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Raining_again

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Posts posted by Raining_again


  1. I have the NI app, but I don't rely on it, its effectiveness is only as honest as everyone around us, and i have heard of many many people not abiding by the isolation rules, even some with damn positive tests, so that kinda renders it useless. 

    Work are screwing me over again.  I sat in a temp desk, the people in that space have come back to work today, they're sitting in the other seats that are not 2m away from my seat.  They have NO COMPUTERS there so literally NO NEED to be in there.  They could work at fucking home with paperwork for the love of god.  We're already in a room that's not covid safe without adding 2 people in.  My boss has swapped with me for the time being, his desk is 2m away from seated people but its a high traffic area so people are walking by me, and they aren't wearing any face coverings while doing so.  Boss has asked his boss to authorise me WFH, but I know she will do anything to avoid that.  

    Alright last time I got a cold I had a breathing crisis and nearly died.  I got a flu in December that nearly went for round 2 (not covid), I have health complications that I'm still living with from both of those events.  I'm just emotionally worn out, tired of constantly having to fight battles just to have a safe working environment.  Oh and we have had a potential case today, one of our girls went home sick earlier on with a bad headache and a raging cough. 


  2. When I came back from shielding I was given a desk away from people, at least 2m away from anyone else.  Not my desks, it was a service that was on furlough or working in different locations/home.  They are coming back on Monday.  First I heard about it was a telephone call on Friday morning when I was on leave. 

    So they're scrambling NOW.  After I asked to WFH for MONTHS.  While I was off on shielding leave.  Denied, multiple times.  Now they're talking about *possibly* getting me the permission to WFH because there is literally nowhere to put me.  They're more than likely bringing in more than 1 person to that space I used to sit in, that is only covid safe for 1 person max.  One section of our office has people sitting <1m away from each other because there is no space anywhere for them.  So if a positive case came into our office THREE ENTIRE services, ESSENTIAL services, would have to be completely shut down. 

    Fuckin unreal.  

    Also there's an article in the BelTel about NHS staff in my town having a pizza party, in work, on work time, 15 people in a room risk assessed for 5. And i'm not even shocked.


  3. On 23/09/2020 at 2:52 PM, EEVILMURRAY said:

    I also think that they think it's some sort of scare tactic, like saying you're going to take your business elsewhere

    "I'm thinking that I'm going to have to go private as it's taking too long."

    "Oh you said the magic word, look at that! You can come in tomorrow now! Please don't go private, I beg you"

    omgg i'm in so much trouble I lost a patient fakjfklsdjflkjsdflkjsdf

    :laughing:


  4. On 23/09/2020 at 6:17 PM, Fierce_LiNk said:

    The problem with altering the rules in this way is that the less sense that they make and the more inconsistent they are, the less people are likely to want to follow them. 

    This is EXACTLY EXACTLY what's bothering me.  For 2 weeks we had half of a town in lockdown.  Even the locals didn't know where was and wasn't. odd exceptions.  People going to work in non covid secure workplaces and nothing being done about it (my workplace is under fire about it).  School busses, full of kids with no masks... what's the sense in class bubbles when they're all on the same bus lol.  Pubs opening, eat out to help out, yet no shared meals in your families homes.  If they were consistent and sensible with the rules, I reckon there would be double the compliance.  

    Here we're all just riding on the hope that it doesn't get crazy out of control.  Northern Ireland is small, we've had a couple of months with not even a handful of deaths, hardly any hospital admissions... people yappin on about how its all being made to nothing and doing what they want. Over the past few days its gone from <5 in hospitals, to 41 in hospital and 5 in ICU.  


  5. 13 hours ago, EEVILMURRAY said:

    I'm getting people going private a lot at work over here too. The bit that always staggers me is that some patients believe this is some sort of weapon/threat: "I understand there's a delay, but if I don't get a date soon I'm going to have to go private..." - Good! I tell them to go for it, if they feel their need is great enough they shouldn't wait, because outside of a trip to A&E, they have no choice but to sit tight.

    A shame it's come to this, but can't be helped.

