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Don’t know if I’m meant to be shielding

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Emmakeets

Emmakeets

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1.5 LADA
Hi all 🙂

So yesterday I got a letter inviting me to get the vaccine as I’ve been identified as high risk and asked to shield... thing is I haven’t received any communication telling me to shield previous to this although I’ve wondered if I should be.

With my ongoing issues taking my insulin my last hba1c was 127 and my bmi also classes me as overweight.

I’m booked to get my vaccine tomorrow morning so that’s not an issue.

I rang my doctors to ask about shielding and was told ‘it’s up to me you if you decide to shield or not’

Now most of my day to day lifestyle fits into shielding anyway so wouldn’t make much of a difference. The only problem is I was literally planning to hand my notice in at my job this week and start a new job. My current job is working from home but the new one I would be out every day and have to use public transport quite often. Now I don’t know what to do!
 
Some people received emails,and I even saw someone say their's had been delivered into junk/spam box.
 
@grovesy i’ve checked my emails and junk box also but nothing there either! I know it’s ultimately my decision if I shield or not I’d just appreciate clarification as to whether or not they’re recommending that I do
 
I have the impression like everything the GP's have had little or no involvement the process it,has been a centrally implemented.
 
I got an email and a letter, but what I was going to say is we’re only being asked to shield until the 31st March. Assuming you need to give a months notice with your old job, you probably wouldn’t be starting until end of March anyways would you? Fingers crossed by then most adults over 50 will have had their vaccine and the daily cases and deaths should be right down. Hope that helps but ultimately it’s up to you. I’m retired so don’t need to worry about work but I am careful, I go out walking and on occasion pop into a small shop for something but otherwise my family bring my shopping and I do click and collect at Tesco. I have to shied as I haven’t a spleen, nothing to do with diabetes.
 
The original shielding list was based on specific conditions and medications which would make people particularly vulnerable to a reparatory virus. So unless you had such a condition, that is why you would not have previously been asked to shield.

Based on what has been learned since by those who have died or been hospitalized, an algorithm has been developed to work out who else is particularly vulnerable because of a combination of different factors. It needed to be tested and approved medically, which is why it has only now been used to identify more people who should shield. This is probably why you have now been notified you should shield.

It has always been the case that shielding is recommended but voluntary, so ultimately it is a decision you have to make for yourself. Obviously you can choose in which situations you put yourself or avoid and how careful you are with distancing, hand washing etc. to reduce your risk. So you may feel that the overall benefit of living your life carefully is more important than simply isolating until told otherwise.

The current shielding period lasts until March 31st, but that is already the third extension. Given the plan revealed to removing restrictions in England, I would be surprised if it is not extended until step two, which is set for no earlier than April 12th.

But as indoor mixing will still be illegal at that point, it is possible it will be extended to coincide with the third phase, which will be no earlier than May 17th. That would be timed similar to the original shielding period, which continued until July 31st last summer, long after restrictions started to be relaxed for everyone else. And if you are being vaccinated now, that date should also coincide with your second dose, so it would make sense as an end point for shielding.

That plan and those dates are for England, but it will be likely similar in the other countries.
 
The question about who should shield seems to be a bit of a minefield. It's not totally clear and our situations are all different.
@Emma Lowery I wonder if it would help if you called the Diabetes UK helpline and talk through your situation. Their number is at the top of this page.
 
Emma Lowery said:
@grovesy i’ve checked my emails and junk box also but nothing there either! I know it’s ultimately my decision if I shield or not I’d just appreciate clarification as to whether or not they’re recommending that I do
Click to expand...

Having an HbA1C was one thing. I remember someone discussing it here last year. Admission to hospital is another, I think. Weight, ethnicity, deprivation. There are quite a lot but for us the high HbA1C plus complications seems to be important, I understand.

Does this page help at all?:

https://www.diabetes.org.uk/about_us/news/diabetes-shielding-call

.
 
Thanks everyone the only reason I’m concerned is I know my hba1c is high and I was in hospital in November in resus with DKA. I’ve been taking a lot more care knelt and have the libre to help with keeping an eye on my sugars so if I were ill would spot that quite quickly. I’ve got a telephone call with my diabetes nurse on Monday so will ask for her thoughts and maybe try diabetes up helpline if she’s unable to help
 
I think there is a delay with the letters and emails. I got a shielding email last week and a shielding and vaccination letter today. My Mum has only just got her shielding email yesterday. I have T2, am fat and have asthma and hypertension which combined I am presuming, got me on the list. Keep checking your email and if you have a GP app take a look on your record there. Mum knew she would have to shield as she had a note on hers way before she got the email. Mine was the other way around!! Was hoping I’d escaped but sadly not!
 
