very much shut down at moment. CPns still doing depot and lithium clinics; Duty desk has been unusually quiet and we are doing only emergency visits; this week I did not do any visits all week. Just telephone assessments and calling clients to check how they are doing.
We know this is not going to last much longer. The nature of our clients illnesses/disorders will mean it's gonna kick off very soon, and because our team unfortunately has had the depressingly typical huge number of staff taking the 7-14 days off at first opportunity, when shit does hit fan it can be expected these same staff will very likely go off for another excuse then too which will leave the rest of us in very difficult situations.
My wife has worked the Covid wards since the first case in our area. She is only being fitted for a mask on Sunday .. she is working the ward today without one of course!
It boils my piss how some NHS staff miles away from from the front line are attention seeking on social media during this crisis. My neighbour who works in my team was on doorstep the other night milking the neighbors clapping .. my neighbour is in same team as myself, has had no contact with anyone with covid .. our team are pretty much shut down and isolated so at little risk.
Yet my wife, her colleagues and the other front line nurses & doctors are doing the job without the need to post Facebook pictures selling themselves as hero's.
*Appols .. rant over
If its any help Mooman I am now feeling a fraud - been in isolation ( need by guidelines) for 10 days now so not been in to work. Even when I go back I will be in a low risk ( for nursing) job
But I am still scared as well!
No intention of having a go at you or anyone else on here TJagain - appols if it came across that way.
I went into garage to pay for petrol yesterday and was wearing my NHS lanyard (as advised because police pulling cars over to ask why out) person serving identified me as a NHS worker and tried to call me to front of queue .. I refused, but felt a huge fraud!
Nothing fraudulent about either of you, snap out of it! NHS is one of the best things we have in this country and you've both dedicated yourselves to that. Please don't forget it, we won't 😉
Not taken in that way at all Mooman - just trying to show how its doing funny things to many of our heads 🙂
I have no idea where my NHS ID is - we never use them!
A+E nurse here in the north east, its a strange time up here at the moment - the Hospital is empty, The waiting room is empty. We are steadily seeing an increase in the number of Covid patients coming through, but few are currently requiring ventilating. I've little doubt that in a week or two the situation is going to be less chilled.
As an aside, i've just received a message asking for volunteers for the Nightingale monster hospital in London - if nothing else the intrigue of such an enormous facility has me sticking my hand in the air.
tjagain
Member
If its any help Mooman I am now feeling a fraud – been in isolation ( need by guidelines) for 10 days now so not been in to work. Even when I go back I will be in a low risk ( for nursing) job
But I am still scared as well!
So much this.
Also been in isolation and feel a fraud.
Done nothing, the big clap the other day made me feel weak and undeserving
Nothing I can do however, they wouldn't have me back whilst symptomatic.
Ah well, back on Monday.
Sounds odd, but I can't wait to get stuck in.
It's what I signed up for.
Yes Smogmonster thanks to pathway reviews, less people calling and lots not wanting to go to hospital it is easing the weather unnecessary work we usually see.
I’m off for 2 weeks except for a few I’ve agreed to do as overtime, I don’t do overtime, to help out.
I’m contemplating the nightingale thing not seen any requests yet or put myself on the list. I need to discuss it with my family first.
@smogmonster
Strange phenomenon having an empty waiting room. Shows how few people really need to go to A&E on a 'normal' day. Hopefully this will have a knock-on effect when this is all over and alter (some) of the public perception of what A&E and the ambulance service is actually there for.
The Nightingale hospitals look both incredible and scary - if staff travel down to London to staff it, when will they be allowed back home around the country, as presumably there's a transmission risk?
MrsMC is a children's social worker. Working from home, no visits being done despite legal requirement in some cases, just one day a week in the office covering duty calls. Expecting it to ramp up after families have a few more weeks cooped up at home.
It boils my piss how some NHS staff miles away from from the front line are attention seeking on social media during this crisis.
< half raises hand >
Hope I'm not attention seeking, and taking into account your later comments Mooman, please take this with the good humour it was intended.
As I said, I'm in IT, the absolute definition of "miles off the front line" - I'm not in a hospital, I'm in an office. The only PPE I get is a pair of gloves and a bucket of Isoclene wipes for when I'm handed laptops to work on. The greatest risk of exposure for me is the people handing me the laptops. But...
I'm supporting 4000+ staff in Primary Care who are all shitting themselves and panicking, isolating themselves and unwittingly increasing the load on everyone else. Note - not blaming them for that, it's human nature. Me and my very small team have built, imaged and deployed nearly 500 new laptops in the past fortnight, repaired a hundred more, developed extra VPN services, sorted newly discovered issues with digital Fit Notes, bailed out one of our major system providers who've utterly bungled a software rollout, kept the lights on and the day-to-day rolling while ramping up our own projects, because we don't have the luxury of putting things on the back burner if GPs need them yesterday.
All that said, I'll happily join TJ in the 'feeling like a bit of a fraud' camp, especially when I waved my badge for early access to Morrisons this morning. But as a friend described my team the other day, we're the 'grey staff' - nobody knows we are there, nobody knows what we do, but an awful lot of fairly essential things don't work without us, and we're being put under pressure by this as well - different pressures, I've absolutely no doubt, and I don't envy front-line staff one iota right at this moment in time. But the whole system is under extra pressure all the same, and some people will be dicks and some will be decent. I'm hoping I'm one of the latter, but YMMV 😉
So many behind the scenes heroes that the frontline staff rely on to perform their miracles - don't put yourselves down.
It boils my piss how some NHS staff miles away from from the front line are attention seeking on social media during this crisis.
I hope I don't fall into this category, tell me if I do.
I'm a TNA in a secure mental hospital. No cases as yet. I think I'm in one of the safest places in the NHS. Some service users are allowed leave, so we all share responsibility.
ITU consultant in a largish DGH.
We’re busier than normal but it’s not gone mad yet… All seems a bit unreal at the moment but meanwhile we’re pulling back anyone, medical or nursing, with recent ITU experience. Emergency rotas kick in on Mon.
Personal anxiety levels not being helped as the (domestic) boss is also a consultant in an acute specialty.
Good luck all, and stay safe.
Rusty Spanner
Subscriber
It boils my piss how some NHS staff miles away from from the front line are attention seeking on social media during this crisis.I hope I don’t fall into this category, tell me if I do.
I assume only you can honestly answer that.
Being based at a NHS mental health hospital myself, and spending lots of time at various private and NHS secure mental health hospitals I know full well what trained staff are expected to do - and I also know what trainees are expected to do.
In that case, I'm quite happy.
The only social media I do is this place and a couple of guitar forums and they have no idea what I do.
The TNA course has been fantastic - we don't have the responsibility of being in charge of a ward, there is always a qualified nurse on site. It gives us more time to spend with service users, as per the job spec.
Apart from that and dispensing CD's, we do pretty much everything else - CPA's, ward rounds, we have responsibility for our own named service users etc.
I've been on three very different wards at my base and had placements throughout the NHS.
I'm happy to say I've been offered a job when I qualify in June. I've enjoyed pretty much all of it, but will be staying in forensic mental health for the time being.