    Its like they think the plebs like us that answer the phone have any control of waiting lists.... laughable

    even we as nhs staff rarely get any benefits, no queue skipping, the only thing my trust has is a special occ health physio dept, and sometime the wait for it can be just as long with so many manual handling type injuries in health care. :blank: 

    oh yeah i have had crushing chest pain since December, i was taken to ED and they checked my heart and basic bloods, and sent me home.  No treatment and no answers.

    • Sad 2

  6. 3 hours ago, nightwolf said:

    I hope its feeling a little better this week lovely. Let me know how you are.

    Things have been a mess this week, oh my lord and its only Monday.

    Went to go to my second MRI appointment this morning, my hospital had referred me to a private hospital as there are overloaded at the moment. I had no letter, so rang the NHS hospital on Saturday to confirm everything was ok.

    Get there today and the poor staff at the private hospital had no idea about me. Instead of sending me home they accommodated me and some, I was supposed to be there at 9 and by 9:12 I was being called in for an MRI. Apparently one of the staff told me that her boss was sending some snotty emails to the team back at my NHS hospital, as this wasn't the first (or second time) this had happened. What irks me is this hospital was SO good, I told them if it wasn't a re-occurring issue I'd have had my surgery and consultations with them. So I've looked into my private healthcare to ensure I can use those doctors and hospital going forward and I can.

    Then I finally get my interview invite. After asking them to accommodate me in the mornings as I have night shift all week this week, they were unable to help me - at all. So now I have interviews 12pm until 5pm with a night-shift that starts at 8pm (and a morning shift until 11am). Given interviews go both ways I've been really unimpressed so far. To interview with 6 people in one day and to also then find the timings makes me feel a bit miffed. I'm sure it isn't like that, but I feel its not the best first (second, third) impression. So we shall see. 

    Overall, I'm tired and really eager for Thursday afternoon when I'm finally off the clock and have no interviews/appointments/other to get too. 

    Slowly getting back to a "normal" for me.  I'll be looking into my private health care options too.  I hope you get sorted.  I'm really not surprised about the fuck ups.  No one communicates across the board. Scant info logged in patients notes so leaving a mystery trail for other consultants.  fine if you only have to see one single professional that knows you, as was me for 15 years in dermatology, but when the baton gets handed to different professionals in the same team, different disciplines, different hospitals.... ugh. its a nightmare. 

    The job thing... is this your current employer or new potential? that's a big old red flag.  If they cant accommodate a fecking interview what are they going to be like when you ACTUALLY need time off for this potential op and recovery. :angry:

    • Like 1

  7. went to speech therapy yesterday... changed tactics from exercises to work the vocal muscles, to preservation tactics to work the muscles less...  By the nature of the appointment i had to express my symptoms, answer questions, my voice is fucked today.  My throat usually doesn't hurt, but it does today from being pushed so hard.

    Back to waiting forever until i get an appointment w rhem and neuro. :cry:

     

    • Sad 2

  8. 21 hours ago, nightwolf said:

    I heard back and I apparently smashed it. My recruiter is beside himself and said he'd never been so invested and was impressed with the feedback. I have no idea specifically what the feedback was but he blew him away at least.

    So much so that I skipped a step and now at the last stretch of interviews. I do have one person who is my competition. But if they are as good as they say we both are then I'd rather "lose" to them than anything. 

     

    I find out tomorrow when the next steps is, but it's going to be 3 hours of grilling. Eep. 

    OH HELL YEA pew pew pewwwwwww 

    Love seeing some (well deserved) positive things come your way :grin:

    • Like 2

  9. On 14/09/2020 at 4:44 PM, nightwolf said:

    It's tricky! I switch between very happy and extremely sad, but that's to be expected.

    But first open surgery was very successful, even with the complications (and the nearly death bit), I recovered really well. I'm hoping that my body still has enough in it to do it again. Thankfully I had one of the best specialists in the country and now have one of the others too! Praise be to the NHS staff (though some of the admin staff can jump off a short pier).

    I thought pretty hard about it this weekend and I am leaning towards the whole thing rather than having the same as before. My surgeon/consultant has said that both surgeries are really really dangerous and I will (potentially) have to have the hysterectomy anyway. Plus having kids right now could kill me or the child anyway. So what's the point? 

