Nightingale Hospitals - winding down?

[Biscuit0110]

I can not be the only one that thinks this is a good thing!!

The reporting is really strange, almost a disappointment that we did not see rows and rows of dying people at the Nightingales. I, for one feel really relieved that we didn't need them in the end, and our NHS coped so well.

The footage coming out of China, Italy, New York and Spain was just horrendous. Patients dying on the floor, and in corridors. In the case of China on the street. That could have been us, without a back up. Many, many more lives would have been lost.

My second thought is why are they closing them so soon? We can see from the modelling that a second wave is very likely, so if it does come in the middle of the winter surely we will need them then? Particularly as even during a normal winter hospitals are often overcrowded.

Or being optimistic do we think the vaccine is quietly gaining momentum, and we may be ready for the winter with much of the public vaccinated?

toffee Thanks Toffee, I have a vulnerable child so weighing up what to do for the best is very complicated. Thanks for your support. I am finding it hard to sleep at night thinking about it.

I hope you manage to get your scan and treatment @Biscuit0110
With sensible precautions you should be able to keep yourself and your child safe. If you're worried wear a mask when you go. They don't completely protect but they do help. Also when you get home wash the clothes you wore.

It's such a difficult and scary situation but we do have hope. Work on the vaccine is progressing. It's a while off but it's something to be positive about. Also there are very promising drug trials. Other countries are already using some of these drugs and especially when given early they are helping. Not everybody but it's a good start.

You're right. That's true about places like South Korea. They were very well prepared.

HoldMeCloserTonyDanza

It’s obviously a good thing they were not overwhelmed by dying patients.

It’s a bad thing that so much money, time, and medical resources were tied up in them though. It’s a failure of planning and modelling.

Why has testing been so inadequate while this area was over-provisioned? It’s not good enough for politicians to throw their hands up and claim they’ve had the best intentions. Thousands of people are dead because of their poor decision making.

here here, completing agree. I also think it's mortifying seeing we have the most deaths outside of the USA because of mistakes

If only the US has a higher number of deaths than us, it's very likely we have the highest death rate in the world. America's population is massive. Per million population our death rate is much higher than theirs.

How utterly shameful.

We can't go back. What we can do is urgently work on improving the situation. Thsr means getting hold of enough PPE, accurate tests, and drugs and equipment for treatment. We've had months to do this. Let's hope they - finally - start to do something.

ToffeeYoghurt

They were empty because the criteria for admission was shockingly high
Yes. That should be the real focus by the media. It's a huge scandal yet one that seems to be going mostly under the radar.
Not far off 30,000 people dead in the UK. Many denied hospital treatment and dying at home or only admitted when the chances of survival are low. As for the care home situation. Shocking.

Other countries have low death rates (even when the number of cases is high). For some that's partly because of earlier and stricter lockdowns, but another very important reason is they treated patients early. Antivirals, oxygen.

Our media should be highlighting this and demanding answers about why so many in the UK were (possibly still are) being allowed to die with little attempt to save them. It should not be ignored. It's especially vital questions are asked because of the likely second wave if we have premature easing of lockdown. Remember also we're still receiving daily non essential flights with no checks or quarantine whatsoever. We don't want a repeat.

Note that many countries with much smaller economies than us choose to do all they could to save lives.

It's also worth bearing in mind, for those who want early end to lockdown, that many of the countries starting to ease their (generally stricter) lockdowns are treating earlier and using the various drugs that can help (especially when given early).

absolutely 👍

Our local one, in N Wales, has yet to be completed and open.

I predict they aren't really for now. They serve the purpose now of showing we were doing something to cope with the great scale of death and disease that was originally being predicted. And their not being used can be seen as the good work that complying with the lockdown has brought about.

However, the NHS comes naturally under greatest pressure with the seasonal flu crisis and other winter illnesses that peak in the colder months. Add Covid on to that, which has clearly caused a high amount of additional deaths to usual figures for this point in the year, and the hospital's capacities may well be overwhelmed.

Re, obesity

I believe the reason some health workers are overweight is due to not having proper breaks to eat proper food (even worse at the moment i bet) and often only have time to grab snack food on the run. Which in a lot of cases will be junk food and intermittent eating will bugger up the metabolism Picture this in a care home "No sorry Mrs Smith You will have to sit in your own piss cos its my lunch break now and i need the time to cook and eat proper food. Imagine the outcry from media outlets and the AIBU on MN.

So what should overweight health workers and overweight care workers do? Should they down tools and isolate/shield.

Or walk off the ward and go and find something healthy to eat no matter how busy it is?

Its also worth mentioning that care home workers are some of the lowest paid in the country.

The fact is we are not treating early enough and all the smoke and mirrors tactics like searching for other groups to blame is to cover up bad decisions.

Some of the overweight/obese people being othered are working in the NHS , supermarkets etc and are not only working all hours but sacrificing their own health to do so.

Isnt it funny that whenever the subject of NHS and obesity comes up the problems that the working patterns make for their own staff in this respect are glossed over.

I agree helena that extremely long shifts, changing from day to night shifts and working in such a highly pressurised environment - with no time to eat healthy meals and no time to exercise will have a an impact on health. I guess viral overload must also be a big problem for health workers. I am not sure about weight issues, only that it has come up over and over again with all patients regardless of background.

The highest numbers in Europe is awful of course it is, but that is only for now. If you look at the imperial modelling for Italy for instance, it shows a much bigger second wave - much worse than the first one. I am simply saying before we come to any conclusions, we should wait and see how it evolves. It could be that we have far higher numbers of immunity now and our second wave will be more gentle...

Lets hope the vaccine will be here soon. It is looking very encouraging.

History tells us that second, and third waves are often much more deadly than the first. We are after all in Chris Whitty's words (I always find it quite chilling when he says this) We are only at the end of the beginning.

These centres were only set up for patients needing very specific care. Any deviation from this and they couldn’t cope - as they are not functioning hospitals. This includes things like more mobile patients who could normally use bathrooms on their own - in the excel centre these are in the basement (or upstairs in the adjoining conference rooms) and some distance from the main exhibition halls.

But they couldn't even provide that for many @Lovelydovey. Severe COVID patients dont just need ventilation as it turns out but specialist cardiac and renal care.