COVID-19: Resetting Expectations.

I work selling car parts. We send parts all over the world.

It's always amazed me that just using normal postal or courier routes (avoiding the big companies like DHL and Fedex that have their own aircraft) we could get packages to Australia and New Zealand inside 7 days.

Considering the parcel would probably take 2 days to get through Heathrow and another couple of days getting from the freight terminal to the customer, that's not bad going.

But no longer. Aircraft capacity is down 80% in "normal" levels.

But still customers call expecting deliveries in a week. I would have hoped that this period of shutdown and reduced service would show people how lucky they were. But there are always those that still expect things to stay the same with fewer resources.

Even postage within the UK is patchy. Some postal depots are down to 50% staffing levels. Some have been closed for deep cleaning as workers test positive for the virus, delaying post in that depot by 3 days or more.

But still we get the call from people expecting next-day service. Without paying for it of course.

But luckily most people seem to be understanding how lucky they were and how good things were before the virus hit. Walking into a store and being able to buy goods from around the world that were re-stocked on an almost hourly basis.

Lets hope after this crisis that most people at least are a little more thankful and thoughtful. That they understand the miracle of modern logistics and appreciate the amount of effort that goes into global transport networks.

COVID-19: Political Genocide.

Much is being made of the NHS not having enough PPE and the government is being blamed. The truth is the NHS manages the purchase and distribution of PPE. Not the government.

As procurement managers work in the NHS and most NHS workers are left-leaning, I wonder if after all of this we could see signs of NHS managers not ordering sufficient PPE to try and create political advantage for the left?

You may think I'm crazy, that NHS managers wouldn't think of killing patients would they? Well, yes they would actually. Especially if they could blame the government instead of themselves.

The vitriol of the left knows no bounds and they would happily hound someone on social media until they committed suicide. And the left would dance of the grave of the victim.

That's how sick they are.

And that's why I have no qualms about thinking NHS managers could do such a thing.

It comes to something when the NHS can't stockpile, procure and distribute essential supplies like PPE. It's not fucking rocket science.

Even with the fucking Army drafted in wit trucks, there were still shortfalls in distribution. Even the RAF had to fly to Turkey to pick up tons of PPE, the NHS procurement team couldn't  manage it

But I've seen the calibre of manger that gets into these public services. You may not believe it, but I've deliberately thrown job interviews not to work with the incompetent fuckers. Just to avoid certain projects that I know have been boobytraps, tar pits, or whatever soul-sapping slow death you can think of.

If I took a job in the NHS I know I'd die inside. Innovation, leadership, exemplar behaviour, these are not the hallmarks of most public services. And the NHS management team is certainly amongst those that do not reward the sort of behaviour that is required in a crisis.

Personally I require an environment where I can be me: an innovator, team-player, leader, quiet facilitator. I aspire, I do not crave the crowd. I'm not egotistical (If I was, I'd have been on YouTube years ago), this is just the environment I recognise where I do best. It's interesting that I often get asked if I was in the military. Maybe I'd have done well in that environment, but I'm not sure the regimented nature would have suited me. I didn't do well at school for that very reason. Most of what I've learned is self-taught.

Anyway, I digress.

The production of PPE and NHS procurement. The whole supply chain of the NHS needs a serious looking at. That I do know.

COVID-19: Changing Goalposts

The Mrs is currently scrabbling to comply with new guidelines released by the Care Quality Commission.

Over two months into the outbreak, the CQC has now issued an edict that registered care home workers should be wearing PPE at all times. Masks and gowns at all times and face shields when doing close personal care. Just like I was saying weeks ago.

The wife is now scrabbling to get supplies of PPE through from head office. She doesn't order it directly.

Of course if someone in the care home now contracts COVID-19 in between the edict being released yesterday and when the PPE actually arrives for use, guess who gets it in the neck?

Considering it was obvious two weeks ago and more that PPE should be worn as a barrier between carers and their clients, it's been a bloody long time coming. But of course the Mrs couldn't pre-empt any decision and buy PPE beforehand. She can only buy it now it's been deemed necessary.

Strangely it's only registered care homes. Other forms of care like supported living that work in exactly the same way are exempt from the PPE rules.

That's because they don't come under the CQC and any deaths are reported differently. They just get reported like deaths in the community.

Registered care homes count, (literally) because deaths are reported to the CQC and those statistics are collected by the ONS and are now starting to be reported on the news.

I can say quite cynically the deaths in registered care homes has shocked the government into action. Way too late.

It was quite obvious at the start of the COVID-19 outbreak that PPE should have been worn by carers as a barrier to them infecting care home residents and also a barrier to them being infected, as well as cross-infection between ill and healthy residents.

If it was good enough for hospital wards, it's good enough for care homes.

I hope the CQC will be taken to task on this.

I also hope it will show why the social care sector really needs to be classed as the same status as the NHS, if not absorbed into it.

COVID-19: Sensationalising the Bledin' Obvious.

It seems the pandemic has entered silly season news-wise.

First we have have Panorama on the BBC sensationalising the fact that Nitrile gloves are counted as a single piece of PPE for some reason. When that's how everyone counts them.

You buy a box of 100 single gloves, you don't buy pairs. So you buy 1000 gloves, that's 1000 pieces of PPE right there.

The BBC are unable to understand that not all jobs within the NHS or care that involves using a glove requires a pair of gloves. There are some jobs that can be done quite safely with a single glove.

But hey, that's the BBC. They employ thick people that have never lived a life as reporters who suddenly think that the government is somehow misrepresenting the numbers by not counting gloves as "pairs". Give me strength.

The BBC also over the last few days paraded a long list of Labour activists within the NHS as "experts" without any hint of their political affiliation. Had the report been on something neutral, that would be fair enough. But when the BBC and the "activist" doctor or nurse is scoring a political point, we should bloody well know the extent of the person's political affiliations.

Especially when they stretch to Union leaders, party political campaigners or Labour candidates.

Hardly impartial.

Today the Metro picked up the ONS figures for the 17th of April and made a big deal of the amount of deaths outside of hospital. It's not like we weren't expecting it. Those of us close to the care community already have knowledge of the numbers of deaths, especially in care homes up North.

Hardly sensational.

Even if you weren't involved in caring and you had listened to the news, you'd know that a great deal more people in the community have been infected with COVID-19 than official figures estimate. Something like 10 or 20 times the official amount. So the death rate outside hospital is no surprise to those of us that are well-informed.

To keep well informed on COVID-19, I can recommend no better source than Dr John Campbell's YouTube channel. He is factual, accurate and never, ever sensational. Heed his words.

Even the fluctuations in numbers caused by the weekend seems to be a source of "News" apparently.

The fact is that the figures for the first three days of the week are inflated by the weekend figures being delayed  and added to the weekday totals. Nothing sensational. The figures are delayed because not all NHS workers work a 7-day week shift pattern. The admins and analysts work weekdays only. So much for the 7-day NHS.

You just have to remember that to get the true trend of infection rates and death tolls, you have to use Thursday and Friday's numbers. They are the most accurate "instant" reporting numbers.

Anyway, I look forward to the BBC's next Expose. Apparently they are doing a future episode on care. I have a feeling it won't be such a love-fest as those involved in it think it will be. I have an idea that it will be yet another excuse to clobber the government. Or the care companies and charities.

There will be a sensational agenda. Again.