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The NHS is looking for up to 250k volunteers

england.nhs.uk

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Re: The NHS is looking for up to 250k volunteers

#121

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

dageshi wrote: post #59
neilwilson wrote: post #32

Wouldn’t it be more appropriate just to hire people and set them to work in the NHS? It’s way past time the government stopped messing around and just hired all the spare labour - which can then be directed to assist the NHS or directed to stay at home as required. When there are so many people without work that want it we need to stop QE’ing Gilts and start QE’ing workers hours instead. All this could be done with a…

What will they spend it on? They can't go out, can't spend it on anything but essentials and some percentage of those essentials are difficult to get anyway.

> What will they spend it on?

Essentials, rent, utilities, insurance, vehicle costs, drugs, alcohol, tobacco, entertainment, gambling, software, online gaming, anything that can be picked up or delivered from industries that are still operating. Maybe they'll save some of it and spend it latter, or invest it now or later.

Re: The NHS is looking for up to 250k volunteers

#122

Post by cbHXBY1D »

e40 wrote: post #112
Traster wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the problems the UK has is that "The Big Society" was used as a political punchline for the best part of the last decade.

Similar to the problem in the US, where one party has been talking about how incompetent government is. For decades. And working to ensure that it is (so parts of it can be privatized). Now, look at it, when we need it.

*Two parties since the advent of Third Way-ism.

Re: The NHS is looking for up to 250k volunteers

#123

Post by Scoundreller »

TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #113
reidjs wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would recommend volunteering even to people who aren't wealthy. It has to do with what you said, most people who volunteer are doing so because they have the money to do it instead of work at that moment. So, volunteering potentially puts you around wealthy people who may provide opportunities to you in the future. Not always the case of course, but I would still be pretty broke if it weren't for some job opportuni…

There's an additional reason to volunteer if you can: Volunteering can be good for your mental health, see https://duckduckgo.com/?q=volunteering+improves+mental+healt...

Nono, volunteers have better health than non-volunteers.

Volunteers have enough wealth to volunteer (or, as stated, can get hooked up with better opportunities, but gotta jump over that first barrier).

Lots of things you would need to (obviously) control for.

Dunno if I’ll ever see a double-blinded randomized trial on volunteering though.

Re: The NHS is looking for up to 250k volunteers

#124

Post by nothrabannosir »

grey-area wrote: post #66
haack wrote: post #57

Interesting to see the comments suggesting that we should expect the NHS to pay if there is a problem that needs solving. It seems the implication is that labour should never be done voluntarily (even in a crisis situation) in a free economy. I find it bleak that we expect our societies and markets to function, solely driven by "selfish" value-chasing individuals. As someone who has grown up benefitting from the NHS,…

That’s not the reason people are suggesting it, the economy is in dire need of stimulus, and many people are out of work..

This reply is underrated. It’s not about community vs selfishness, it’s killing two birds with one stone.

Re: The NHS is looking for up to 250k volunteers

#125

Post by JdeBP »

xyzzyz wrote: post #63
thomasedwards wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Contract hours, minimum pay, tax implications for pensioners, availability. Sometimes things are more complicated than just writing a script. This is quicker and can be disbanded just as fast.

It's funny to see that the government regulations on employing people make it too hard for the government to bother going through with them, so they try to find a backdoor by hiring volunteers instead. One would think that the government will think on their feet and relax the burden at least in the time of life-threatening crisis.

And here's the Bill that is aimed at doing just that, amongst a whole bunch of other things. Emergency volunteering, changes to business leases, relaxation of rules about claiming NHS pensions while working for the NHS, retention of DNA samples, changes to funerals, fewer double-checking measures on mental health orders, suspension of free movement and association, wartime arrest and detention powers, ...

* https://services.parliament.uk/Bills/2019-21/coronavirus/doc...

