Five years ago, the NHS shut down. Does anyone else remember?

[Kennobi]

Because I do.

In fact I have several quite specific memories from that time. The time when we were all supposed to "stay the fuck at home", "protect our NHS" and read that fucking kitty O'Meara poem.

I shall share those memories with you here. Please add any similar.

1. My good work friend, a young man in his twenties, realised his flatmate had covid and was struggling to breathe. He dialled 999 and the operator talked him through how to find and use the nearest defibrillator, at the co op shop, half a mile from his house. No, they weren't sending an ambulance and yes he was required to activate a defibrillator, on remote instruction, for a woman who wasn't his wife, or sister, or child and as far as the NHS was concerned that was it, job done, they wouldn't be sending medics to an address where there was covid in case they caught it.

1. My cousin, a man in his fifties, caught covid. My auntie repeatedly rang for emergency assistance as his lips were turning blue, was told to monitor him each time, he died.

1. My best friend caught it, again struggling to breathe, they asked her can you breathe? No. Are your lips blue? Yes. Are you able to watch a TV programme for five minutes (ie basically are you conscious)? Yes. Ok fine you can maybe see a doctor tomorrow. Saw a GP in a car park, wearing a mask, who confirmed she wasn't dead, and sent her on her way. She now has long covid and it doesn't look like she'll ever get her life back.

It seems to me that at the time we most needed our health system it was unavailable to us.

Do others have similar stories?

Are you a journalist?

No. I'm reflecting.

People seem keen to forget covid now but for many it was a time of fear and trauma.
I lost a work colleague and still miss her. She was only 30 and had a young child

What’s your point? It was a fucking crazy-ass time where everyone was doing their best in completely uncharted territory. Of course not all decisions turned out to be the right ones, especially with hindsight, but there was no malice involved. We learn lessons and we move on.

It was awful and hard decisions were made, I understand they didn’t know how it was going to go.
with the hindsight we now all have, we need to ensure we never make these mistakes again, or allow them to be made.

What a horribly biased memory you have. The NHS didn’t shut down, if it’s what you’re meaning about when Covid struck.

The NHS was overwhelmed, so had to ‘ration’ how people were cared for.

Of course it was there. But very sadly the pandemic meant that not everyone could be cared for, especially in the early days.

What are you trying to achieve with your thread @Kennobi?

It precisely because it was a time of fear and trauma that people want to forget it.

I’m sorry about your colleague, that’s cruel.

FGS of course people remember 🙄

The NHS was overwhelmed by COVID. Sadly people died. That's why we had lockdown, to slow down transmission.

Which some people are now criticising.

it's a stupid reflection, like any of us would forget.

And no, i don't want to fucking remember it either, it has to actually go the fuck away to be forgotten, and it hasn't yet... so you can't 'remember' it.

I have no interest in memorialising something that is STILL fucking happening and i haven't got over being sick of fucking hearing about it.

Err we don’t all have collective amnesia

@Hazeby My point is that the health service we are all required to venerate changed its parameters and refused to treat people and they either died or were left permanently injured as a result. But no one talks about it.

Spot on.

FFS of course they didn’t refuse to treat people!

What a nonsense thread.

That wasn’t my experience at all. Working in a hospital during that time I consoled intensive care colleagues who held patients hands as they died when families couldn’t visit, worked more hours than they should and we definitely had ambulances coming in.

As an nhs manager I worked many hours overtime while also trying to homeschool 3 dc, yet now the government and the public want me out of a job. Feel so undervalued and wondering why I nearly broke myself with no annual leave and working all hours when apparently the public think I’m not needed. If I’m not needed why wasn’t I furloughed?!

Well they did absolutely refuse to treat people

I was in a psychiatric hospital. Nothing shut down there. We had to take regular Covid tests but the nhs still provided a level of care for us (psych hospitals are shit and don’t really help but that’s another thread!).
Im sure there are others like me with illnesses for whom the nhs still delivered.

I remember everywhere being closed, people being scared to leave the house yet my colleagues and I went to work to serve coffee!

My company is incredibly selfish and greedy

"were left permanently injured as a result"

I wasn't left permanently injured as a result of the NHS going into crisis due to a pandemic that killed thousands.

I AM permanently injured by the damage caused by the assholes who refused to behave themselves and stay the fuck away from people and instead ignored advice, got themselves sick, and got every fucker else sick and ended up being the reason the NHS shut down.

3 times i've caught covid from cunts who couldn't stay the fuck home, and now i'm sick/injured/damaged for life.

NOT because the NHS 'shut down'

How?
What evidence do you have to support this offensive and ridiculous assertion?

What’s the purpose of dragging this up again?

We were all there.

Normally when someone has breathing difficulties they will be offered medical assistance when their lips go blue. During covid that didn't happen. The threshold was moved. It was moved to "awake". People died as a result. Hospitals were not overwhelmed. GP surgeries were, also, not overwhelmed. But they were refusing to treat people who were in need of clinical treatment. And, those people died.

It so saved loads as well. And medics were the ones who died, after catching covid from their patients

My mum became unwell and was diagnosed over the phone wth Covid a few weeks into lockdown, despite not having been out for a while and living alone. It wasn't Covid, but no one medical would consider any other diagnosis, no matter what we said about the signs and symptoms, and no matter who we contacted. She was just told repeatedly to self-isolate. It was an aggressive cancer. Eventually my brother called for an ambulance. At first the ambulance service refused to take her to hospital despite her being seriously, seriously unwell, but eventually they agreed. Exactly a week later she was dead from the cancer. The hospital confirmed she hadn't had covid at all. It was a really awful time to be or have a loved one ill with anything.

I've given you three examples. There are many more. The threshold for medical intervention changed when the NHS was not overwhelmed. It was far from overwhelmed.