This Morning GP admits she’s DELETING the NHS Track and Trace app because she’s continually pinged and going into self-isolation puts ‘pressure’ on her colleagues
- Dr Nighat Arif, from Buckinghamshire, says she’ll delete Track and Trace app
- GP says there is ‘miscommunication’ over app which may be ‘too sensitive’
- The doctor believes that the app would have been useful at start of pandemic
- However believes app is less useful due to successful vaccination programme
A GP has revealed she plans to delete the NHS Track and Trace app because she is continually pinged and told to go into self-isolation.
Dr Nighat Arif, from Buckinghamshire, says it ‘doesn’t surprise her’ that people want to get rid of the app, which has been heavily criticised for forcing large numbers of double-jabbed workers to stay at home .
Appearing on The Morning today, the doctor said the nature of her job means she will come into contact with patients who may test positive for Covid, but that self-isolating if she is negative for the virus puts unwarranted ‘pressure’ on her colleagues.
Host Ruth Langsford cited a survey which revealed that one in five Britons are planning on delete the app when nearly all legal restrictions on social contact are removed on July 19th.
Dr Nighat Arif, from Buckinghamshire, has revealed she plans to delete the NHS Track and Trace app because she is continually pinged and told to go into self-isolation
The This Morning doctor, pictured on the show last month, says it ‘doesn’t surprise her’ that people want to get rid of the app, which has been heavily criticised
‘I’d be one of those people,’ said Dr Arif. ‘Because I had it, I kept on being pinged which meant I was being told to go into self-isolation, which puts pressure on my colleagues who have to see my patients.
‘If you’re going to turn off an app which allows you to have notifications on what Covid cases are around you, then it really isn’t working. I think there has been miscommunication and it may be over sensitive as well.
‘It would have been useful at the start of the pandemic, now we have the vaccination programme as well.’
She advised viewers to follow government guidance and undergo a PCR test if you have symptoms of Covid and to have a lateral flow test twice weekly if you are seeing no symptoms of the virus.
The GP appeared with Lori, a cafe owner from east London, who was forced to shut after receiving conflicting advice’ from Test and Trace when her staff continually got pinged
The GP appeared with Lori, a cafe owner from east London, who was forced to shut after receiving conflicting advice’ from Test and Trace when her staff continually got pinged.
Dr Arif said of the cafe owner: ‘She’s highlighted all of the problems we were seeing as GPs in general practice.
‘I had the NHS Test and Trace app because that is what everyone was told to download and I kept on being pinged. The nature of my work is I’m going to have a lot of people I will come into contact with who might have tested positive for Covid.
‘The annoying thing also was there is a delay in the system as well. So our receptionist, actually, she got a ping five days later saying you should be in isolation.
‘But for five days she hadn’t been, she had been in my surgery working and seeing patients.
Dr Arif advised viewers to follow government guidance and undergo a PCR test if you have symptoms of Covid and to have a lateral flow test twice weekly if you are seeing no symptoms of the virus
Lori, who owns the Towpath cafe in Hackney, who says that being forced to close because of the Track and Trace app is ‘devastating’ for her business
Also appearing on the show was Lori, who owns the Towpath cafe in Hackney, who says that being forced to close because of the Track and Trace app is ‘devastating’ for her business, which has been forced to open and close for the last 18-months.
‘I think one of the things that is especially devastating is we were required to be closed until April and we had to hire more staff, because we used to be counter service and now we’re table service, said Lori.
‘We hired staff in April and they are not eligible for furlough, which seems particularly unfair, so we have the double whammy of paying for full time staff who have to isolate.
‘This is not an industry where people earn a lot of money as it is and a week off of work is devastating, when you think of, where we going to send everyone to work knowing they had been pinged by the app?’
She added: ‘I think one of the problems is the advice is not clear, if you call the helpline and cannot get clear advice what do you do as an employer’.
Source: Read Full Article