Re: The NHS is looking for up to 250k volunteers

#126

Post by kaisix »

timthorn wrote: post #93
kaisix wrote: post #74

I think the initiative is laudable. We know that on a regular Friday or Saturday night, the NHS is already struggling with waiting time up to 4 hours in hospitals and low bed capacity. Mass COVID-19 infections would certainly cripple the NHS in no time. Yet, the problem is how do we ensure that those 250K volunteers do not become carriers of COVID-19 ?

> the NHS is already struggling with waiting time up to 4 hours in hospitals Interestingly, my local hospital emailed today and said that "Emergency Department attendance figures have fallen by 130 cases per day, or around 40% as a result of this crisis"

Not surprising at this stage. In the aftermath of the pandemic, it would be more interesting to see how exactly self isolation, the curb on social gatherings or nosocomephobia have impacted hospital attendance.

Re: The NHS is looking for up to 250k volunteers

#127

Post by dillondoyle »

neilwilson wrote: post #32

Wouldn’t it be more appropriate just to hire people and set them to work in the NHS? It’s way past time the government stopped messing around and just hired all the spare labour - which can then be directed to assist the NHS or directed to stay at home as required. When there are so many people without work that want it we need to stop QE’ing Gilts and start QE’ing workers hours instead. All this could be done with a…

I recently thought the US should look into taping the Census apparatus - which is already scaling up to hundreds of thousands - for contact tracing and more.

Re: The NHS is looking for up to 250k volunteers

#128

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

Scoundreller wrote: post #123
TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's an additional reason to volunteer if you can: Volunteering can be good for your mental health, see https://duckduckgo.com/?q=volunteering+improves+mental+healt...

Nono, volunteers have better health than non-volunteers. Volunteers have enough wealth to volunteer (or, as stated, can get hooked up with better opportunities, but gotta jump over that first barrier). Lots of things you would need to (obviously) control for. Dunno if I’ll ever see a double-blinded randomized trial on volunteering though.

Do we have to keep arguing about the mental health benefits of socialising, getting out, moving about, contributing to something?

The only people who are arguing "more research is needed" are social science professors and their PhD candidates.

Yeah, sure, if your mental health is so poor you can't leave the house, it goes without saying those who can get out of the house do, be default, have better mental health. That doesn't mean those people aren't deriving any additional benefit.

You don't have to be wealthy to volunteer, you can be homeless and living on government allowances and still volunteer.

Re: The NHS is looking for up to 250k volunteers

#129

Post by Engineering-MD »

timthorn wrote: post #93
kaisix wrote: post #74

I think the initiative is laudable. We know that on a regular Friday or Saturday night, the NHS is already struggling with waiting time up to 4 hours in hospitals and low bed capacity. Mass COVID-19 infections would certainly cripple the NHS in no time. Yet, the problem is how do we ensure that those 250K volunteers do not become carriers of COVID-19 ?

> the NHS is already struggling with waiting time up to 4 hours in hospitals Interestingly, my local hospital emailed today and said that "Emergency Department attendance figures have fallen by 130 cases per day, or around 40% as a result of this crisis"

Yeah, I’ve noticed this to a degree, if it’s because people are scared to go to hospital and catch it, which is a reasonable risk. Hospital caught COVID infections are confirmed and hospital acquired infections in general are pretty common.

Re: The NHS is looking for up to 250k volunteers

#130

Post by rexpop »

lucb1e wrote: post #82
rexpop wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We can't buy groceries, nor pay rent nor utilities with volunteer hours. So long as we're subjected to Capitalist demands, we'll be forced to demand Capitalist compensation, or perish.

I also can't buy groceries from holding the door open for people and yet I do. People are sometimes just nice to each other, helping each other out, especially in need, or in this case, a pandemic.

Holding the door open comes at a much lower opportunity cost than the hours of volunteering which could be spent nourishing oneself in a callous world. Outside of full Communism, these selfless acts of Volunteerism are not survivable for most of the working class.

Remember, many people are one month away from the Sheriff showing up at our door, and evicting us at gunpoint.

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