Half an hour of work and I had one would be bridge jumper, one leg stab wound and one homeless person who, although happy with his temporary Covid-19 hotel accommodation, he is angry about not having been given the £400 food allowance others received.
Every day I log in to telephone interpreting I experience second hand unhappiness and pent-up frustrations. This has always been the case, but is even more poignant now, when routine doctor’s appointments are cancelled, and non-essential hospital visits postponed. This means the only consultations that still go ahead are likely to be life and death emergencies, or necessary medical interventions. After a couple of hours, this gets extremely draining. I can hear desperation in patients’ voices, when they ask whether there are any timescales for re-scheduling their operation, steroid injection or another cancelled procedure.
On the other, not necessarily more positive hand, the loosening of lockdown restrictions, and the re-opening of bars and pubs on the 4th of July had an immediate effect on the type of A&E admissions I assist with. During the weekend it was back to heavily intoxicated patients waking up on Sunday morning surprised to have required eight stitches to fix the head injury they couldn’t remember they had sustained.
