[Closed] Healthcare workers - how you feeling - what are you anticipating?

Been a very busy week end preparing and experiencing the first proper effect of this crisis. I was shattered last night when I got home and sick of hearing about the virus.

Am I’m worried about myself? Not physically I’ll be fine if/when I get it. Mentally it’s going to be a challenge but after the peak, the public eventually getting a grasp and supplies balance out it’ll be a lot easier.

I’m wary about the risk to my father though so as soon as I so signs I’ll deliberately avoid contact with my parents for a bit.

In true Nhs style we’ll overcome and march on.

Clinical nurse / Community mental health anD amhp.

We're to ask people of they've been abroad or if they have symptoms and stay 1m away. But if we end up forming (sectioning) someone then we go to ED with cops/ambo hand the pt over and hang around while they get triaged and a bed is found.

Wife is a Chief Cardiac Physiologist.

She might be deployed to the wards or out into the community but she thinks (and I think secretly wants) to get deployed into A & E...

She's works with an Italian who is getting updates from his mates in the hospitals in Northern Italy.

Dont think it would be far from truth to characterise her feelings like the troops on the landing craft at the start of Saving Private Ryan.
Some don't care.
Some (management) in denial.
Some s41tting themselves.
Most dont know what's the other side of the loading ramp, but it doesn't sound good.

So she's expecting a s41t storm where all the planning goes out the window and the equipment failures are going to be shown up real quick.

And from my point of view, you, and her, and all rest, have got to run right into the storm.

The govt is also planning to dish out $750 to low income / centrelink / pensioners. Which I'm expecting to lead to a huge surge in meth use which is not good at all.

OP - i wouldnt worry too much, i'm sure you'll be well supported by experienced staff. They'll likely have a team of relatively inexperienced staff, or those like yourself from other clinical areas, being supervised by staff experineced in ventilated patients. You should recieve some clinical updates before being to even go near a ventilator. I work both as a nurse and an EMT, so i'm seeing it both sides...but the nursing will take priority in the next few months. Although i havent looked after ventilated patients in many moons, i do have lots of experience of unconscious patients requiring manual ventilation and airway management....its going to be interesting times ahead, to understate it slightly.

And from my point of view, you, and her, and all rest, have got to run right into the storm.

Am I being selfish? Thats the bit I really don't want to do! Put me in the "shitting myself" category.

Smogmonster - I have done ITU nursing but 30 years ago!

And from my point of view, you, and her, and all rest, have got to run right into the storm.

Am I being selfish? Thats the bit I really don’t want to do! Put me in the “shitting myself” category.

I can understand why you are concerned, although I agree with the Baron, as healthcare professionals you have to step up. The rest of society needs your help.

Healthcare people.

A simple....

Thank you.

TJ, it's going to be a war zone, but you'll be fine - just make sure you're wearing your helm...

Oh.

Well, wear your mask, and I'm sure you'll be OK.

🙂

🙂

Hospital doctor here.

I am very concerned. Perhaps it was my imagination, but my hospital had a definite calm-before-the-storm vibe this weekend. Not too busy, a few people sensibly staying away and those who were in were keen to get home earlier than would otherwise be recommended. A few pockets of chaos as no one has really yet seen any cases so deciding who needs isolation / swabs etc is difficult. We are still finding our feet.

At the moment if you come to our hospital with a febrile respiratory illness, you are likely to be 'cohorted' in a bay with other people that have similar symptoms. That means if you have common-or-garden seasonal flu you may be nursed next to someone with Covid19 and could thus easily be exposed to it (Covid on top of Flu sounds bad to me). That seems crazy right now as only a small proportion of patients with that sort of illness currently have Covid, but it's a great way to spread it within a vulnerable population. Of course in the coming weeks that is likely to change and cross-infection is likely to become less of a concern (everyone will have Covid).

In Italy there are reports of orthopaedic surgeons being reassigned to look after (non-invasively) ventilated patients. Anyone that works in healthcare will know how crazy that sounds. So yes, you could be assigned elsewhere TJ but from a nursing perspective, I'd imagine ventilated patients will be looked after by those who have at least a bit of experience - I.e. ITU / ED / respiratory teams.

Not a healthcare worker but wife, son and eldest daughter all "front line" in 3 different trusts.

Calm before the storm I think summarises it well. Contingency plans currently working out how to staff the hospitals/service on a limited % of staff.

All healthcare professionals have my total admiration

Wife is an ACP in ED. First positive case announced yesterday with another 10 being talked about today.
All staff training and non clinical work shifts cancelled. Says there’s an air of nervousness about the dept this morning.

Part time EMT here.
I've been contacted to agree to take special leave from the (unrelated) day job and go to work in a 'mobile response team' down in Engerland, away from home for week long rotations.
I'm looking forward to the learning aspects of this. Sh1tting it as well as I'm going to be so far out of my comfort zone. I've lots of pals in various roles across the NHS who are all in turmoil while their wards or practices are being adjusted to prepare for an onslaught of new work.

