Options
NHS staff volunteering to go to Sierra Leone for Ebola crisis
Hotgossip
Posts: 22,385 Forum Member
✭✭✭
Saw this on the news today. It brings up a lot of concerns for me.
Just last night they were saying that all hospitals in our region are facing a staffing crisis and if there's a serious flu outbreak or snowy weather causing accidents, then we are in deep trouble.
These volunteers will have to have people covering for them ... What will this cost in agency staff? ifthere's no cost involved, is it fair to expect colleagues to cover for free?
Bob Geldof said the other night that Ebola could be here before we know it and I think he might be right. ;-)
Just last night they were saying that all hospitals in our region are facing a staffing crisis and if there's a serious flu outbreak or snowy weather causing accidents, then we are in deep trouble.
These volunteers will have to have people covering for them ... What will this cost in agency staff? ifthere's no cost involved, is it fair to expect colleagues to cover for free?
Bob Geldof said the other night that Ebola could be here before we know it and I think he might be right. ;-)
0
Comments
Bollocks (shush Bob! )
Colleagues definitely won't be covering for free! NHS staff do a lot of unpaid overtime but that doesn't mean working whole shifts for free.
I believe there's only about 30 or so staff going out to Africa, from a range of areas, so I hardly think that's going to make much of an impact on British hospitals as a whole.
We do have severe staffing shortages in Britain, hence our taking so many staff from Europe and Asia but the numbers going to Africa are a mere drop in the ocean.
The government decides that it is going to send staff over there and asks for volunteers, This is the first wave of NHS volunteers to be deployed by the UK government. So really its the government who is making these moves,and coverning the cost so in the end its all of use paying but the government who is decideing that people will be asked to go over.
The thing is due to the way these counties are run they do not have the facilities we have ( the reasons why are another matter this disease is now and cannot wait for politics ) , now we can ignore it all and that way the disease will end up here or we can go and help and try and isolate it and teach them how to control the spread of the disease, ultimately saving lives and money in this country.
I say they are very brave to go and they are actually helping the NHS in the long run as well as the countries they are going to.
The uk government asked for volunteers from the NHS. The first group of NHS volunteers is heading to Sierra Leone to help battle the Ebola virus which has left thousands dead in west Africa.
A group of around 30 GPs, nurses, psychiatrists and emergency medical consultants is due to arrive in the country's capital Freetown on Sunday morning.
Their deployment is the first in a series of measures involving the NHS planned by the UK government to help bring the outbreak under control.
Almost 1,000 British military personnel, scientists, healthcare and aid workers are already on the ground in the region, where nearly 5,500 have died from the disease.
What if they catch it and bring it back here? it should be our border controls keeping us safe.
Better to try to tackle at source which is what is being done, because if you dont tackle at the source it will arrive here anyway as you cannot shut the uk off from the rest of the world.
As there is a 21 day incubation period that is nigh on impossible to be workable for normal travellers, with the people volunteering we know where they have been and when they return they will have numerous checks and monitoring so that is very different to trying to prevent the spread by normal travel and even banning direct flights does not mean no spread.
Thought not.
30 brave, inspirational people have travelled to a place that is quite frankly deadly, to try and help beat this awful illness, save lives, stop the spread, and just do some good.
It needs to be tackled at the source to help prevent it spreading throughout the world and in turn causing a huge strain on our NHS.
MSF currently employs 263 international and around 3,084 locally hired staff in the region. The organization operates six Ebola case management centers (CMCs), providing approximately 600 beds in isolation. Since the beginning of the outbreak, MSF has sent more than 700 international staff to the region and admitted more than 5,200 patients, among whom around 3,200 were confirmed as having Ebola. More than 1,200 patients have survived.
Also worth reading this about WHO which has come in for serious crticism from top medical experts including MSF who claim their advice was not being listened to (by WHO).
For those who complain about some of the poorest and unfortunate people on Earth being given aid from the UK which has taken so much from so many places you do not realise how lucky you are.
Thank your blessings that you and your family are not facing the fearful prospect of ebola.