I joined KBF after supporting Simon Dolan's legal challenge. From the very beginning of the media hysteria early in the year I knew something wasn't right, this doesn't make sense, this doesn't add up. Now here we are in a completely different world.
I had just been offered a new job and my previous job contract had finished. I was going through the typically long process of starting a new job with the NHS. I already worked for the NHS but this job was for a different Trust so new paperwork etc. I have worked in healthcare for nearly 10 years, worked hard for my qualifications and loved it. The job was for community bank work, mainly short term packages for patients returning home from hospital and needing care and support either temporarily or while waiting for a permanent package with an agency. I needed to complete some new training as well as refresher courses before I could begin and then in mid February all went quiet, I waited and waited and then I was emailed to say I hadn't been forgotten but they were focusing on the pandemic and this had meant a delay in preparations for new starters. Then the lockdown happened. No contact from employer. I thought surely if this pandemic is as terrible as the media portrays they will need all the extra staff they can get?? Nothing, no word until May when they finally offered me a place on an online course instead of face to face and then a limited numbers face to face refresher course. Public Health England had decided at this point that healthcare workers needed to wear not only full PPE but this now included a mask! After all this time?! Why now? I know from talking to previous colleagues and my mother-in-laws carers that this had not been a requirement from the beginning. I also heard there were no huge numbers of staff sickness due to covid and no new community care packages because the hospitals were basically shutdown and all in-patients, predominantly elderly, had been discharged into community care e.g nursing homes.
I attended the face to face training session to find the trainer wearing a mask. I asked why this was being implemented now and spoke of my concerns that this was surely a mixed message to the people we were caring for, they could be alarmed to see carers wearing masks when they weren't before and that I had read various reports on the efficacy of masks in this context and believed they were pointless. I also stated that this felt like lying to the patients and service users. The trainer agreed with everything I said but stated that we have to follow procedures and policies laid out by public Health. I left the training to rethink my position. I did not feel comfortable with the NHS, with the Thursday night clapping when I knew what was happening and how healthcare had basically been cut off and thousands of elderly and ill patients discharged to die. I was also aware of the mass DNR's being rushed through. My mother-in-law had a call from her GP to do it over the phone. This is outrageous! DNR forms are not pushed onto people. You do not pressure by trying to get an agreement on the spot. Normal procedure, with dignity and care, is to talk it through with the person concerned, discuss the form and then suggest going away and talking through with family or support network before making a decision. Not catching elderly people unawares on the phone. Such people need time to think, to process. It reminded of the huge number of scam calls my mother-in-law receives, capturing people unawares and talking them into all sorts of rip-off scams. Data protection? These companies are obtaining details of vulnerable adults to coerce from somewhere. I saw this a lot working as an advocate for adults with learning difficulties and mental health problems. I would have to trouble shoot for them and get them out of all sorts of messes.
I enquired in April as to whether I was entitled to furlough. Unfortunately as I had not actually worked or received a pay cheque, payslip and therefore no submission to Inland Revenue I did not qualify. No inc