2 metres apart!

It is all strange isn’t it? Surreal almost. I leave for work and there isn’t a queue all the way to the roundabout. The motorway is clear, I’m in work in no time at all. Coming home tonight it was even quieter, spookily so. This is good as it means people are actually staying home.

We still need blood and donating is a legitimate reason for people to go out. People who come to us should be healthy. We now have a triage before they enter the room. Chairs are two metres apart. Only nine donors can sit in the waiting area if it is a big room, less if not. I was asked a couple of times today why I wasn’t wearing a mask and gloves. We deal with healthy people and all the masks and gloves need to be for frontline NHS staff in hospitals dealing with the sick.

The first man I took into the screening booth backed his chair up and stated we weren’t two metres apart. I told him it would be very difficult for me to prick his finger for the iron test or put a needle in his arm if we were!!

Yesterday a lovely lady brought a gift bag with toilet rolls, bath salts, soaps and essential oils in for us. It was a lovely treat. It was especially nice after the first man of the day had a hissy fit and threw his paperwork at us as we were finishing a brief on new information about how we work and didn’t see him immediately. He apparently had ‘better things to do’....not staying in and helping to stop the spread of this bloody virus then, I presume. Or not helping to save lives.

I was going to make a little film today including video and stills, but there wasn’t time. This was going to be the final pic showing social distancing. As everyone lined up our manager arrived so I said for her to join us. I pointed to a spot I wanted her to stand in but she went too far to one side and I couldn’t see the person behind. ‘I’ll just crouch down,’ she said. Without thinking I said, ‘No, get up. You look a nob like that!’ Oops. Good job she has a sense of humour.