Why is A&E empty but building 4000 people hospitals?

[Luci459]

Been to A&E and it was dead!

Went to a children's hospital and it was also dead. We were the only people in there.

The media are saying the hospitals are over run? Groups of nurses and doctors huddling round in the hospitals I was in.

mathanxiety I was deeply relieved to have missed her calls because if I had been in at the time she would have told me to take my temperature there and then and potentially ordered me to get on public transport and go into hospital.

Look I am really not making a criticism of anyone apart from asking the simple question - why did no one from the NHS acknowledge the (well known) risks and likely cross infection potential for someone with a very chemotherapy suppressed immunity at any time whatsoever until the lock down took place. That is all.

For accidents and emergencies?

...is that not normal? And if it is normal, are they still coming in?

apparently phone calls are just as good. ?????

I don't thinks that they are just as good. It's just that, right now, they are safer and better than the alternative.

Slightly scrambled posting. There were loads of very old and often confused people in A&E who’d had falls, chest pains, breathing difficulty, all sorts of problems. Are they still coming into A&E in large numbers?

Are you in the North East or North Yorkshire- I think they think it's all hype- it's coming don't worry you won't be left out!

Bubble, I think it's because people would expect anyone who are immuno suppressed would consider their health without anyone telling you precisely.
I have an immuno suppressed child, I started to prepare way before the lock down. Same for his drs. They contacted us so we can pick up the supply of meds to last for months, way before lock down.

The self isolation guidelines prohibit taxis....

And maybe you all think I am lying when I say I literally went for a half an hour walk for exercise round the deserted village but yes, that is literally all I did.

And is my cancer nurse allowed to email me to say "yes you can go for a half an hour walk outside provided you keep very strictly to the social distancing guidelines" or "no you absolutely may not go outside your front or back door not even for the authorised exercise categories until I say".

You think I am trying to play the system by taking a half an hour walk round the deserted village but also being scared to get on public transport and being in A&E (now or on previous occasions I did it on their instructions)? No I absolutely am not trying to do that.

I asked a Dr and he said he had seen one patient all shift.

I've had a temperature and she told me to take my temperature every day and email it to her. I did not do that because I suspected she might be re deployed to care for C19 patients.

Until you are told that this has happened, assume that your nurse is still deployed to care for you.

Yet this morning she was phoning me 3 times and left me messages on my landline and my mobile saying "where is your email with your temperature readings" etc. I just don't understand why - is she twiddling her thumbs?

She is not idle, she is doing her best to provide care to you and her ofher patients.

I really don't want to waste her time.

Yet you have, because she's been forced to chase you.

It is so confusing trying to second guess what the NHS is doing

Don't second guess. That's the mistake you've made.

I really am not confident I will get it right; nor that between now and 12 April at some unknown time I will not get absolute radio silence phone wise from all NHS staff I have had contact with.

"absolute radio silence" This is not the film 28 Days Later! The NHS continues to have a duty of care to all its patients and will do its utmost to deliver care to all who need it. The reason why the Govt are bringing in armed forces medics, asking laid-off airline cabin crews to work in hospitals (this makes more sense than you think as "trolley dollies" are all first aiders and trained to be good with stressed people and stay calm in a crisis), etc is so that vulnerable patients like yourself will still get the care you need from your usual specialists.

tl;dr: the best way you can help our NHS now is to do as your nurse asks.

I hope the time wasters now realise that they don't need to go to A&E for everything and they don't start up again once this is over.
I work on a paeds assessment unit and we have not missed the time wasters and the shit GP referrals. GP's also need to look at what they are referring because this goes to show that 80% of what they send doesn't need to be referred.
Every child that has come in the past 2 weeks has needed to be here. The lack of time wasters has meant we can give really good care to these kids.

There were loads of very old and often confused people in A&E who’d had falls, chest pains, breathing difficulty, all sorts of problems. Are they still coming into A&E in large numbers?

I doubt it and strongly suspect there will be a lot of them discovered dead in their homes at the end of this.

