Forum Topic

Coronavirus Tests For Hospital Staff or not??

Front Page: St George’s Hospital Trust is now able to offer coronavirus testing for staff.However if you read the article it is a bit more vague "The testing and results service will be available..""The pod is not a walk-in facility and staff must have a referral from their line manager.The Trust says symptomatic staff will be triaged by the testing team and an appointment will be made if the staff meet the criteria for testing"

Ed Robinson ● 2422d12 Comments

I suspect they need to ensure that front line staff get tested first ahead of admin staff etc to ensure those most needed are checked first.

Andy Pike ● 2422d

It's not just the lack of tests to allow staff back to work it is the lack of Personal Protective Equipment to WHO standards and the length of shifts.  We need our valued medical staff to be protected to enable them to stay as safe as possible while they work.How do you gown up in PPE to safely last 12-14 hours with such a contagious airborne disease?  It was bad enough for staff managing to eat and drink during these shifts before this. 

Philippa Bond ● 2422d

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100017382123243Why aren't we doing this?

Philippa Bond ● 2420d

I had to call my insurance yesterday and an emergency plumber came to fix my leak problem.  He was dressed more like this than the NHS, my sister has been a nurse for many years.  I find it quite shocking that NHS staff are not properly equipped.

Bunny Payne ● 2419d

My Viennese penfriend from school days phoned earlier this morning. Without any prompting from me she remarked that there's a bed shortage in Austria and a shortage of PPE. Rather to my surpriseThe other day I glanced at the websites of Le Figaro and Le Monde. To my surprise they were saying the same thing. Or perhaps my French's not very good.

Elizabeth Balsom ● 2419d

There's an editorial in The Lancet that's savagely critical of the way the country wasn't prepared for this outbreak despite adequate warning (and this isn't a party political point). The final paragraph includes this:"The NHS has been wholly unprepared for this pandemic. It’s impossible to understand why ...  They didn’t take any of [the recommended actions]. The result has been chaosand panic across the NHS. Patients will die unnecessarily. NHS staff will die unnecessarily. It is, indeed, as one health worker wrote last week, 'a national scandal.' The gravity of that scandal has yet to be understood."Read the full article here: https://www.thelancet.com/action/showPdf?pii=S0140-6736%2820%2930727-3

Richard Carter ● 2419d

It would be good to get a follow up of this story - how many staff they have tested? etcA local view.

Ed Robinson ● 2413d

I can't really see how any health service can be prepared for a pandemic like this, but they should have contingency plans in place to quickly provide the kit necessary.It seems now it's a logistics problem, the gear is available, but can't be delivered to the places needed fast enough.And testing, I TOTALLY AGREE and I think most people in the country agree, firstly to help protect our front line workers and get them back to work, but also  HOW THE HELL can we know accurately what's going on except (presumably true) figures of those who have died.We all have friends and family in the NHS, caring and social services, care homes, and also the delivery men and women, the people at the till in shops and those who stock up, street sweepers, dustmen/women,  there are so many keeping us going.  They need clear protection and facilities to testing too.

Bunny Payne ● 2413d

Bunny, I agree mass testing is the only way out of this. Apart from the many key workers who urgently need to be tested we need to identify those who have the virus and are spreading it unwittingly because they are showing none of the symptoms themselves. Potentially that could be any of us and that’s the nub of the problem. We have no idea how many of these people there are out there.

Jonathan Callaway ● 2413d

Bunny, I agree mass testing is the only way out of this. Apart from the many key workers who urgently need to be tested we need to identify those who have the virus and are spreading it unwittingly because they are showing none of the symptoms themselves. Potentially that could be any of us and that’s the nub of the problem. We have no idea how many of these people there are out there.

Jonathan Callaway ● 2413d

Another double posting!  Sorry but I blame the technology!

Jonathan Callaway ● 2413d

The point I was making is that we had a article saying testing at St Georges was now available for staff (provided they had management permission and met a number of other criteria) - where is the follow up? How many have been tested at St Georges?

Ed Robinson ● 2412d