Im having to be very careful at the moment. Swmbo is is on a course of very strong steroids which knocks out the immune system, so if she gets it she wont stand a chance.
She is in the shielded group so cant leave the house for 12 weeks. I have to sleep in the spare room and we sit at opposite ends of the living room to each other.
I still have to go to the shops for food and her meds which is worrying but what else can you do. There may be a chance of having things delivered if she had the letter that the Govt. said they had sent to all shielded people but of course they haven't sent them to a lot of these people, but have apparently sent them to quite a lot of people who aren't on the list.
She shouldn't be in this position at all, but Essex NHS have cancelled 5 hospital appointments in 14 months. If that hadn't happened she may not have needed the steroids, or if she did she would have finished them long before Covid was heard of.
We went private a few weeks back (should have done earlier to be honest) and seen the same consultant she would have sen under the NHS. When queried he was very candid and said that the hospital involved is broken. Its systems simply don't work. Its appointment system is so unfit for purpose that he now bypasses it completely and has started dealing with his own appointments by giving patients his personal email address.
Our local GP surgery is basically closed now. The 15 admin staff for the four doctors seem to exist to protect doctors from having any contact with patients, but since Covid appeared this is now an official thing.
Its theoretically possible to have a telephone appointment with them if your very ill but still able to shout loud enough.
The surgery has a dispensary but they have decided to refuse to dispense swmbo,s meds becuase they are too expensive.
So despite the fact she is on the shielded list. I have to travel to whichever pharmacy in a 20 mile radius happens to have some in stock to collect them.
The woman at the dispensary lied to my face on Friday and tried to tell me that they have never dispensed these meds. I told her very firmly that I personally, have collected these meds from that dispensary earlier this year.
They say they are in no way involved in the shielding letter process and can give no info or assistance in the matter.
When I told them that the Gov.uk site says people on the list will be contacted by their GP surgery, I was told that they cant do this because NHS England wont tell them what it is they are suppose to say.
In normal times it takes at least three weeks to get an appointment, but when you visit the place the waiting room is almost empty at any time of day.
A good friend of mine used to be the practice manager there, and when asked why this is the case he told me its because they spend so much time doing private work.
The nurse who lives opposite hasn't been at work for several weeks but is out and about driving around in her car, and was on her doorstep banging her saucepans together last Thursday night.
From my point of view, the NHS, through wilful neglect and institutionalised cantbearseditus, has had quite a few attempts at killing my wife over the last 20 years. Apart from the old delapidated Victorian cancer hospital (now closed down) which was superb, they have let her down at every opportunity.
You can clap, cheer and bang your saucepans if you want to, but Im afraid I wont be joining in.
I cant speak for the whole country, but the NHS in Essex is a perfect example of how not to run a healthcare system, and waste billions at the same time.
I know its now the National religion, and is supposed to be beyond anything but being worshipped, but I gave up on all religions a long time ago.
Living in "the affluent south" isn't always what its cracked up to be.
Other than that, our daughter lives in central London and has quite severe asthma. She still has to venture out occasionally for food and Meds. We are terrified at the prospect of her getting it.
Im lucky that I can still go to work as Im basically babysitting an empty building. If I cant go to work for any reason, my employer will pay me full pay until I can go back. So in a shirkers world, I suppose Im currently working for nothing. I think that if the employer is decent enough to make that commitment, I should still go to work if I can.