But why not bother? how many times have you had a cold and gone about your normal duties?? My point is that I’ve had a ‘cold’ for last few days, a was in london 5 days last week, a was at Canary Wharf where one of the main buildings was shut down last Friday for an outbreak, I’m still at work and doing what a do day in day out and if it is only cold then noting will change but if I did have this virus I could be doing more damage than good
You have to call 111 who will ask you some questions and then refer you for a test if you 'pass'. You won't get a test if you haven't been to China, Iran or Northern Italy recently, though. It's a nightmare.
Got a text off my practice this morning if you have a cough ring 111 before attending appointments. How many people with medical issues that have been waiting to be seen for ages are going to miss appointments because of a cough? How many are going to pretend not to be symptomatic in order to be seen?
We're too much of a nanny state. Should have set up hard borders. No one comes in no one goes out. Paid the money in compo to holiday makers and firms and looked after those stranded.
Our approach has been very poor - not sure about the hard borders especially for trade and allowing Brits in and others out especially from low risk areas but compared to most of Europe we havent acted fast enough and still arent doing and thats a big concern. Even the measures he has just announced now are weak and half hearted
Thanks for that. I'm sat in Dubai airport at the moment, cringing as the woman sat next to me sneezes and blows her sneck every 5 minutes. Feeling a lot better now, although a bloke three seats away has just farted loudly!
So now we can't even ring 111, but have to fill in an online questionnaire. People with symptoms are no longer required to call NHS 111, as the system is under strain, but are instead urged to look for information on the NHS website and 111 online. ' https://111.nhs.uk/service/COVID-19/
The 111 call centre is exactly like any other call centre - the staff aren't medically trained, they just run through a series of questions with the caller to determine whether a doctor or nurse needs to call them back.They literally just go through the same questions as are on that link (in fact, they use that self same form on their system). So to that end, a web form does exactly the same job as the call handler, but quicker and at lower cost to the NHS, and less frustration to the caller. Of course the difference is that the 111 call handlers develop an understanding of context, so may be better at helping identify those with a genuine need. I just tried the web form, and if you answer 'yes' to the first question (do you have a cough or a high temperature), you're advised to stay at home. If you say it's impacting your daily habits, you're told to call 111, where they'll most likely put your name on a list to speak to a nurse. Given that it's March, in England, I imagine an awful lot of people will be staying home on the basis of that advice. Which in all honesty, is probably the right thing to happen.
What’s it like out there in ref to all this? I’m due to fly out there next weekend to get on a cruise ship for a day whilst in dock for work(fly out and back over weekend). Half expecting to have it postponed.
There was a caveat added of 'if you are able to'. The questionnaire is literally 2 questions, takes less than a minute. Surely rather that than waiting in a call centre queue and speaking to someone for them to fill the questionnaire in on their computer and read the results to you?