NHS staff are on the front line, photo DFID/CC

NHS staff are on the front line, photo DFID/CC   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

Week four and still no testing for ICU staff

The main concern with staff at the moment is it’s week four in Covid ICU and no sign of anyone being tested yet. We’re OK for PPE at this particular trust, but you’ve seen the news about the shortage elsewhere. We’re getting concerned about the number of frontline staff losing their lives.

An NHS intensive care technician

PPE: we won’t be divided along occupational lines

Conditions are deteriorating as shortages of promised PPE serially fail to materialise. While morale remains high, there is now an almost complete lack of trust in central government.

The race for supplies also results in inconsistent application of guidance. Some clinicians ask that porters not use gloves or masks despite the serious concerns about transporting patients who are suspected or confirmed sufferers of Covid-19.

While ancillary staff understand that supplies are dwindling, it’s no less unacceptable that government continues to view us as cannon fodder. We won’t be divided along occupational lines.

An NHS porter

Staff are struggling to cope with the number of deaths

Almost every ward is a Covid ward. Some staff are struggling to cope emotionally with the number of deaths. There are so many more patients dying than usual.

People were very angry with the health secretary’s boast that there is excess capacity in intensive care. Maybe there is in some hospitals, especially in areas where they haven’t been hit so hard by the coronavirus.

But here, intensive care is totally full. It has been extended into two other areas. As soon as the workmen have finished altering the new wards, patients are being wheeled in.

An NHS catering worker

Excuses, excuses from outsourcing management

Domestics and other outsourced staff feel taken for granted. Before coronavirus hit, the trust was refusing to start discussions on bringing them back in-house.

Now they are saying they can’t discuss it because they are too busy dealing with the crisis. What do they think cleaners and porters are busy doing?

They are cleaning Covid wards to prevent transmission; transporting dead bodies. They are keeping the hospital running. A domestic said, “we should have gone on strike now, when they need us the most.”

An NHS admin worker