Will other parts of the NHS be overwhelmed now?

[Crosswordocelot]

Part of lockdown was to protect the NHS and to stop everyone getting cv19 at the same time thus needing treatment.
But now I'm wondering about all the things that have been put on hold....wont those dept be swamped and overwhelmed when they need to "catch up" with 3 months of missed appointments and treatments? And will some people need more longer, more invasive or intensive treatment for something if treated at the first stage was minor but if left could become a bigger problem....?
I was talking to a dentist recently and they didnt know when they would be back to work but some colleagues had been made redundant. But they were talking about dental problems which would be a lot worse/harder to fix if left untreated.
As well as cancer patients.
I dont mean that lockdown shouldn't have happened but I'm just thinking that parts of the NHS will be overloaded with a backlog of patients for many more months.

[AlaskaThunderfuckHiiiiiiiii]

I think there will be Op, I work in community nursing and honestly think we will soon see a sharp rise in palliative care for cancers that were either missed due to no screening or cancers progressing quicker due to treatments being put on hold. Backlogs of patients whose surgeries were put off if they needed icu care afterwards even though there was only ever 2 in there with covid in my area. Really starting to get to me to be honest

[EnlightenedOwl]

Yes it will be unfortunately

[AlaskaThunderfuckHiiiiiiiii]

Really need to restart some areas to be honest a lot of redeployed staff are literally sitting around with nothing to do

[EnlightenedOwl]

@AlaskaThunderfuckHiiiiiiiii

Really need to restart some areas to be honest a lot of redeployed staff are literally sitting around with nothing to do

Normally a repeat prescription takes 2 days for gp to do now I submit it and in 5 minutes it's done. Interesting

[WhatKatyDidNot]

My father's eye appointments and likely further surgery(ies) have been delayed and I'm hoping that his sight won't have deteriorated too badly by the time things do get back up and running. There will be a big knock on effect on this sort of quality-of-life care.

[Nighttimefreedom]

Yes we are definitely preparing for that in the NHS trust I work for.

[daisypond]

Yes, it’s inevitable. Routine screening for cancer has been stopped. My follow-up treatment for cancer a phone appointment, my DH’s cancer follow-up also a phone appointment. My blood tests at GP cancelled. My attempt to see a GP deemed not necessary. You cannot see anyone in person for them to physically examine you. Especially for those who have/had cancer. It’s shocking.

[Clemmieandareallybigbunfight]

Yup we're screwed

[Olliephaunt4eyes]

Yes, I think there may be. I think all areas of the NHS will see a rush in people needing treatment - not just cancer, but people with heart problems, eye problems (I know there is a risk that some forms of blindness which we've just not seen for years may be coming back due to lack of prompt treatment), teeth problems - all sorts.

[Clemmieandareallybigbunfight]

It's going to take years......

Backlog plus social distancing cutting down numbers on every list, clinic........

[FrodoTheDodo]

Yes. Plus there will undoubtedly be cuts to the NHS further down the line which will exacerbate problems. I'm also not saying lockdown shouldn't have happened or that the measures in the NHS shouldn't have been taken, but the costs are large.

[EnlightenedOwl]

@daisypond

Yes, it’s inevitable. Routine screening for cancer has been stopped. My follow-up treatment for cancer a phone appointment, my DH’s cancer follow-up also a phone appointment. My blood tests at GP cancelled. My attempt to see a GP deemed not necessary. You cannot see anyone in person for them to physically examine you. Especially for those who have/had cancer. It’s shocking.

My local GP are taking bloods in the car park if they do them at all but generally won't see patients. Appalling really

[AlaskaThunderfuckHiiiiiiiii]

Really starting to annoy me that I have to justify everything that isn’t covid related

[Hollyhead]

Yeah the prolonged shut down of the nhs is a disgrace. It’s the national health service not national covid service.

That is not to takeaway from the dedicated frontline practitioners, but the management and politics of the system is a shitshow.

[EnlightenedOwl]

@AlaskaThunderfuckHiiiiiiiii

Really starting to annoy me that I have to justify everything that isn’t covid related

Agreed or have to fight with a power hungry gp receptionist to access medical care

[crosser62]

Yes.
And ICU services will still be seeing COVID patients for a long time to come.
The problem of course is caring for the COVID patients separately from the non covid patients.
In old, crumbling, not fit for purpose buildings, this may mean structural work to create side rooms with appropriate ventilation systems.
The cost will be absolutely crippling.

My dread is that as lock down eases, people around getting drunk, driving their cars, crashing, fighting with each other, injuring themselves, the attempted suicides have increased.

The usual things that fill ICU to capacity and beyond will need to be accommodated AND the COVID patients. This isn’t going away and will get much much worse.

This still means that there will be no ICU beds for those that require them post operation, this still means that their operations will be cancelled.

I envision absolute chaos and a system that still will barely cope. I’m dreading it.

[FloraGreysteel]

My partner is a supplies manager in a London hospital and he says this weeks problem is that there are almost no gloves left. He's disgusted by the government's refusal to allow his trust to stockpile in preparation for a pandemic because they had an emergency national stockpile and then they find out most of the government's stockpile was thrown out because it was out of date because it wasn't managed properly.

[lorisparkle]

I wonder if it would have been better to open up the NHS before they started easing lockdown so that they could start dealing with the backlog before (if) the numbers start rising again.

[Clemmieandareallybigbunfight]

The mask lots of colleagues were fit tested on is no longer supplied. Another mask was said to be the same. My colleague, a fit tester herself, refused and insisted on a test. Guess what? It didn't fit. This is the level 3 mask for high risk areas where Covid is basically sprayed around like perfume.

[Clemmieandareallybigbunfight]

@lorisparkle nah wouldn't have worked because patients won't come in. People are so scared of Covid they've forgotten their lung cancer or heart valve problem is much more likely to kill them.

[EnlightenedOwl]

[quote Clemmieandareallybigbunfight]@lorisparkle nah wouldn't have worked because patients won't come in. People are so scared of Covid they've forgotten their lung cancer or heart valve problem is much more likely to kill them. [/quote]
Or had their appointments cancelled and no further provision made

[Weepinggreenwillow]

yes, totally. I work in Mental Health. Pre pandemic we were already at breaking point. This is going to be horrendous. the last 2 weeks have already been dreadful with catching up on backlog, and dealing with deteriorations in people's mental health due to lockdown, therapy being cancelled indefinitiely etc.... The next year or more is going to be rididuclously bad for mental health services

[missyB1]

Yes my dh is already dreading the backlog of Endoscopies he and his colleagues need to tackle. He loves his work but it’s going to be an impossible job really.

[lljkk]

Has it been officially announced that all the waiting times targets are retracted? I presume they have been suspended since March, but probably need to be formally retracted until 2022 at least.

[user1497207191]

Yes, it’s inevitable. Routine screening for cancer has been stopped. My follow-up treatment for cancer a phone appointment, my DH’s cancer follow-up also a phone appointment. My blood tests at GP cancelled. My attempt to see a GP deemed not necessary. You cannot see anyone in person for them to physically examine you. Especially for those who have/had cancer. It’s shocking.

It is shocking. My OH was mid cancer treatment in March and they just phoned him up to cancel and said someone would phone to tell him what would happen. No one bothered to phone. He started to chase them after a month or so, and kept getting put through to some kind of call centre (apparently the whole oncology dept was closed), they promised someone would call him back but no one did. He's been phoning weekly and still not getting any call backs. Last week he finally spoke to someone and all they could do was schedule him in for a blood test in July! So still no sign of treatment starting again. It's so bad, it's almost criminal how the NHS have thrown ill people to the wolves.