    I must admit I am quite sad about the choice being taken from me like this, but I'm ultimately very relieved that something is getting done and perhaps one day I won't have to worry about it anymore. Which is why the news is in here and not "bad news". Thank you so much lovely <3 

    Absolutely, the logical answer is there.. but you still have to grieve the loss of what you thought your life might be.  You can definitely get through this and find value and purpose in your life <3

    • Like 1

  10. i almost always read reviews afterwards, not that i'm bothered too much about spoilers, but I don't want to go in feeling a certain way about it and lean into that.  Sometimes I feel like watching a review afterwards is not unlike chatting with your mates after a film etc. 

    • Like 1

  11. 1 minute ago, EEVILMURRAY said:

    BUT WAIT, DERE MORE!

    Since we moved from Circle Health to NUH, they've shafted us with the pay. As we got transitioned over we got put on a pay band which was reflected on what we were earning before, which sounds fair you would think, however those other secretaries on the same band do not have the same responsibilities (ie less) than what we're doing. So either:

    1 - Pay us a rate reflecting the duties we're expected to do

    2 - Reduce our duties to reflect our pay band

    There's a petition going round to get that shit in gear, give us backpay (and keep years of service, which doesn't affect me as much as others with 10+ years), otherwise we're threatening strike action. Watch dis space...

    are you on the Agenda for Change payscale? 

    We got move from our old system to AfC and they tried to move us from the old Grade 3 to a Band 2.  We did end up fighting it, and got it approved to a Band 3 on the basis that we take abuse on the regular and handle sensitive data, run data reports and things like that.  Although I pretty much carry out the role of my Band 5 in terms of reports, and probably know more than my 7.  Its bloody ridiculous.  I was also on a temporary contract (not agency, but an actual trust temporary position) for FIVE YEARS before it was upgraded to permanent.  Fuckin hallions the lot of them, trying to get away with treating us all like morons :angry:

    • Sad 1

  12. 20 minutes ago, EEVILMURRAY said:

    Update from the wonderful world of the NHS...

    We've been back full time for about 2months now, those with kids still working from home, although most will be coming back next week. On the delightful department of gastroenterology that I work on, we've gone from a team of 4-5 people down to 2, and the other one has been working from home, went on leave, then went off sick for about a month, which has now been extended for another 4 weeks. There have been no attempts to actually hire any new staff members. So our senior has been taking the brunt of the admin work and everyone chipping in with the typing...

    So falling behind again with getting out letters to patients, so some of them have been complaining as ye do. But there's nothing I can do, except tell them they just have to wait.

    that's awful fuckin convenient and exactly what my department does.  NHS is full of corrupt higher ups that do sod all. 


  13. On 05/09/2020 at 6:31 PM, MindFreak said:

    Final update - we got the final answers yesterday. So... We lost the lottery and landed in the 13 % that are not normal. They then continued the analysis and found that most of the cells that they have analyzed have the XXY chromosome disorder (92 cells out of 100 cells randomly picked out). So we have to accept that our baby has Klinefelter to some degree. 75 % of those are only diagnosed when they try to get children themselves so we hope to at least land in that category! Also, now that we know we can take counter measures - give testosterone in pre-puberty to help normal, "manly" development.

    The doctors tried to make it seem less bad by saying that the cells they analyse come from the skin, urine ways and lungs so the distribution of bad cells may be different around the vital areas (organs, penis, brain) but I just see that as a way to comfort us with some fake hope. Not gonna fall for that.

    So all in all - it sucks but well, we hope to just have a mild case that wouldn't have been found had we not gone through these things.

    But naturally, we are sad. We just wanted a normal baby now that we have tried so hard to fight the disease our son suffers from. It just feels incredibly unfair - and everyone around us says that as well. It especially seems unfair since so many people get healthy babies - and by that I mean drug addicts and such. 

    Oh well. Life goes on. But it could probably have been worse.

    I'm so sorry, i was really hoping for the best for you.  Hopefully it is minor, like you say. Expect the worst, hope for the best.  Good to be realistic.

