Royal Mail Delivering coronavirus tests to NHS staff : Including LTB

Woody Guthrie · Post by **Woody Guthrie** » 28 Mar 2020, 15:24

I think a lot of the nervousness surrounding picking these up can be traced back to the door of management.

Half-assed precautions from day one and a complete focus on getting the mail out at any cost makes it kind of difficult to trust the business when it makes statements like 'The health of our colleagues is our first priority' .

Personally I think the risk is very low but if you're relying on this bunch to mitigate that risk you're probably being more than optimistic.

2yearpostie · Post by **2yearpostie** » 28 Mar 2020, 15:45

your probably dealing with thousands of infected items on collection anyway, it takes 5 days for the virus to show so if an infected person posts a letter..

earthmover · Post by **earthmover** » 28 Mar 2020, 17:37

I will be proud to do it. If it was your family member in hospital, wouldn't you want as many nhs staff there to help them?. We are seeing the best and worst of humanity.

bluempl · Post by **bluempl** » 28 Mar 2020, 22:11

earthmover wrote:I will be proud to do it. If it was your family member in hospital, wouldn't you want as many nhs staff there to help them?. We are seeing the best and worst of humanity.

Agree with this let us help. If you're sensible the risk on delivery/collection is minimal, just don't touch your face, lick your fingers or whatever it's not that hard to remember and wash your hands or use sanitiser regularly.

We're not an emergency service but it keeps people's morale up seeing us out and about as normal based on the comments I've had in the last few days

Flashman_ · Post by **Flashman_** » 28 Mar 2020, 22:14

How will you avoid/single out these things from normal mail, whilst trying not to snag the plastic bag on the broken cage/sharp edges in most boxes? It is difficult enough to get ordinary mail out sometimes. A post box is not a suitable place to try to collect these from.
The fact that Amazon will be delivering these, but we are expected to pick them up points to a great falsehood about our status as a "courier" We used to be classed as civil servants, and would have been expected to deal with this in the past. However We are a private company, and as such we have no obligation to do this sort of risky work. Why is it, that we take the risky bit of the operation and Amazon gets the safe bit?
My life has been put at risk twice this week just by doing my job, going into work in the current pandemic was one but I also was exposed to a builder demolishing an asbestos shed illegally when on a round that was not even my own. I will not be taking any more risks no matter how small, so I will refuse to collect these!

Janet Brum · Post by **Janet Brum** » 28 Mar 2020, 22:34

Why? Because there is no other company to deliver letters in the UK. Simple.
And because we have the USO and RM is forced to deliver them.

Tunstallgill · Post by **Tunstallgill** » 29 Mar 2020, 20:08

I will pleased to handle these . They are going to nhs staff to help them get back on the real front line. I'm embarrassed by some of the posts on this forum. I hope nhs staff never get to read them.

Post by **the dragon** » 01 Apr 2020, 09:25

Has these nhs kits actually been rolled out yet? Has any office received the H&S brief about these items? Our office have not btw, and when the issue was brought up, they said they knew nothing about it!!!
Thanks in advance for any replies

Post by **POSTMAN** » 02 Apr 2020, 12:01

b) NHS testing kits

Is there any risk to me from completing the NHS test kit activity?

If you follow the procedures there is no risk from you carrying out this activity and the package will be just as safe as the other parcels in the network so you will be giving the benefit of the extra level of protection to your colleagues.

If I am putting the NHS test kit into a further plastic re-sealable envelope, aren’t I increasing the amount of handling I’m doing? Wouldn’t it be easier to just ‘throw’ it into a separate sack?

The packaging is specially designed with several layers so that the specimen cannot leak. Putting the kit into a further envelope is an additional precaution just in case the sender has contaminated the outer packaging by handling it. You should put the specimen into the additional bag without touching it, in the same way as if you were serving at a fish counter, into a polythene bag. If you find this difficult, wear gloves to put it into the bag.

Can the virus live on the NHS test kit packaging and if so, am I at risk when I handle it?

Like any surface, the virus can live for a while, which is why we are taking the additional precaution, and why good hand hygiene is so important. Additionally, there is an instruction in the testing kits for people to wipe the package with an antibacterial wipe before it is posted in the pillar box. The medical advice is the risk to our frontline colleagues is low.