Hospital microbiology lab tech.

The protocols change several times a day it seems at the moment. I believe we've stopped testing a lot of people who turn up, only testing those admitted. But we're still getting a helluva lot of swabs.

If(when) it really takes off, it will be difficult to keep up with the workload, we already have back log. The additional work an increase in inpatients will generate (blood cultures, sputums, mrsa/mssa screening amongst others) will mean the routine work will be delayed and I think ultimately we'll stop doing some if it.

I'm anticipating chaos in my trust.

We're already unable to cope with the call volume and we're massively short of masks, hand sanitiser, cleaning wipes etc.

Thankfully I'm off for a week so I'll worry about it when I'm back in work.

Thank you, all of you.

Being ex military, and having s#*t myself prior to deployment, once you are in amongst it, I felt much better than the waiting phase.

we’re massively short of masks

At my Wife's place they ran out last week.

Apparently they did manage to get and order in.

Masks turned up: Dust masks not medical ones.

Social Worker here (adults). Plans evolving all the time but we’ve been looking at our clients today to consider who’s most at risk and who should be prioritised in the event of social care staff being decimated. This includes those we support who pose a risk to the public. Several hospital wards and care homes have been in touch to request no non essential visits are undertaken. In the short term I may get caught up with some paperwork! Longer term I can see us being redeployed in social care role.

The wife is a manager in a private nursing home, they have banned visitors so far and have a couple of staff self isolating, no sense of panic yet. Things will change when the agencies cant supply staff or refuse to send staff if the home has a positive case there

Healthcare people.

A simple….

Thank you.

This +1

AED Doc.
Hmmm calm before the storm.
I wouldn't worry about being off and not upto date.
If you are off for just one day it all changes..

On Friday ffp3 masks were the only form of PPE that we were told was any good, today they say just wear standard theatre masks unless a proven case, but we are no longer testing so we don't know who is positive and who is not. My worry (and that of most people I speak to) is that we have already ran out of masks and that is why the advice has changed, effectively we are being put at risk. Anyone knows differently please feel free to enlighten me.

I am pretty much resigned to the fact that I just need to go to work until I get it, then either have a week on Netflix or die.

Wife has been told that her med ward might be turned into a resp ward and they are going to be taught how to use ventilators..just like using a toaster right?
They are still waiting for any form of mask.

The wife's a neuro physio which is rehab. She says they've all been asked to list they're skill sets. She's pretty sure there's not going to be a lot less rehab in the coming months. I know she does assist with helping ventilate patients if she's on-call so I'll be surprised if she's not involved over the next few months.
Sh!t. I've never really thought about it too deeply.

Partner's a lab tech in the regions testing site for suspected covid-19 samples.

At that lab virology have taken over all of the high category labs from the other departments and are already swamped with samples.

Perhaps the scary bit is that there's only 3 or 4 people in the building trained to run the tests, if any of them get sick, or have to self isolate, testing across a large chunk of england will grind to a halt.

Paramedic for ambulance service and also work in primary care.

Hospital ED is much quieter, although we as ambulance service appear to be getting usual amount of jobs, lots of anxious self-isolaters (mainly <40, low-risk, most with non-Coronavirus symptoms), still the usual things as well (lots of mental health/OD, poorly managed chronic health problems). I've definitely noticed a younger demographic of patients in last few shifts (might just be coincidental), but I've not been to many >70 over the weekend (maybe are more wary of contacting us due to the fact we are big vectors of the disease).
A few very poorly patients that have turned out to be COVID-19 positive, some <70.

Primary care, all telephone triage, very high threshold for bring people in. Again lots of anxious self-isolaters.

Some one on twitter says it feels like standing on a beach watching the water being sucked out before the inevitable tsunami.

I'm sure I'll get it is I'm going into people's houses etc. I'm not concerned personally, but worried about being a carrier to parents and parents-in-law who are all late 60s/early 70s, so will avoid seeing them, even if asymptomatic.

Good luck everyone.

I'd volunteer if I could.

You can do my nightshift tomorrow if you like?

Thanks for your thoughts folks. I still feel like running away but at least I know I am not the only one shitting myself!

I know a few paramedics and they have had protocols for dealing with calls change nearly every day over the last week and are burnt out(even more burnt out than normal if that's even possible!)

I just want to say a huge thank you to everyone in the NHS right now, it really doesnt get said enough.

You can do my nightshift tomorrow if you like?

If your shift involves installing Red Hat Openshift on bare metal whilst not having any medical qualifications then I'll do it 🙂

I'm a similar age to you TJ, I'd turn off my phone, turn off the computer, fill the fridge and freezer, and enter early retirement. Good books and daytime TV till it's safe to come out.

You've done your bit, leave it to the age groups more likely to survive. Why should you deal with the mess created by a government that refuses to take the most elementary steps to slow the spread of the virus?

Put me in the “shitting myself” category.

