Frontline staff

[Mollieharry]

Just wondering how many frontline staff eg nurses carers paramedics etc who take immune suppressants are working while this Coronavirus is going on.i myself am a Carer for the elderly and vulnerable and im torn,I feel I need to keep working(as long as no symptoms show) as these people rely on us and the nhs could be hitting crisis point and then I’ve got my family telling me that I could end up ill myself which would impact on them-or help the nhs either.just wanting to know how many feel the same.

[wishbone]

No idea how many are working who take immunes suppressants. But I am hearing a lot of complaints from NHS staff about not being tested for the coronavirus, if a nurse has mild symptoms and cannot be tested to find out if it's coronavirus, then she has to self isolate for at least 7 days whether she has the virus or just some common bug. Having the latter would mean she could carry on working instead of staying at home. Same goes for all frontline workers. Not good is it!

[AgedCrone in reply to wishbone]

Can only hope when all this emergency is over somebody.... ANYBODY will take up the cause of the NHS and bring it into the 21st-century with a vengeance and start sorting it out because if they don’t...........?

[wishbone in reply to AgedCrone]

There's also serious concerns being aired about the lack of protective kit for frontline workers too. The government can find £350 billion for the economy yet seemingly next to nothing for proper protective gear! What an absolute disgrace if true, which I have little doubt that it is.

[Pennyjones1]

Hi feel totally the same , I am a practice nurse, work are trying to just have me doing Triage but like you I have very elderly parents too and my children are on at me constantly to not go to work. Plus the financial impact is a worry. I am hoping for some clarification on the at risk groups, plus I see my consultant on Tuesday. On the nhs website it’s says people in at risk groups will be notified from the 23rd March ....... how they will do that I have no idea. Hope you can take measures to keep yourself as safe as possible x

[sylvi]

You can't win whatever you decide to do. Go with how you feel darling.xxx

[GlasgowHen]

The decision was taken out of my hands. My manager took me out of clinical practice and gave me more of an admin role. With my colleague we came up with a way I could mostly work from home.

It’s such a difficult call to make. The nature of any caring profession is you just want to keep going.

Hope you manage to decide either way. Take care

[mistymeana]

I'm on the horns of a dilemma myself. Luckily, I don't take immunosuppressants but I'm in the at-risk group, being over 60 with three different health conditions from the "danger list". I'm a medical secretary in a surgical unit at the largest hospital in the county. Whilst I have only incidental contact with patients (the office is sandwiched between two wards) I am in close contact with the surgeons treating them. Ironically, my desire to save the Trust money is now risking putting me in dire financial straits. I was working through an agency but kept being asked to extend my contract so decided to work for my current trust directly through their staff bank because they were paying silly money for me but I wasn't getting more than the standard salary. When I was working through the agency I was entitled to statutory sick pay but now I am not. I obviously don't want to let the department down at a time when my colleagues with school-aged children might not be able to come in. Also, if I stick to the 12 week government guidelines, I'm down at least £2500 and can't fund that through savings. However, I'm probably at increased risk working where I do and we're squashed in like sardines with seven of us working in a space that should be for four. It's just social contact I have to avoid at the moment but keep getting waves of anxiety when I think about the work situation.