2nd post PDF in the Global Announcement...
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sheepy19 · Post by **sheepy19** » 02 Apr 2020, 15:54

I have a yellow bio waste pouch, UN3373.category B collected by a postman from a small box on delivery (which wouldn't be a priority). Is that the coronavirus one or something else? Its been bagged now just in case...I heard they come in boxes. This is a pouch with a pen-like swab inside. Sent to doctors laboratory in Manchester.

sindba · Post by **sindba** » 02 Apr 2020, 16:04

good hand hygiene is so important

Agh f****** this again!

How? Where?

Think I might start driving back to office after I've handled anything. Wash my hands, clean the van interior, then drive back to do the next bundle / parcel / box. Repeat.

okchrisp · Post by **okchrisp** » 03 Apr 2020, 01:04

Luck Me I have some rubber gloves. Monday I start collecting the Coronavirus test kits from the priority boxes. Fresh in the boxes and a lot of boxes to do.
I still have No Sanitizer, No Wipes as yet just some bags and gloves.
In fact I have not see any hand sanitizer or wipes In the DO from the start of this, Just gloves. Should I return back to my office? Every time I find a kit in the box, To wash my hand? or play Russian roulette, and see what comes first. Sickness or Sanitizer.

Eekaaay · Post by **Eekaaay** » 03 Apr 2020, 18:50

Collections postal worker here. I suspect from the types of responses that the majority of you are delivery postal workers.
There appears to be very little risk presented to DELIVERY postal workers. You deliver an unused test kit and you forget about it. You can be proud to be part of a national operation to keep everyone safe. Bully for you. Unfortunately it doesn't work like that for the people who pick these kits up though.

Yes...we are given plastic bags etc to handle the kits but...
...what if the same person also posts 5 letters along with the kits? Probably not disinfecting them because they are "just letters". Maybe even licked the envelope too.
Well the answer is...these letters are handled exactly as normal. Do you think this is right?

The whole premise on which the RM have based their so called safety procedures is based on the idea that an item that has fully travelled THROUGH the system is safe, because the average lifespan of the virus on surfaces is about 48hrs. However collections operate at the BEGINNING of the process, with items where the virus could still be live on those surfaces. Some letters, as we know, can have been handled hours if not minutes before we come along and collect them. Some are even handed directly TO us by customers. And various scientific reports have said that the virus can last for hours on porous surfaces, and a couple of days on cardboard and plastic - so we are handling these items well within the window of when the virus is likely to be active. The RM have acknowledged there is risk by introducing a procedure for handling kits - if there was no risk, we wouldn't need this procedure. However any letters posted could actually have had a similar contact with an infected person so why aren't we handling them ALL like infected dog poo? The fact is, we should be. And as the virus starts to peak in the population (within the next week or so), the risk increases that items in the boxes are going to be contaminated material.

We in collections are now exposed to potentially contaminated material throughout the duration of our rounds now and should be handling all mail in the same way as the test kits. But we aren't - gloves don't protect from cross contamination and some are still handling items with bare hands. We don't have the capacity to repeatedly wash our hands between each pick up when we are on a round. PLUS we share vans - vans which are never cleaned. We sometimes have this contaminated material in the cabs. The sense of security delivery people have is false as they will be sitting in a van the following morning which has been left uncleaned after being used by a collections work the previous evening.

Every single accommodation has been made to the delivery postal workers and yet very few have been made to collections. Perhaps we are easy to forget about - however in the end, we pick up the things the rest of you deliver and if we all get ill, the *whole* operation is going to grind to a halt. Oh and also, I'm pretty sure our contracts didn't have anything in it about handling hazardous materials - but funnily enough none of my union representatives appear to want to talk to me about this....

And as for the kits themselves - would it have been so hard just to have one volunteer to collect these kits, in a dedicated van, with full PPE? Or even perhaps just have the tests dropped off at a testing centre instead? Oh no wait, that one wouldn't have resulted in a nice fat payoff for RM from the government for doing the job.

Mad? I'm fizzing. If I didn't need this job, I wouldn't have turned up today. Which is what of course the management are relying on.

Woody Guthrie · Post by **Woody Guthrie** » 03 Apr 2020, 19:24

There appears to be very little risk presented to DELIVERY postal workers.

Collection on delivery passed you by?

Post by **POSTMAN** » 03 Apr 2020, 20:38

Distribution of Coronavirus COVID 19 Testing Kits - SAC1 Health and Safety - Ongoing RM/CWU National Review