Have you been to the hospital since COVID began?

[AnxietyDrivingMyLife]

I keep seeing threads where people have commented how the NHS is currently a COVID only service. Is this the case? Have you had procedures which have been cancelled etc with no sign of when the services will resume etc?
It sure how A&E functions but my guess is that if it’s life threatening and you are presented in A&E they have to treat you.

Yes, all of last year for antenatal, a lengthy induction & postnatal care. Received excellent care throughout & I was in for a fairly long time. Also had kidney scans & ECGs in other departments during that time, very quiet but service as usual.

DD was admitted with expected meningitis, arrived via A&E. A few days stay on the children’s ward. Excellent care & service as usual.

DS has a lung condition & has had his usual reviews through paediatrics.

That’s reassuring- the question was prompted due to someone at work having a planned surgery cancelled thrice...

DS went to A&E for a fall in around September I think? It was a bit different for us because DS was actually isolating due to being identified as a close contact at nursery so we had to be kept separate from everyone but the care was excellent and we didn't wait long.

Adults are not allowed to have someone sitting with them, but otherwise fine.

Ds had a very important appointment cancelled in September and moved to January. It then got cancelled again and moved to July.

To say I am pissed off would be an understatement.

I work in a hospital and whilst many of our clinics are doing telephone appointments or video appointments where we can rather than everyone attending the hospital, if someone needs to be seen face to face this is still happening. There are rules, such as don't turn up really early and clog up the waiting areas, come by yourself don't bring six kids with you (oh yes, people do this regularly!) and obviously masks unless exempt.

There are hand sanitisers EVERYWHERE from when you first enter and more staff on the doors to advise patients where they need to be to save them wandering around.

Many health issues obviously aren't slowing down because of covid and so treatment needs to continue with as many protective measures in place as possible.

There are considerable backlogs and these will only get worse but we're doing the best at can to continue to provide the services everyone needs.

Some electives and non urgent surgeries are obviously being cancelled due to risk /benefit calculations, at least until everyone has been vaccinated.

I’ve been to the breast clinic twice within the 2 weeks referral.

My dad is due a non emergency op next month

My kid and husband are accident prone and been to a&e 4 times since last March and all good.

My kid ignored my orders on not using the knackered trampoline and got a spring stuck in his head. A&e was dead, I've never been in and out so quickly before. This was first lockdown though. No idea what it's like now.

Can't get past the doors at the GP though.

@gamerchick

Can't get past the doors at the GP though.

Yup; my son should have seen a GP and they use told us to go to the kids hospital...!

My friends and a&e doc and says they are being sent so many people from GPs

gamerchick OverTheRainbow88

yeah my GPs recorded message when you phone, is pretty much "Why the fuck are you ringing? there's a pandemic on, Piss Off."

I've been every month for treatment. I'm so impressed with how they're handling it. All very clean and feels safe.

Three times for routine neurology treatment appointments - the place was very quiet but very efficiently managed and I was in and out very quickly every time. I have another routine appointment next week but they've changed that from face-to-face to a video call with my consultant.

My regular hospital care and my sons regular hospital care has gone ahead as normal, well, the only difference was wearing masks. I’ve had three appointments and I have another coming up, my son has had two.

I also had a short unexpected stay due to covid, so I can also confirm that hospital food is still crap.

Lots of staff have been redeployed where I work. Doctors are on ITU doing nursing shifts, the surgeons have all been redeployed, even from paediatrics. We are doing some daycase surgery but that is all. We are running some clinics but lots are via Zoom or phone appointments.

Of course we would treat you if you turned up at a&e with something life threatening.

We had great care at the hospital yesterday. I was in A&E and then gynae. One of our children was in ENT!

I went for an X-Ray a couple of weeks ago. I was referred in the morning and went in the same afternoon. Apparently so many people are scared to go in that the radiographers are twiddling their thumbs. It’s a great time to go for diagnostics.

I went for a blood test and scan as part of my cancer check up in June. Also took my son to urgent care after calling 111 as he had a small fracture in his arm, this was January just gone so during the 2nd peak. Both times same as pre-Covid in terms of excellent and thorough care.

Several times including A+E last night. Not everything is 100% fully running and some wards are combined.
It will vary from hospital to hospital and the staff available.

All our routine outpatients appointments have been cancelled or over the phone. Spoke to one consultant in January and was told that the next appointment would definitely be over the phone in April but then as soon after he wanted to see dc1 in clinic and suggested this would happen June /July time if the NHS trust allows. The consultant said when they start doing outpatients again it will be a select few patients at first so clinics will be quiet.
Dc1 has had a morning in hospital for tests and a day surgery procedure (both of which were delayed).
I've been waiting 20 months for an operation.
Not had any specialist nurse follow up as I'm told they're working elsewhere.

Had to stay in when my daughter broke her arm and then regular follow ups for 12 weeks. Fracture clinic was running much more efficiently than our previous experience of it.

Yep, A and E emergency and a few days as inpatient in August. Some follow up scans have been slower because of Covid they say.

In August my youngest had septic arthritis, October my husband had a hernia repair.

One was a 5 day stay, the other a day case.

Yes I fell off my horse and hurt my neck. I went to A&E it was very quick and I had great care. DH had to wait in the car but that was the only difference. I had an MRI and a CT scan.

Yep.
A&E with DC (just being hyper cautious about weird symptoms). Lengthy investigations for something that might have been cancer but almost certainly wasn’t for me, but which picked up another minor issue. My regular thyroid blood test which I always have done in the hospital clinic. Radiotherapy for DFIL’s cancer. Checkups for post-cancer DMIL. Bone scans for DF.

I took Dd2 to A&E when she split her chin open to get it glued, fastest I've ever been seen! My Df is currently receiving treatment for prostate cancer.