To Open or Not

(Photo by Lukas Koster at Flickr)

To open, or not to open? That is the question. (Apologies to William Shakespeare.)

For the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, Monday 19 September will be a bank holiday in the UK.

A lot of scrambling is happening because of this. As a bank holiday, it’s unusual, and not just because it’s on short notice.

It’s up to businesses to decide whether to open or close. For those that close, it’s up to the businesses to decide whether to treat it as an extra paid holiday or make employees use a day of their annual leave if they want to be paid.

Many people have to go to work that day, but don’t have child care arranged for the kids whose schools (surprise!) are required to close.

The NHS has an especially delicate quandary. If clinics and hospitals carry on as usual, child care isn’t the only issue their health care workers may face. A segment of the population will loudly proclaim that staying open is disrespectful to the Queen.

But if NHS facilities close, people in need of health care will get sent to the back of the queue and it may not be the first time their treatment has been postponed. The NHS is short of resources (looks at beds per capita or doctors per capita here versus most of continental Europe) and has been hammered by the past 2 ¾ years. At the end of July, 6.8 million people in the UK were waiting to start treatment. That’s about 1 in 10 out of a population of 68.7 million. The median waiting time? 13.3 weeks. Almost 380,000 have been waiting more than a year. Imagine having an appointment cancelled for surgery, special injection for pain treatment, cancer scan, or whatever other treatment you need after you’ve waited months in anticipation of the relief it would give you.

Damned if they’re open, damned if they’re closed.

This funeral for Queen Elizabeth II is a monumental event. Much of the UK will shut down and watch, in person or on television. But some people will have to work that day. If they seem stressed about it… they probably have good reason. Especially if they work for the NHS. Please be nice. They need it.