    -- 

    I got unlucky with the gene pool.  There are various auto immune conditions in my family, and I seem to have got every single one of them and some more.  My sister came out perfect, not thing wrong. I swear she belongs to the postman, that or I used up all the faulty genes first :indeed: 

    My entire family carry a lot of guilt about it... my sister would carry the pain i have in a heartbeat.  My mum was by my side at every appointment growing up, and my dad hates that i miss out on "normality".  Had a real moment with my dad at my sisters wedding yesterday... checking that I wasn't too down...  "you know you're as special to me as your sister is". 

    --

    I have to say I agree with Rez, 2020 is a big pile of shit.   I thought 2018 was gonna be my worst year for a long time (having a breathing crisis and nearly ending up in ICU, with a still undetermined condition) but 2020 and that corona came and topped it all.  Shielding sucks, working in the NHS sucks, my physical and mental health is in the negative right now :cry:

    • Sad 3

  14. 30 minutes ago, nightwolf said:

    I wish I could do more for you and the NHS, they have quite literally saved my life. With this update, they'll likely do the same.

    Its been a weird week! It probably doesn't sound like this should be in this thread, but two things happened: 

    - I finally got to see my consultant about my fibroids. Yup, ya gurl has got more that have grown after having a 9-10lb one removed in 2017. Now I've got two and they have no signs of slowing down. Just peachy (I actually have over 20 fibroids currently, but the rest have decided to just sit there and be chill). I was expecting a battle in care as my consultant didn't want to operate/do anything straight off the bat.

    Our chat went really went and I got 45 minutes of one to one care. He's agreed that unfortunately surgery is the only option. So I have to make a choice of a Myomectomy(which is what I had in 2017, with a 7 inchish scar) or a full hysterectomy. Both will include bowel surgery. So its a huge risk either way and both will need my old scar to be reopened - eep.

    I'm leaning towards a hysterectomy, which means complete infertility of course, I'm only 30 so I was surprised he agreed so easily, but the really matter is, I'm not going to get back and I'm already likely completely infertile anyway (its hard to test, but from my symptoms etc two hospitals believe this to be so). It doesn't seem like good news, but ultimately I cannot life the way I am now, so I'm really glad something is being done. 

    Onto the actual good news: 

    - I had a job interview today! There's two roles available, but one isn't publicly available for another two weeks, so I had the interview for one of them and I think it went well? The manager was a lovely chap and we had a few laughs during our chat. I'm not sure how well I conveyed myself as I'm not the best at that, but the opportunity sounds really interesting! So I'm hoping for good things next week.

    Mentally after two days of big life decisions I am now a slug. 

    Aye the NHS has saved me on multiple occasions but it isn't without its flaws.  I honestly cannot imagine the pain you're in with fibroids. In your position I would almost certainly opt for the whole hysto, but its such a personal decision to make, especially when it comes to fertility stuff.  I am in theory able to conceive but the reality of carrying a child, and looking after a child would be very difficult with the myriad of physical health problems I now have.  Sending love and positivity to you and support with whatever decision you come to <3 

    • Like 1

  15. They're controlling things they cannot tax IMHO.  I'm far from a conspiracy theorist but their policies are getting ridiculous.

    They've put us on lockdown here.  "Ballymena Town" and bt43.  Which is fucking vague at best.  The town itself is barely 2m radius.  Greater Ballymena is a 10 mile radius, easily.  (consisting of more than half a dozen postcodes).  There was 2 big factory outbreaks, one in the town, and near where I live, outside of the town.  No change to shielding but told to be "extra cautious" which means fuck all to high risk people that have to go to work and put themselves in danger on a daily basis.  So they'll basically be like oh well you died you weren't careful enough

    How they can clamp down on people visiting and say its spreading inside homes is beyond me.  Poor management, and staff being treated like absolute shit is whats spreading this.  Can't afford to self isolate for 2 weeks without pay... a lot of people will just go to work and hope for the best.... usually in factories where ppe and distancing is impossible.  Workplaces where management WILL NOT let their staff go home even with symptoms (has happened here on more than one occasion publicly). 

    The assholes that continue to break the rules to the extreme will continue to do so, leaving the people that try their best to follow the rules isolated, lonely and at high risk of causing harm to themselves. :blank:

     

     


  16. On 08/09/2020 at 12:43 AM, will' said:

    This is great advice. Add on to this any pay rises you receive just save the extra (or at least a portion of it) and it can quite quickly add up.

    i would do this but nhs....