Seems reasonable, I was more than a little overwrought at school today as I told yet another kid with a new cough that I really couldnt care less that their mum said they had to come in today could the please not come in tomorrow!! Meanwhile we only close if a case is confirmed, but the eleventy hundred kids in self isolation are not being tested.

You all have my admiration and thanks for not locking yourself away and refusing to take calls.

Mental health social worker here.
I still feel ambivalent towards the whole thing. On one hand I read its only the very old or the ones with significant underlying health problems who are at most risk .. fortunately all my family and I are in good health and below the at risk age, so I am not concerned there - but its the knock on effect that causes me concern.

Shops are ransacked, and things will only get a lot worse as stricter measures get introduced.
Work wise there is no way we can work from homes. GPs around our way are only doing telephone assessments, so already today there was a big increase in referrals from GPs for crisis and urgent next day mental health assessments ... they arent putting eyes so everything is getting through; I have a full day of mental health assessments tomorrow!

Add to that the usual ones in team who use any excuse to have time off; a couple are already dropping the hint explaining their best friends cousins aunties next door neighbour has coronavirus .. and they too got a bit of a cough .. I am expecting they will be off by end of week and our work load goes totally bonkers!

An area that I feel will be hit hardest is the care sector. Not many want to do that at best of times ... getting new people in when the workload is likely to be double is even more unlikely.

Meh.

Recently retired from 20 years in ITU, moved to work in Theatre. I will be asked to go back when things get worse.

Don't really want to but I have a set of skills that will be in short supply so I'm in.

Not looking forward to it, but did it for so long that it's not scary.

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.

My worry (and that of most people I speak to) is that we have already ran out of masks and that is why the advice has changed, effectively we are being put at risk. Anyone knows differently please feel free to enlighten me.

Unfortunately you are correct.

MrsMC is a child protection social worker. Similar views to the other SWs up there.

Front line healthcare have my utmost respect and admiration at the best of times, and now more than ever.

Me and the wife both work in acute hospitals. Both mid-50s. I'm t2 diabetic and a teeny bit asthmatic, pleased to say she's "healthy".

Yeah, bit scared. Intending to keep fit without getting knackered and take things as they come. There's some ded scary projections doing the rounds regarding how many critical care beds they'll need. Funnily enough there's no timescale on offer for when ALL that extra kit's turning up 🙄

This smacks of the Iraq war and the "gotta suport the troops" jingoism when all that was really need was to replace Blair with Dominique de Villepin. "Gotta suport the health workers", well ban people from going out then you ****ing idiot Johnson. You need a new PM who actually doesn't give more of a shit about 10s of thousands dying than Blair. Sorry we need Macron so you need to find someone else.

Mrs D is a staff nurse and currently showing symptoms. It’s madness they’re not testing frontline staff.

A) she’s got to self isolate for 14 days and she could be fine to work so it’s a waste of resources and b) she works on an acute thoracic ward where surely they’d want to know such things!

And C) purely selfishly I’ve got to isolate now as well!

... and D, next time she gets a cough she (and you)'ll have to isolate all over again

Mental health nurse here, and if this is the calm before the storm we are ****ed. 2 confirmed cases in our area and even before the first self isolators we have been desperate for staff, leading to temporary bed closures. Once we get a few inpatient and staff cases I don't know how we will cope.
I expect all care beyond basic essentials will be put on hold and staff redeployed to where they are needed.
To be honest these are exceptional circumstances, I'm not normally one of life's volunteers but right now I'll go wherever I can do most good

Radiology Department in a big acute trust with a high consequence disease unit.

Not sure what is around the corner for us.

Definately an uncertainty about my role and whether I may be required to extend into other areas of imaging to help cover.

My main concern is losing colleagues to self isolation etc and trying to keep up with the non Covid side of business.

RMN on a forensic medium secure ward here. The guidance we have been given so far is "business as usual until symptomatic and then self isolate". As for the patients at my service, all leave has been suspended so around 70 guys with complex mental health needs rattling around getting cabin fever and increasingly bored/agitated. This unfortunately means a sharp increase in the likelihood of instances of violence and aggression and as things start to bite and staff become more stressed and run down they will become more susceptible to infection. The end result is less staff to provide care to our service users and increased chances of experiencing relapses in their mental state or other setbacks to their progression. Given the wards where I work are currently understaffed it remains to be seen how this will play out but I sense a testing few weeks and months ahead.

Advanced Nurse Practitioner in the community currently rocking around in on of our testing cars for the last 2 and a bit weeks. I'm loving it, makes a change from the norm. Some very mixed reactions and stuff going on out there.

I'm not long away from being an A&E lead nurse, so I'm pretty much expecting to get hauled back in to an establishment if/once things kick on.

Biggest worry for me is the schools shutting and then I might be a bit scuppered child care wise. However there does seem to be some good support between the health care providers which is great, sadly some of this is because procurement has been rubbish, but hey ho.

I've also stockpiled lots of Heinz sandwich spread, and I love it. I'm looking forward to pack up time every day.

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...