There are two million people living with Long Covid in the UK (even by ONS estimates) yet somehow our voices are not being heard. Let’s turn this around and make some noise of our own. We are asking as many of you as possible to make one short, very simple phone call in a very focused campaign, report all the responses to Safe Inside (form below) and we will make as much noise as possible. Think of it as a virtual Flash Mob - we all suddenly appear asking the same question, the more people who take part the more noise we can make. Safe Inside will turn everyone’s individual calls into a single, loud call for action.
The call is quick, something like the following (the intro is personal, but whether it is strictly true or not we have found this is a very successful way of setting the tone as friendly). There will be lots of disappointing calls but in making 5 quick test calls we found 3 dentists who are really understanding, happy to mask and ventilate - none of them advertise this! (maybe worth saying they were all independent)
Hello, I hope you can help, I am looking for a [dentist/optician], I’m immune compromised* so I am just calling to check on safety mitigations, I hope that’s OK. Can you tell me
> Do your staff mask when dealing with customers? - (if no) , OK, are they willing to if asked and if the customer offers a mask?
> (If yes) Would you know if that is a surgical mask or a proper respirator (FFP2 or better)?
> Do you have ventilation and/or HEPA filters in your treatment rooms? and finally
> Do staff stay off work if they are symptomatic or have tested positive for Covid?
That’s it - one 65 second phone call but repeated by an army of people. Safe Inside will turn these individual calls into a huge wave of demand - we demand safe access to healthcare and essential services.
* We are finding “immune compromised” leads to an easier conversation than “Long Covid” - obviously say whatever you are comfortable with, say someone you live with if you aren’t comfortable saying you are when you are not, we aren’t worrying about this, it is a very reasonable request and we are saying whatever gets the information in the easiest way!