My surgery told me yesterday that they had only sent the information to NICR
Spoon said:
I think there is a delay with the letters and emails. I got a shielding email last week and a shielding and vaccination letter today. My Mum has only just got her shielding email yesterday. I have T2, am fat and have asthma and hypertension which combined I am presuming, got me on the list. Keep checking your email and if you have a GP app take a look on your record there. Mum knew she would have to shield as she had a note on hers way before she got the email. Mine was the other way around!! Was hoping I’d escaped but sadly not!
Click to expand...
My surgery told me yesterday that they had only submitted the list of Group 6 patients on their books to NICS on Tuesday. Practice Manager said that this is why I have not yet been notified about a vaccine or potentially whether I should be shielding. She also said it will take a while as it is done in age order and their are a lot of older patients on the list than me. A friend contacted me as she expected me to be shielding and to know about things as her nephew is concerned as he is a fit and healthy 22 year old (marathons and triathlons are his thing apparently) with ulcerative colitis that is pretty much under control, but received the shielding letter. My aunt is in her late 60s with ulcerative colitis that she really struggles with, no letter regarding shielding and her GP has said she will be fine.

It all seems a bit hit and miss!
 
I just don’t get the order for any of it to be honest! I’m 29 so my age works for me. I got an invite a week ago for the vaccine but my dad is at the same doctors surgery, type 2, overweight, age 58 and is still waiting for an invite
 
Emma these letters are only for advice purposes only it is not set in law that you are required to stay at home. if you have managed to get a new job then i know what i would do esp with unemployment rocketing. in the end though it is up to you what you want to do.
 
I think chatting things through with the helpline (0345 123 2399) might be really helpful.

There are certainly some things in your case which might suggest additional risk of serious illness if you caught the virus, but of course this is all risk, rather than certainty - and you’ve made some good progress on your self-management recently.

In the order of vaccinations a long term condition like diabetes at any age 16-65 put you in Group 6, which is above the 60-65 group with no conditions. Your Dad would be in group 8 as he is not yet in his 60s.

At the end of the day whether you decide to shield is a very personal decision. You have to balance an assessment of risk with your own sense of whether it’s the right thing to do for you.
 
@everydayupsanddowns my dad is also diabetic so would be group 6 same as me I believe? He’s type 2 but I think it’s all diabetes isn’t it?

I know ultimately it is my decision but without a shielding letter I can’t really decide to shield as I’ve got nothing to prove to my boss that I have been told to :/
 
Emma Lowery said:
@everydayupsanddowns my dad is also diabetic so would be group 6 same as me I believe? He’s type 2 but I think it’s all diabetes isn’t it?

I know ultimately it is my decision but without a shielding letter I can’t really decide to shield as I’ve got nothing to prove to my boss that I have been told to :/
Click to expand...

Ah! Sorry I‘d missed that in your post.

Are you at the same surgery? That seems to make a big difference. Hopefully he will get his invite soon, but might be worth chasing up if it doesn’t come through, as some people do fall between the cracks.

Hope your letter comes through soon. I’m not sure if this would be something you could follow up
www.nhs.uk

This page has been removed

www.nhs.uk www.nhs.uk
 
It seems to be that people are being missed! I just had a call from 'someone at the NHS' (Mrs J handed me my phone as I clambered out of the shower) to apologise that I had not been added to the Group 6 list by my surgery and that they would urgently be arranging an NHS vaccination for me. Apparently I will have a phone call at 7:30pm tomorrow or Sunday telling me to nip over to the local vaccination centre for a jab.

When I hung up, Mrs J asked me if they had said anything about shielding. Turns out it was a doctor from my surgery on the phone replying to the complaint I raised yesterday about no one responding to my 3 concerns raised on Monday and Tuesday - high BG during my recent cold/flu, no vaccine yet and whether I should be shielding. She only answered one of these three and as I did not know it was my doctor, I kept thanking her for sorting out the mess that my surgery are clearly making with this and didn't mention the other issues! No doubt I will never know about shielding if my surgery have not passed on correct information about my conditions to NICS.
 
I suspect who ever the NICS are take the information from the Primary Care Databases, as the JVCI news conference this morning the Primary Care Database was mentioned multiple times.
 
Hiya mine came in to mu junk email then got a letter couple of days later , I hope you get clarification soon, maybe try ringing your gp for advice? Xx
 
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