I have had my first vaccine dose, for the first time I see an end to this horror. I also spent the afternoon at work making sure my facilities and nursing colleagues were signed up for their first dose.

The leaflet for the vaccine said:

“Protect yourself:

• If you’re a frontline worker in the NHS, you are more likely to be exposed to COVID-19 at work. Healthcare workers are at a much higher risk of repeated exposure to the infection.
• Catching COVID-19 can be serious and may lead to
long-term complications. These are more common
in older staff or those with underlying clinical risk factors.
• Being healthy does not reduce your risk of catching COVID-19 and passing it on.

Protect others:

• You can spread COVID-19 to patients and colleagues,
even if you have very mild symptoms or no symptoms
at all.
• Reduce your risk of getting COVID-19 and spreading
it to others, especially those who are most at risk.
• You could bring the virus home to family or loved ones, even if you do not have obvious symptoms.

Protect our NHS:

• With high rates of COVID-19, it’s more important than
ever to stop the spread of COVID-19, to avoid pressure
on the NHS and to keep the healthcare workforce healthy.
• The COVID-19 vaccine should help reduce the rates of serious illness and save lives.”

It’s happening again, the wards are filling up with COVID-19 patients. Today was absolutely chaotic, the worst I’ve ever seen it in my 12 years.

The ward I work on was massively short staffed with everyone (nurses, auxiliaries, catering, porters, domestics etc) run off their feet dealing with patients, sorting things out, answering buzzers and dealing with serious situations despite being massively short staffed.

I even ended up answering a few buzzers (I made sure the patients were aware that for anything requiring nursing or auxiliary staff I wasn’t able to help) because there was literally no one else available to do so at one point in the morning, everyone was busy dealing with something. Why have I mentioned that? I’m not a doctor, a nurse, an auxiliary or anyone responsible for patient care. I’m facilities staff, answering patient buzzers isn’t something we do but ‘needs must’. That’s how bad it’s getting. They help me when I’m snowed under with work after all.

I have never seen my colleagues so stressed or busy, many even skipping breaks just because there wasn’t any other realistic option. People seemed on edge but everyone had a smile for everyone else.

Why am I posting this? Honestly, I don’t know, mostly to just get off my chest how hectic it was today. Also because I’ve noticed that over the last few months staff in the hospital (of all roles, in all departments) have went above and beyond their normal duties in order to deliver or support patient care during an unprecedented time of crisis. My experience is that when our backs are against the wall and everything is going down the pan in the hospital, things just get done.

I post something like this every few months but I think it’s important to take a note of what’s going on and what people are doing about it. Once we’ve beaten this, it’ll be important for our own mental health to reflect on everything.
I suppose the main reason I’m posting this is to let people I work with know that it can only get better as long as we all have each others back.

I’m exhausted and I get to do it all again tomorrow where there’s even more work waiting on me no doubt but I’m fine with that, honestly.

Hang in there, we’ll beat this.

It’s my birthday this week, I’m off to Dunoon. I don’t expect to be able to do much again for a long time.

I have lost more colleagues to the virus, people in my role (some my age) that I have worked with for many years are now dead due to the pandemic. That’s all I want to say here.

We’ve had lots of free food donated, the gesture is nice but today we recieved some Papa Johns… they wnated us to pose for a photo showing their logo…

So, I’ve been back to the pub. It feels very, very strange spending 12 hours in a hospital ward and then popping to the pub the day after.

Well it’s July now. We aren’t out of the woods yet but we’re getting there.

I’ve worked every week for the last few months and one thing has struck me, the professionalism of the staff I work alongside in the NHS. From volunteers all the way up to doctors and senior management… everyone just gets on with it and everyone just turns up despite the overwhelming pressure a pandemic brings. For most, it’s just another day in the hospital.

Our staff nurses, auxiliaries, doctors, porters and domestics have all worked very hard under extreme and stressful circumstances to see the country through the pandemic. Everyone in the NHS has worked hard, I’m sorry if I haven’t included you but the NHS has nearly 200 job titles and those are the ones I work alongside the most often.
I’ve felt a wide range of emotions over the last few months. At first, I was scared (terrified to be honest). I was also stressed and of course, I was tired. After a while, we started to get used to new and ever-changing infection control procedures and we started to feel more confident.

If you’re reading this and you’re also in the NHS, you’ll know that being scared in COVID-19 patient rooms never actually goes away but, in my personal experience, I take comfort from the fact that the staff nurses, auxiliaries, doctors, domestics and other staff know what they’re doing when it comes to lessening the risk to staff and others. We even go around disinfecting door handles, even the little things are taken into consideration.
It’s also fantastic being able to lift the spirits of patients when they don’t have any visitors.

I suppose what I’m saying is that the last few months have been the scariest in my 11 years in the NHS but they’ve also made the proudest I have ever been to be a member of National Health Service staff. Many of you know I moan constantly when on shift about stupid little things but I don’t have a bad word to say here. Every single person I have worked with in every single ward I’ve worked on has impressed me, well done to the lot of you.

The NHS has worked hard during this, there’s no question about that, we have lost colleagues to Coronavirus and some are still in serious condition but many have also beaten the virus.

My proudest day in the NHS was being able to clap and cheer as a member of staff was wheeled out of the building as she was discharged after weeks on a ventilator and enduring the recovery process.

Why am I posting this? The NHS is beating the virus and I’m proud to be part of that, even in a small way. I’m happy to do what I do and that’s all I really want to say.

Short entry today, things change daily and huge numbers of people I work with are off isolating due to contact with the virus. Still, the rest of us are here. We’re all smiling but we’re panicking.

A Scotish firm is now producing 1.1 million face visors for the NHS at a rate of 20,000 per day. They’re very, very welcome.

Over the last week or two I’ve been worried about Coronavirus. Over that week or two I’ve been doing extra shifts in the hospital and to be perfectly honest I’m not worried anymore.

I’m scared, obviously, but I’m not worried. Why?

Every single person in there knows what they’re doing, they are all trained for this. Every single person I work with from doctors, nurses, auxiliaries, porters, catering staff and domestics to managers, supervisors, estates, volunteers, security, paramedics, admin, IT and retail staff are all just getting on with it and and they’re doing it with a smile too.

I’m really sorry if I haven’t mentioned your job title, we have hundreds of roles in the NHS and I don’t know them all but I have absolutely no doubt that every single one of us matter.

There was a volunteer on the front doors today as I arrived making sure people that come in and out sanitise their hands, he’s not even being paid and he’s helping out right at the frontline in the fight against this pandemic.

We all have a laugh, a bit of banter and we still have a bit of a disagreement over daft wee things but when it comes down to getting the work done, we all work together. They always say “one team for patient care” and I’ve always just thought of that as a daft slogan but over the last couple of weeks, I’ve actually seen it in practice. Staff of all types, of all roles and of all levels are working together and actually taking time to talk to each other.

If you work with me, you probably know that I moan about absolutely everything but this is something I’m proud to be part of. It’s business as usual because every man and woman in the hospital knows how to do their job and they know everyone else relies on them to do it well.

We’re all absolutely terrified about what might come but I’m not worried about whether or not we’ll be able to deal with it.