Say over 60, Ex NHS worker and now requested to come back, to help with the virus fight, what would you do

  • Thread starter Thread starter Deleted member 21258
  • Start date Start date

Your retired from the NHS(so say aged 60 plus) and received a letter asking you to come back Do you?

  • Yes I would return

    Votes: 23 63.9%

  • No I would not

    Votes: 13 36.1%
  • Total voters
    36
D

Deleted member 21258

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Fairly simple question & poll.

No need to comment, but really interested in the poll results, on what the majority of people would do.

Don't wish the thread to degrade into a point scoring thread, as there is really no right or wrong answer, irrelevant of your own personal strong opinion on the matter. People can say yes or no.

Please be civil :), as have been thinking about this for quite a while(thanks Tashys & SILH posts last weekish time) and it has come up as news today. So thought it would be interesting to see poll results.
 
I would hope many will answer the call. My concern is many GMC or NMC registrations will have lapsed by now. How are they going to be renewed or are they going to be allowed to practice un-registered?
 
HomerJSimpson said:
I would hope many will answer the call. My concern is many GMC or NMC registrations will have lapsed by now. How are they going to be renewed or are they going to be allowed to practice un-registered?
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That's the thing, its like a moral dilemma, when I have been thinking about it.

After quite a few days of thinking about it, first of all I thought no way tbh, more so if you would be near the virus patients. (If more supporting or in other ward to help cover, then probably would.)

Have soften a lot since then, but still think I wouldn't but almost grateful I don't have to make the choice, as it must be a tough call.

Anyone that does return, deserves a medal.
 
Yes it should be simple, straightforward, but maybe not, someone might want to say yes but unable to due to family/health circumstances.
 
Personally think it’s a selfish question to be asked.(by the nhs)
Many could be in high risk categories, or have partners who are.
Imo the best thing over 60’s can do is self isolate as statistically they’re the ones who will clog up the nhs.
 
They are struggling to protect the doctors and nurses they have with the correct PPE.
I would need some very persuasive guarantees before going back.
Political promises are not to be believed imo.
Matt Hancock on QT seems to be delivering everything tomorrow.
But tomorrow never comes, I had a boss like him could not belive a word he said.
 
If I was at risk, I wouldn't go in, as anyone catching this requiring hospital treatment will make the situation worse.
However, maybe there are roles away from the public that could free up frontline staff who are younger and fitter?
Online GP and nursing consultations for example using Skype?
 
Don't think this is a straight forward yes/no situation. If you are over 60 bit in reasonable health then its maybe a simpler choice. But if you are not in good health then you become too high a risk in yourself.
So possibly, with that clarification that its people in good health, then maybe more straight forward.

My aunt would love to help but having just completed chemo for the 3rd time there is no way she can and my uncle has had to tell her to forget it several times.
 
pauldj42 said:
Yes it should be simple, straightforward, but maybe not, someone might want to say yes but unable to due to family/health circumstances.
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Absolutely, that was the problem for me due to family circumstances and trying to protect your own family (rather than just the look after 'me' attitude and thats what made the question so hard for me to answer. I know people who are having cancer treatment for instance, and if they were your wife/parent/husband, surely that would mean you would answer no).

This is why in my view, there is no right or wrong answer imho, as personal circumstances can change your answer dramatically.

Just for clarification for others, I was asking the question what would you answer today, if you got the letter.
 
I'm a 'yes.' I would expect to be deployed in a non-critical area, where my lapsed registrations wouldn't impact on doing the job, thus freeing up 'current' staff to work in the critical areas.

If I was still living the UK I'd be asking the Med Physics team if they wanted a retired engineer to help out. Its a long time since I picked up a screwdriver but I know my way around a Med Physics dept, and a hospital. And I'm well aware of Control of Infections protocols. I could test syringe pumps, CPAPS and a whole host of basic medical equipment, freeing up the current guys and girls to work on equipment from the acute care areas. And if push came to shove, though very rusty, I'm trained on a significant number of the current(in use) ventilators and anaes machines - I wouldn't trust me on them yet but give me a week or two, or maybe just a few days.
 
HomerJSimpson said:
I would hope many will answer the call. My concern is many GMC or NMC registrations will have lapsed by now. How are they going to be renewed or are they going to be allowed to practice un-registered?
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According to the Representative from the Nurses on the news this morning The answer to the latter question is no but they have already got in place retraining and certification processes.
 
Hobbit said:
I'm a 'yes.' I would expect to be deployed in a non-critical area, where my lapsed registrations wouldn't impact on doing the job, thus freeing up 'current' staff to work in the critical areas.

If I was still living the UK I'd be asking the Med Physics team if they wanted a retired engineer to help out. Its a long time since I picked up a screwdriver but I know my way around a Med Physics dept, and a hospital. And I'm well aware of Control of Infections protocols. I could test syringe pumps, CPAPS and a whole host of basic medical equipment, freeing up the current guys and girls to work on equipment from the acute care areas. And if push came to shove, though very rusty, I'm trained on a significant number of the current(in use) ventilators and anaes machines - I wouldn't trust me on them yet but give me a week or two, or maybe just a few days.
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I have a head technician pulling whatever hair he has left out as he's not enough staff to cope with the extra demands being put on his team already to kit out the expansion rooms, order all the extra gear and maintain the day to day stuff for the current non-COVID patient. Be a good man and hop over and give him a hand
 
Russ_D said:
Should they/are they get(ing) the army medical corp in to help?
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There aren't as many of those as you think. It's all under a single umbrella now to Army, Navy & Air Force under the Defence Medical Services. There's at last known count to me anyway 11,000 regular serving personal however of that number that largest portion are not nurses or Dr's, because out of that you take, dentists, physios, operating theatre staff and general medics that administer aid. Factor in they also full time man a hospital in Birmingham and rehab centres around the country as well as many working on base in healthcare centres which will be treating service personnel and their families, then take out those on Operations as well it doesn't actually leave that many spare which is why they have over 3000 reserves they regularly draft in which come from the NHS of which one was only yesterday repatriated due to being killed on Ops.

Whilst the military will be drafted to help and do what they can, it won't be their medical services providing as much assistance as they're already swamped. They also need more people but its hard to recruit those types of people.
 
I think you need to have been an NHS / Healthcare worker to answer this question. The rest of us have no idea how we'd feel - we might imagine but we wouldn't know.
 
HomerJSimpson said:
I have a head technician pulling whatever hair he has left out as he's not enough staff to cope with the extra demands being put on his team already to kit out the expansion rooms, order all the extra gear and maintain the day to day stuff for the current non-COVID patient. Be a good man and hop over and give him a hand
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Wish I could.

Your Med Phys manager must have the names and numbers of the 3rd party companies that offer full service options, e.g. Medical Physical International, GE, Tyco, Draeger. All have teams that cover more than just their own products. A good number of the technicians working for those companies are ex-NHS.

Same goes for the clinical training issues. All the manufacturers have training teams.

I'd expect that this has already been looked at.
 
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