As the few of you following this blog might now know, we've essentially closed Gorge View Cottage as part of the national clamp down on non-essential movement. People were cancelling anyway. It is all necessary.
But the result is that we have an empty cottage, and as Mary said, it is a "resource", how can we put it to some use in these difficult times. We were already aware that in some big UK cities some hotel owners had closed hotels but then made rooms available for hospital workers. We also had an example of a friend or a friend we loosely know, a junior doctor in London, who was going home to her shared flat after a long shift, only to have a message to NOT come home - her flatmate had COVID-like symptoms. In order to stay safe, in order to continue working, she had to make instant adjustments and is now in an AirBnB (paying we think), living alone.
Now the cottage is a perfect place to live in short-term isolation, so we thought let's offer it, for free, to front-line NHS workers who needed to self-isolate for the recommended 7-days. Maybe like our distant friend they need to stay away from home because people at home are showing symptoms. Or maybe they have symptom's, cannot go to work, but equally don't want to take it home where isolation might then be the longer 14-days (as recommended for a household), or maybe some of their family are particularly vulnerable to the virus.
However, having made that decision the challenge was how to we get this message to the people who need to know. Googling around there was no clear point of contact. So eventually we put this up on the local area Facebook help page: "Corona & Cheddar Valley Community". Well some almost instant positive feedback, and one person wanting to take up the option for a week from Saturday (tomorrow). So some partial success. It even, within some hours, had the local radio station following up and asking for an on-air quick interview.
Yet we are still looking for better ways to communicate to the target groups. Some on the FB page have posted on to the local hospital. Maybe this might work? Equally though we are just one tiny place; there could be many needing this option; and there are possibly hundreds of self-catering places in Somerset alone that are currently empty. Not all will lend themselves to isolation: there might be too many shared areas; or the owners might be in a vulnerable category. But even so there might be many more who would like to help.
We don't have a solution. But hopefully as Social Media can help snowball these things, just maybe hospital HR support might notice us and connect us, or someone with tech skills to help create a platform, or someone who can help better communicate this. As and when we get any further development we'll be sure to update you all.
Thats's all for now but stay well and stay safe.
But the result is that we have an empty cottage, and as Mary said, it is a "resource", how can we put it to some use in these difficult times. We were already aware that in some big UK cities some hotel owners had closed hotels but then made rooms available for hospital workers. We also had an example of a friend or a friend we loosely know, a junior doctor in London, who was going home to her shared flat after a long shift, only to have a message to NOT come home - her flatmate had COVID-like symptoms. In order to stay safe, in order to continue working, she had to make instant adjustments and is now in an AirBnB (paying we think), living alone.
Now the cottage is a perfect place to live in short-term isolation, so we thought let's offer it, for free, to front-line NHS workers who needed to self-isolate for the recommended 7-days. Maybe like our distant friend they need to stay away from home because people at home are showing symptoms. Or maybe they have symptom's, cannot go to work, but equally don't want to take it home where isolation might then be the longer 14-days (as recommended for a household), or maybe some of their family are particularly vulnerable to the virus.
However, having made that decision the challenge was how to we get this message to the people who need to know. Googling around there was no clear point of contact. So eventually we put this up on the local area Facebook help page: "Corona & Cheddar Valley Community". Well some almost instant positive feedback, and one person wanting to take up the option for a week from Saturday (tomorrow). So some partial success. It even, within some hours, had the local radio station following up and asking for an on-air quick interview.
Yet we are still looking for better ways to communicate to the target groups. Some on the FB page have posted on to the local hospital. Maybe this might work? Equally though we are just one tiny place; there could be many needing this option; and there are possibly hundreds of self-catering places in Somerset alone that are currently empty. Not all will lend themselves to isolation: there might be too many shared areas; or the owners might be in a vulnerable category. But even so there might be many more who would like to help.
We don't have a solution. But hopefully as Social Media can help snowball these things, just maybe hospital HR support might notice us and connect us, or someone with tech skills to help create a platform, or someone who can help better communicate this. As and when we get any further development we'll be sure to update you all.
Thats's all for now but stay well and stay safe.
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