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?

Yeah, I remember. I remember my sister (consultant doctor, COVID ward lead, the most resilient person I've ever known), calling me from the car park after a shift, treating sick people for hours on end, and asking me to raise her kids when she died from COVID as she assumed her husband would catch it from her. That's my memory. Her memories are significantly worse, let me assure you, than both mine, and yours.

If you weren't dealing with Covid patients, then you were not at all busy as an NHS medic (eg a surgeon who does elective cases), because there were so many cancellations (decided by hospital management, not by doctors).
But everyone had a different experience. I didn't know anyone who was "scared" or "frightened to leave the house". Most of us knew there was a massive overreaction - we were annoyed and frustrated, but I suspect the majority of us shrugged it all off in no time.
The people who suffered most were the young people kept out of school, and those people with small businesses who faced such economic damage. I hope everyone has now learnt from the experience, so that we never have pointless lockdowns or masks ever again.

I don’t know why everyone is giving you such a hard time about this post. I think like anything traumatic (especially if you lost someone close to you ) then it will always be with you but I think people are trying to move on with their lives as best they can. It was a very difficult time and as some people have said, of course we must remember so we can show gratitude to those who took risks going to work everyday where they were most exposed than most (including NHS), remember many loved ones who were lost and to learn from our experiences so we can all do better next time.

Many nhs workers were themselves sick, there were too many seriously ill people versus the number of hospital beds and staff. They couldn’t take everyone. My father in law had a heart attack during the first covid wave and the ambulance arrived too late - I’m still grateful that they managed to send anyone at all.

There’s really no need to try to dissect this any more than that. The NHS did an amazing job in an unprecedented and extreme environment. People seem angry at them now - I have no idea where this ridiculous train of thought has come from.

When I look back only 2 things make me angry - the PPE corruption and the fact that major events like Cheltenham happened and almost certainly accelerated the spread. When I think of the NHS at that time I think of how massively overworked and stressed they must have all been. I’m forever grateful for every last one of those workers.

How else would you describe refusing medical treatment to a man with breathing difficulties and blue lips?

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

Defibrillators aren't used for "struggling to breathe" they're used for sudden cardiac arrest. This makes absolutely no sense.

I don't understand your first point, are we only supposed to use defibs on people we know? I get the point about the ambulance not coming out, but not the defib.

FWIW, I'd been asking the GP for years to look at my whole list of symptoms, not 2 in isolation. They kept telling me they could only do 2 at time. Had a telephone appointment in covid with a Dr who told me to upload a list of everything as they weren't limited to 2 things that way. Finally got some long overdue diagnosis. So for me, the NHS worked better than before.

Yes I agree it was harder to get GP care and the hospitals were full - I don’t agree that this was deliberate neglect or your lie that the NHS ‘shutdown’. Staff dealt with a terrible situation whilst rightly fearing for their own lives and their families.

The OP is quite insulting to all the brave NHS staff who risked their own lives and those of their families to work themselves to their physical and mental limits during COVID.

Also this. I forgot to mention that in my confusion.

It really fo show up the difference in the haves and have nots

I agree. Nevertheless this is what the operator instructed him to do.

Anything other than have an NHS worker exposed to covid, I guess.

Mmm I dunno, I found sending ten people to the already full mortuary in one shift pretty overwhelming.

I found giving multiple patients multiple rounds of CPR in full PPE every day pretty overwhelming.

I found treating people in unsafe, makeshift ‘bed spaces’ because we had nowhere else to put them pretty overwhelming.

I found having fewer NIV machines than patients needing them and having to be part of the decision-making process to choose between them, knowing the ones we didn’t choose would probably die, pretty overwhelming.

I found the box of visors handmade by school children (key worker kids) with little messages of encouragement delivered to the Covid wards because we didn’t have enough PPE from the government pretty fucking overwhelming.

But sure, we refused to treat people because we were all too busy doing fucking TikTok dances. 👍🏼

It didn't close. That's the stupidest thing I've heard on here, and believe me there have been some front runners.

It didn't close. It was full to bursting. They ran out of resources which is why we went into lockdown. It never closed. Don't be so stupid.

They had a capacity to treat X thousand of people at a time. There were more than X thousanf people ill. It's called triage. They were working flat-out to save as many people as possible. They developed systems to try to identify who was most in need of and able to benefit from help. Those systems weren't perfect because they weren't omniscient and all-powerful deities but they did their best. A lot of lives were saved, fewer people died than might have with different decisions. Of course some people died who might have been saved with a different decision but your individual anecdotes showing that some people didn't get the right help does not prove anything.

You are sounding deranged now OP.

And that last sentence is even more stupid. Do you really not remember that so many HCP died of COVID themselves?

You're either very stupid or you are deliberately winding people up. I don't know which.

I'm so very sorry to hear about your mum 💕

My oh was due to start his chemo the first week of lockdown. The hospital phoned on the morning it was due to start and told him not to go in and that they’d contact him to rearrange. He heard nothing from them for weeks. He finally had to chase and chase them many times and finally got the chemo started in July - 4 months later!

The entire oncology dept closed down and cancer treatments were transferred to a nearby hospital across the county border. But they screwed up, didn’t tell the patients and people like my oh were lost/forgotten in the move.

People will always be instructed to get a defib on a 999 call, since way before covid if the patient is unconscious or with severe difficulty breathing. It’s a just in case measure. They will be told where the nearest is and asked to send someone to get it
You want it with the patient if they stop breathing, not for the patient to stop breathing then spend 10 mins going to get it

Thank you.

I genuinely think it was easier to get gp care if you actually needed it. Frequent flier hypochondriacs maybe missed out.

I phoned the gp at 8am or so, he video called at 9.30, by 10.30 I was in the surgery and by 12.00 in the hospital where they were expecting me. I'm not sure that would work as smoothly these days.

Yes I'm sorry I forgot to be grateful for all of that blitz spirit bravery when healthy young doctors were refusing to go anywhere near my dying cousin and his distraught, traumatized 80 year old mother as she watched him expire while being forbidden to even hug her sister. My bad. They're all heroes, ofc.

Bil, ambulance did come out twice as very poorly with Covid. He was posted ( not from NHS) inhalers and antibiotics, he recovered.

Husband very ill, suspected Covid, he used my inhalers, again procured antibiotics,. He also survived.
He wouldnt phone doctors or seek medical attention as he feared going into hospital to die
Without the inhalers, I doubt he would have survived
They were crucial I feel.

Maybe not so overwhelmed then.