     

    I'm actually set to be down on money if we get any more payrises as my pension cont. will go up from 5.x% to 7%.  This happened to band 5's in the last payrise and a lot of people ended up OWING money in a damn pay rise.  As if the NHS aren't demoralised enough at the moment.  :cry:


  17. 7 hours ago, Mr_Odwin said:

    I see you're saving for a house so this may not be useful now, but one of the best things I ever did financially was when I paid off my student loans I started paying the same amount into a savings account each month. I didn't let myself get used to have that extra money each month, and after a few years it's now an appreciable amount.

    This is what I plan to do once I've paid off my car loan =)

    • Like 2

  18. On 17/08/2020 at 6:16 PM, nightwolf said:

    Same as other people here, I only wear a mask indoors in my town, but its a tiny one where even on the busiest of days I'll barely see 4 or 5 people on an hour walk. 

    In the large town - Cambridge, we wear a mask as soon as we get out the car until we get back in. No exceptions. I don't trust anyone at all to behave themselves. The fact that it had to be put as a requirement before most of the population would wear a mask really screams volumes. 

    I 100% agree with you.  You cant control anyone except yourself. Just a pity half of the population are moronic idiots.  Believe what you wanna read online, but these folk need to do themselves a favour and drop the c*nt act and just do something for the well being of everyone.  It's so not difficult.  If I can, with significant breathing difficulties, then anyone can.

    We're very much on the brink of lockdown here, i suspect all it will take is schools going back.  And I'll be back into the insanity known as shielding... yaaaaaaaaaaay. :cry: We've already had reductions to gatherings, 15 outside and 6 (from 2 households) inside, so that's given my sister an awful decision to make about her wedding. 

    One of my friends has got really ill, and her daughter too.  She and the two kids went for testing today (sunday morning) and i'm crossing my fingers that they're all ok.  

    • Like 1

  19. On 19/08/2020 at 12:34 PM, Happenstance said:

    My school has been having issues for a couple of years now ever since the last Bursar left and it only seems to be getting worse. Unqualified people are being put in leadership positions and then just causing more problems, staff are being shuffled around by the Head with no consultation beforehand, the Admin team haven't had support for years and are constantly miserable.

    We had one of the new leadership members talking today about how it would be a "new era" as she would have our backs and was then almost in tears saying she felt offended that nobody felt supported because she always stood up for us (she didn't, nearly everything I've ever gone to her about over my 6 years at the school has gone in favour of someone else or some external group). She also has no conflict management skills whatsoever, just getting flustered and trying to turn everyone's complaints around to show how much of a martyr she would be if she was allowed to take the office (the current argument is about moving people into a dark and depressing room that was never designed to be an office and is not fit for purpose). She also fell back on the old "well you are lucky to have jobs in this economy" which to me is always an example of a weak boss trying to use fear to sort problems.

    I've always wanted to move from that school as it's a joke the way it's run but I've got a feeling I'm gonna be stuck there for quite a while :(

    EDIT: Oh and before I forget the furloughing has been a joke. Nobody bothered to check what any of the furloughed staff did so no work got divided out between the remaining staff, nobody has kept in touch with us since June despite promises of a video call every two weeks and now people are being brought back but they decided they didn't need me. Fair enough if they think they don't but now they are trying to get stuff done that I manage and not knowing how.

    It makes me so sad to hear that you haven't been supported Happs.  Not that it makes much difference to how shit its been, but i bet you're kinda loving them struggling without you haha.  When you go back remember you are only one person, and can only achieve so much in one day.  Its on them that its been left to the last minute.    

    The bigwigs throw around idle threats at people they deem "replaceable" but they soon get a shock when nothing gets done because they are fucking useless.  All of our bigwigs are STILL working from home, STILL avoiding everything they possibly can.  Now we know who is replaceable ._. I can't stress enough how much the "lowly" admin need to be valued and supported.  Good admin are often the BACKBONE of any working system.  They might do the menial chores, but those things keep the entire structure intact. 

    • Thanks 1
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