The hospital I work in is so quiet

[QuietHospital]

London hospital.
Half empty. Some wards have less than a handful of patients, some wards are closed. Most staff have been moved to wards so are falling over selves. While their regular work goes undone.
A&E very quiet. I’ve sent patients there who are seen immediately. The heart attacks, strokes and appendicitis cases are presenting too late. People with covid are waiting too long to present. If you get breathless then for goodness sake come in. I’m so cross at the initial advice to stay home until struggling.
Had a look through covid ward lists and vast majority patients are aged over 70. Hardly any patients under 60, those who are have underlying health problems for the most part. Lots more men than women affected.
It’s just a snapshot but echoed by colleagues in other hospitals.
I think we can / should start to move back to normal life soon for the well young people among us. I fear for the short and longer term economic hit. It’s crazy to have all these young well people furloughed or made redundant.

[EdwynCollins]

Same. Our patients are being denied their regular treatments and interventions so we can all twiddle our thumbs and wait

[missyB1]

Dh (hospital consultant) is saying the same about where he works - it’s driving him mad! Empty wards, lots of staff, and so many important procedures /operations / treatments cancelled. God knows how they are ever going to catch up!

[Bottomplasters]

I was thinking this, work really quiet. Everyone busying themselves doing nonsense jobs whilst the world claps for us and we ate millions of donated food. Disclaimer: my ward is like this not all nurses

[helpmum2003]

Agree, I'm very concerned about the long term morbidity and mortality due to delayed/missed diagnoses...

[QuietHospital]

I’m glad we’ve coped with it but for goodness sake let us return to some normal business now. There won’t be any money to pay for the NHS if this carries on much longer.

[Unaware]

Exactly the same here! I'm an AHP and we're just waiting to see if the rehab phase is any busier

[AmelieTaylor]

Hi

I'm relieved to hear it frankly. How do you reconcile that with the threads saying they're at capacity & the threads saying they couldn't get an ambulance to come out to them, that they were told not to call back until their lips were blue and they couldn't say two words??

Not disputing what you say and I guess all hospitals are different, but it's very difficult to get a feel for what it's really like in general!

I'm SE.

[chickedeee]

This is shocking to hear as the news reporters are not talking about this at all!

Are there regional variations?

[LonelyInLockdown]

Couldn’t agree more OP.

When the economy crashes who will be left to fund the NHS?

Let’s get the country back to work - those that need to can self isolate can; the trouble is, politicians aren’t businesspeople, they’re like teenagers who just want to be popular.

My fear is that the gov will agree to an endless lockdown because they’ve scared everyone so much they’re too terrified to ever leave the house.

[Pluckedpencil]

Interesting and also frustrating for those awaiting non covid related yet critical treatments for other conditions.

[QuietHospital]

I can only speak for my hospital but colleagues in London all saying the same. It feels like a massive overreaction. I’m sure we’ll get other waves of infection but if testing and tracing ramped up and the elderly to social distance until treatment agreed (if not a vaccine) then we should be able to get people back to a sense of normality now really. If we get quick turnaround testing we can work towards covid positive / covid negative hospitals.

[Kez200]

Can i just say, thanks, for all you did when it was crazy.

Im pleased to hear it, given the PPE debacle (according to MSM).

[LilacTree1]

Thanks for sharing this OP.

Anyone who has chest pain now would probably think it was stress and that’s understandable.

They do say, every day, at the press conference, that they are well below capacity. They’ve been saying it before the effects of lockdown coukd come into play.

If Johnson hadn’t got so ill, I honestly think we’d have been in a better position.

[LilacTree1]

Lonely “ My fear is that the gov will agree to an endless lockdown because they’ve scared everyone so much they’re too terrified to ever leave the house.”

And the sunk costs fallacy, they have to make their actions look justified.

[QuietHospital]

Part of the problem is patients are now too frightened to come in for treatment. We need to move to covid negative environments as best we can to help facilitate confidence.

[DobbyTheHouseElk]

My friend is a consultant in a London hospital. She’s told me the same. She said it’s no where near as bad as Italy or USA. I’d rather listen to her account than the media.

[OneMoment]

Thank you for this op. Can I ask whereabouts you are?

[The80sweregreat]

It's good news for the staff. I'm sad that people have had ops and treatments cancelled though.

[justanotherneighinparadise]

I’m talking to friends who are ill. Doctors won’t see them. I’m hearing stories of ambulances being denied unless patients are bloody blue in the face. Enough already!!!!

[chickedeee]

I think they are waiting for Johnson to come back before they make any decisions!

[missyB1]

There are definitely some regional variations. We are in southwest we seem to have got away quite lightly.
Dh normally works in cancer diagnosis, he’s worried about the long term effects of cancelling all this work.

[CallmeAngelina]

My best friend, who is a consultant in a large hospital in the south (not London) related the exact same thing to me yesterday. She said they're finishing their ward rounds by 11am, and are twiddling their thumbs much of the time, feeling very guilty about being clapped for, every Thursday.
BUT, she is very worried about what's heading their way once some of this is lifted, and their clinic waiting lists will explode and there will be many patients who will be too late for effective treatment.

[EdwynCollins]

Unaware we are starting to get patients recovering covid and needing rehab

[tootyfruitypickle]

OP are you saying it’s quiet now after a mad busy spell the past few weeks?

[Bitofeverything]

My hospital buddies say the same. They’ve been banned from talking about how quiet it is!!