SOCIAL WORKERS SHOULD WORK EVERY DAY OF THE WEEK H
ere’s the thing with old age, you’re still old at the weekends. Bit of a pain, really. No chance of partying, nights out, or long walks in the countryside. You don’t really get a weekend. Just old age 24/7.
have to wait until office hours for help.
It’s the same if you have a lifelong or life-limiting condition, or if you’re living in poverty, or enduring an abusive relationship, or neglectful parents when you’re a child. If these things happen to you, there is no weekends, no bank holidays, no breaks.
DISCHARGE COORDINATOR WE’D
HEALTHY ENOUGH TO GO HOME.
And what about social work? Many social workers are surreptitiously working away at weekends anyway,
But the services you rely on, and the staff who work there, get all these things. That means, effectively, my car receives better breakdown cover than most vulnerable people receive support. Yes, there’s a crisis team covering out of hours, but this is only for emergencies. Other than this, you
Capacity had to be freed up for a new influx of patients over the weekend when all the heavy drinking kicked off and A&E filled up.
catching up on admin and emails. It’s just clients can’t get help. When you work in the field of addiction it makes profound sense to stay open at weekends since this is when many relapses happen.
No other sector really works like this. On a Saturday morning I can contact my bank, speak to my utility provider, buy a car, book a holiday, get a plumber, landscape the garden - by Monday morning I could have my whole house renovated. But I can’t get a routine endoscopy in a hospital. WHEN I WORKED AS A HOSPITAL HAVE A MAD FRIDAY RUSH AS THE WARDS CLEARED THEIR BEDS OF ANYONE LOOKING VAGUELY
Over a weekend it is much easier to be admitted to a hospital than to be discharged because, once admitted,
the clinical team will want to run some tests. But the tests are usually undertaken by departments that are shut until Monday morning. Given that an NHS hospital bed costs an average of £400 a day, you’d have thought it good economic sense to keep the whole service humming over the weekend, maintaining a steady flow of patients. It makes even more sense since the building stays open anyway. The heating has to be turned on. The gates have to stay open.
OTHER INDUSTRIES HAVE MADE THE LEAP FROM THE 1950S.
