I'm doing some locum work in the nhs. Ran a group today, saw part of a crisis team (not entirely bit too close for comfort) huddle together in front of a laptop. Felt guilty for not saying anything about social distancing. But there is an odd phenomenon happening at the moment. It's not burnout or apathy or lack of knowledge that make otherwise skilled clinicians disregard social distancing, or find the latest directive to all nhs staff to wear masks regardless of patient contact absurd. It's something else, not unrelated I think to being in a country in which the crisis is being so badly mismanaged and covered up and it feels very late to bolt the horse
I think it’s due to the government:
1) Issuing advice and statements that are reversed a short time later (masks for example).
2) Giving advice that they ignore themselves (Boris Johnson telling us to wash our hands and to social distance, then nearly killing himself by getting too close to and shaking hands with people known to have Coronavirus, for example).
3) Launching schemes to protect us (The five Alert levels for example) and then abandoning them without explanation.
4) Presenting everything as a victory against Coronavirus.
5) Constantly and unnecessarily overpromising, and without exception, underdelivering ( track & trace + the app for example)
6) Not being transparent and appearing to be untrustworthy (removal of international death comparison charts).
7) Removal of people from the daily briefings if they speak their mind. (JVT & The Head Nurse).
8) Absence of the Prime Minister (requires no example).
9) Implementing the wrong measures at the wrong time (lockdown & travel quarantine for example).
10) Random chaotic and unplanned easing off lockdown measures (no consultation with TFL or Highways or Public Transport bodies when it was announced people could return to work. They heard about it on the news. Then the start date change three times in as many days, for example).
There is my top ten. I suppose that lot boils down to no leadership whatsoever and incompetence, the level of which I had previously considered impossible to achieve.
When there is no leadership and those who have responsibility to lead start shouting and flailing their arms around, or simply disappear, then people lose interest, become numb to the situation and start doing their own thing. That’s what’s happening, you see it everywhere.