What the fuck was the point in the Nightingale hospital?

[QOFE]

I just don't understand

I thought it was meant to take coronavirus patients to free up normal hospitals so the NHS didn't grind to a halt?

But I've just read an article saying it's likely to be wound down as it's not taken a new patient in over a week and the most it's ever had was 35, despite having 4000 beds.

But there's thousands of people who haven't been treated or admitted to hospital when they should have been, whilst a dedicated hospital sat empty? Elderly people being sent back to care homes to spread the virus to staff and the other patients due to no space for them to stay in hospital, but an empty hospital that they could have gone to instead?

What's that about then? Like... What was the point?

It's another chunk of meaningless data to be pulled out and weaponized by whatever faction to 'prove' whatever they want to whenever they want.

This is why this book should be required reading at thigh school:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Lie_with_Statistics

A local brewery has also been producing hand sanitiser. Again I am sure the doctors receiving them were grateful but this could be because they couldn't get any anywhere or because it saved them the hassle and expense of ordering some.

Or they were rather embarrassed and couldn't use it because it was not up to standard and it was a waste of theit precious time dealing with it.

There are quite a few different interpretations of the same activity (donating PPE)

"NHS Nightingale Hospitals - London and Yorkshire & the Humber" -

"PLEASE READ: Thank you for your interest in the role at the above hospitals. Due to the high volume of applications we have already received, we are currently NOT accepting any more applications at this stage.This may change again in the very near future based on the fast moving environment of COVID-19, so please do continue to check back here regularly."

"We understand that many applicants still want to join the NHS at this time. For those with the required skills and experience, our new Rapid Response route may be applicable."

"Please be aware that the number of enquiries and applications we are receiving currently is extraordinary. As such, our team will be in touch to discuss your application as soon as possible and we appreciate your patience at this time."

"We look forward to welcoming your skills and experience to the NHS, as we all work together during this pandemic."

www.nhsprofessionals.nhs.uk/nightingale

Well Nightingale London is closing down next week due to limited demand. I started an almost identical thread to this questioning the wisdom of keeping the hospital open (not the fact it opened in the first place) and was shouted down for not realising that it would be needed when the peak hit. Apparently the hospital would then be full to the rafters with hundreds of ill patients. Seems the peak came and went and a handful were admitted.

Now the oracles on MN state it will be full when the second wave hits. Ok.

"Originally planned to have 4,000 beds, the Nightingale has treated just 54 patients since it was opened by Prince Charles on 3 April and received its first patient on 7 April. It has not admitted a new patient for a week as London hospitals have had spare capacity in their own intensive care units"

Tbf I'm not questioning why it was opened at all, I'm questioning what the point in opening a hospital and then not using it because people were denied potentially life saving treatment unless they were Boris Johnson who got gold standard care while it sat empty.

And even after reading every post on this thread, I still don't understand.

I think lives would have been saved if everyone had received the standard of care that BJ got. And they didn't get it, because they were told not to go to hospital, even though there was apparently a huge amount of spare hospital capacity.

I agree with you @QOFE

Having the nightingale hospitals but not needing them is better than needing them and not having them.

Like having PPE and not needing it is better than needing it and not having it.

I also agree with you QOFE. Very much so. I can't see anything positive to say on this subject. Absolutely pointless to have set them up and equipped them if they haven't saved any significant number of lives so far.

Would you rather the NHS was swamped and we needed to fill those as well? I prefer the fact that thousands more people weren't critical and we didn't need them! Jees what's up with people?

Yes but many people were not allowed into any hospital even if they were literally at death's door, hence dying out of hospital. Not just very elderly people either.

I hope I'm wrong but it seems there are people who have died who might well have survived with treatment. That's the point. There were empty beds and empty nightingale hospitals, but not enough hospital admissions.

As I posted further up though, I get the comparison with stockpiling PPE just in case, I really do.

But a more accurate comparison/analogy would be stockpiling PPE that has design flaws that mean it hardly fits anyone and then rationing it so that only a tiny percentage of the people it does fit are actually given any of it to use. Then after the event, pointing proudly at the remaining stockpile of PPE and insisting things weren't that bad because we still have this spare PPE that we didn't need to use. Except we did need PPE, far more of it than we were able to use, and people went without PPE because it was rationed so strictly and didn't fit most people anyway. Hardly a metric of resounding success

Maybe we didn't use it, but I struggle with the claim that we didn't need to use it.

"Jees what's up with people?"

What exactly is it that you don't understand? Hospital beds were empty while people were dying in their thousands having never even been triaged into hospital. That's not good is it?

Building some new crisis hospitals is great. We just needed to find thousands of extra doctors, nurses, anaethsetist, radiographers, porters, cleaners and so on to staff them.

Do we have thousands of spare staff?

That I get. How many people should have been in hospital but weren't. How many have died at home or in care homes who didnt need to. How many people died of other things because the govt needed the ngs to not look overwhelmed.

I dont know the answers to those btw. I dont think we'll know for a while. Maybe it will come out in the inquiry into this governments ruthless incompetence that should happen next year but won't or will be a whitewash.

I think they're there for the second wave

Is it so Boris can he's built 60 hospitals?

At some point there may be a clash of resumed normal hospital activity and covid surge. I mean the nhs barely copes with a rough flu season. Like tummy flattening pants you just end up with muffin tops. It's got to give somewhere whether we can see it right now or not.

Yes but many people were not allowed into any hospital even if they were literally at death's door, hence dying out of hospital. Not just very elderly people either.

And yet relatives have not approached the media with their stories?

And yet relatives have not approached the media with their stories?

Yes they have. I've read about lots, including a nurse who lived near me who called 111 three times, was assessed by paramedics once and then died at home the next day.

And yet relatives have not approached the media with their stories?

Or (possibly) the media have not reported them. Spiked because they don't fit the editorial consensus narrative of 'we're all pulling together'?

I've read about lots

I think I've read one or two named cases.

Report here of 300 patients who 'refused' to be taken to hospital -

April - "More than three hundred people with severe illnesses refused to be taken to hospital by ambulance over fears of coronavirus."

"The cases related to patients visited by West Midlands Ambulance Service earlier this month."

"Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust said it was important to not give those with acute conditions the sense it's "more risky" to go to hospital."

www.itv.com/news/central/2020-04-25/over-300-patients-refuse-to-be-taken-hospital-by-ambulance-over-covid-19-fears/

Clavinova

here's just one

The gap between the number of people who have died in hospital and the overall excess deaths figures over the last 5 weeks confirm that a great many people have died at home! Care homes are people's homes too.

I think more and more people are seeing the corellation between pretty much worst death figures in Europe plus empty hospital beds. No one wanted the scenes from Spain and Italy with packed corridors but if less serious cases had been admitted and given the Boris Breather then perhaps they wouldn't have deteriorated and died in their homes. Someone upthread confirmed that the paramedic criteria for admission had been lowered around 10 days ago so hopefully more people will get that chance for the moment.