A lot of a&e fillers aren't happening

Fewer car accidents
No sport taking place
Kids not having accidents in playgrounds

@Bubblebu you’re giving the nurse extra work. There’s nothing confusing about her instructions. I understand you don’t want to be called into hospital, but ignoring your nurse, and then complaining you’re confused won’t help. Reading your posts have been very frustrating, give your nurse a break and do what you’ve been told.

she told me to take my temperature every day and email it to her. I did not do that because I suspected she might be re deployed to care for C19 patients.
Yet this morning she was phoning me 3 times and left me messages on my landline and my mobile saying "where is your email with your temperature readings" etc. I just don't understand why - is she twiddling her thumbs? I really don't want to waste her time.
In normal days of course I would have sent her my readings and if she said so I would have travelled into hospital as requested for post cancer care.
It is so confusing trying to second guess what the NHS is doing and what is deemed serious and what is not.

Christ.

You don't need to second guess or decide what is serious. Nobody has asked you to do that.

As a patient being treated, you just need to follow what the clinical staff tell you. They explicitly asked you to do something (i.e. email your temperature) and they are the best judge of whether that's an appropriate use of their time.

I despair of people, I really do.

@Bubblebu from how our trust are managing it I think it unlikely your cancer nurse will be redeployed very soon. Unless things turn really critical in her hospital of course.

is my cancer nurse allowed to email me to say "yes you can go for a half an hour walk outside provided you keep very strictly to the social distancing guidelines" or "no you absolutely may not go outside your front or back door not even for the authorised exercise categories until I say".

Ask her. That's what she's for: to help and advise you. She can help you judge in your case whether the benefits of exercise outdoors are outweighed by the risk of catching coronavirus.

Bubbles, you sound like you are stressed. I don't think you are lying, but I do think you are unreasonably angry.
You can go for a walk, there is no danger, but I think you shouldn't go on the public transport. You should know the difference. And no one is forcing you.
I've heard people's hospital apps to have surgery has been cancelled. It's not just you, everyone is suffering. It's not the time to take on NHS workers, they are the ones risking their life atm.

@Bubblebu You aren't supposed to be going to the supermarket or exercising outside, as someone who has undergone cancer treatment. However if the risk of you not going to a medical appointment is as bad as or greater than the risk of getting COVID-19 then they may ask you to come in. See previous comments about risks of people staying at home instead of going to hospital - not giving your temperature until today was burying your head in the sand in the same way as heart attack patients ignoring the pain is. They may get COVID-19 on the way to hospital but they are even more likely to die at home without treatment.

Basically - no unnecessary travel and it is up to the people treating you to decide if you going in is necessary. Not up to you to guess.

You think I am trying to play the system by taking a half an hour walk round the deserted village but also being scared to get on public transport and being in A&E (now or on previous occasions I did it on their instructions)? No I absolutely am not trying to do that.

No, @bubblebu we think you are being obtuse and irrational and wasting the nurses time (a nurse who is working under very stressful conditions already but who is trained and knowledgeable and wants the best for you).

In the last two years I’ve ended up in a&e 8 times, only in an ambulance twice as I live 15 mins from the hospital and I’ll get there myself if I can.
2 asthma attacks
1 temp of 103 turned out to be tonsillitis
1 misscarige
1 fall poss broken ankle
3 roller derby poss broken bones

The sports ones won’t happed, I’m not able to gym so less asthma attacks.

Not going out has taken away some risk, when sports start again and pubs open again a&e will be busy.

I'm now worried I may be a time waster, a week ago my 9 month old had chicken pox, she sounded a bit funny like she was breathing through a straw and had very slight chest reactions- they were there but I wouldn't say they were awful. I normally would have rung 111 straight away to get advice, but I knew it was likely they would send us to hospital because she's under 1 and that scared me even more, and so I left it and waited to see if it got any worse which thankfully it didn't. So what actually warrants a hospital trip with children? Because we all know they can compensate for a while then suddenly crash.

My sister works for the nhs looking after the figures etc, she said as soon as the stricter measures were introduced the idiots who go to a+e who don't really need to stopped showing up. This is how it should be if people use the service properly and only attend if they have had a serious accident or it's an actual emergency. The toe stumping people decided it wasn't actually life or death!

The hospitals are being build to cope with the influx of covid patients who will be appearing in the next few weeks, you can't build a hospital once people are sat there seriously ill! They will be kept away from normal a+e, obviously.

A & E is empty because most people are at home.

Therefore there are fewer Accidents and Emergencies to deal with.

HTH.

Also people aren't playing sports or really doing anything to risk broken bones etc so I guess that is keeping the amount of accidents down. You can't get knocked down by a car sat on your sofa either!