Stay at home, protect the nhs, save lives

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AIBU to find this slogan annoying especially how it seems to prioritise protecting an organisation. The ‘save lives’ bit seems almost secondary to protecting the NHS. It is also dangerous and probably contributes to people avoiding going for treatment when they should be and thus leading the increase in deaths from other causes.

We shouldn’t be ‘protecting the NHS’ as though it is something sacred. It should be ‘Stay at home, save lives, don’t spread Covid’

I'm pretty sure "protect the NHS" in this instance means to flatten the curve so the NHS is not overloaded, which is the reason lockdown occurred.

I agree it's not a good slogan - it implies that the onus is completely on Joe Public do stop the spread....which is essentially part of the government narrative to have us blaming each other in the Hope we'll forget that, had they not dragged their heels and implemented lockdown 3 weeks too late, the death rate would be much lower.

Exactly. It's nothing to do with saving lives. It's about the NHS not being overwhelmed.

I know that is where they came from but the message is wrong. We shouldn’t be protecting the nhs, the nhs should be there to protect/treat people.

It's likely because of all the Othering encouraged by the government certainly in the early stages of the pandemic when they were still going for the pretend it's not happening approach.

See all the threads with attitudes expressed like 'It's only the elderly', 'It's only those with underlying conditions', 'Its only the obese', 'It's only the HCP', 'It's only the BAME community', and so on.

Too many people are selfish and won't do what needs to be done to save lives and the economy unless they think it will affect them personally.

They care about protecting the NHS because it can affect them personally. Even with private healthcare most of us will need the NHS at some point.

midgwit Thu 07-May-20 01:36:36
I'm pretty sure "protect the NHS" in this instance means to flatten the curve so the NHS is not overloaded, which is the reason lockdown occurred.
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That's how I interpreted it, midgwit. Maybe it could be better phrased so as not to confuse people.

Protect the NHS means do not overwhelm it causing it to collapse under pressure, subsequently causing thousands of people to die unnecessarily. Who do you think would be saving lives if NHS was not able to function properly?!

There are a limited number of ICU beds in the U.K, so protecting the NHS results in less deaths.

Sounds like a reasonable slogan to me.

Oh good, another anti NHS thread, his original! You do realise that "protect the NHS" means not protecting an "organisation" but making sure they have the staff, ICU beds and ventilators to treat the public with Covid??

Surely 'Protect the NHS' is saving lives. It's not about saving them long term as an organisation, its about saving them now so that they can save you if you need it.

Er, doesn't is mean 'Stay home [to] Protect the NHS [from being overloaded, in order to] Save lives'.

I don't think you're understanding it correctly OP.

The alternative is Go Out, Everyone Get Sick at Once, Make the NHS Collapse, Loads of People Die.

I'm actually a little surprised they didn't run with that.

It's a shame they didn't use that slogan OgoPogo8!

It seems many need it spelt out. Then again some of the threads on here make me think nothing gets through to the Pretend It Isn't Real and The Pandemic Will Go Away brigade.

Don't worry OP they're dropping it by the weekend.

The problem with 'stay home, save lives, don't spread Covid', is there would be a lot more people reacting with 'bugger off! You're not telling me what to do!'. As pp have stated its about ensuring the NHS doesn't get overwhelmed. Plus it's a figurehead everyone can get behind. People don't feel things are as much out of their control when they feel they can contribute, even if it's just clapping, banging pans, or putting rainbows up in windows.

Well, irs gone now anyway. 🤷🏼

It’s

FFS! How many weeks since the lockdown and some posters still don’t understand a simple mantra. We’ll all head on out and do our usual stuff and I’m sure the NHS will be fine....

....piling up the bodies in the hallways and morgues.

You obviously have the internet, OP, now be a dear, do some research or even watch the odd informational discussion and educate yourself. 🙄

There might be a new slogan to misinterpret come Monday.

@T0tallyFuckedUpFamily but the hastily erected Nightingale Hospitals are now being shut down due to lack of occupancy? The NHS has not once reached full occupancy in this? A&E had been massively underused. But people have died at home due to fear of calling for help

It's hardly like they're saying "stay at home, protect Amazon". It's the bloody NHS. They're effectively saying protect the thing that you/all of us rely on to fix us up, make us well and save our lives - protect the people who provide that service. It's not a finite resource with finite capacity, there are limits to what it can reasonably be expected to cope with.

Last news article I read on Nightingale London hospital had 20 patients and 250 members of staff. Capacity 4000 patients

No. People have died at home because they were denied hospital admittance. Others were only admitted at a stage when survival is less likely.

It was reported quite widely several weeks ago how struggling London hospitals tried to transfer patients to the nightingale but were refused because the nightingale apparently lacks staff. Some of those patients subsequently died.

Sadly yes some other people are scared to go to hospital at the moment. Their fear is understandable. We're up against a very infectious deadly disease. It only takes one infected patient or staff member to spread it across the hospital.

A musician, one of the stranglers, died a couple of days ago. He caught Covid in hospital.

Of course people should still seek help for emergencies. The benefits outweigh the risks. And hospitals and HCP are doing their absolute best to keep things separate and safe. But it's quite obvious why anyone with a brain would feel nervous.

I'm not going to pretend I understand the Nightingale strategy beyond capacity planning but I do struggle to see how it could be used as some sort of stick to bash the NHS with. If you can't see beyond unused beds at least try to focus on the staff?

But surely the reason for the Nightingale hospitals were due to it being a novel virus and nobody actually knowing what the numbers infected would be? Nobody could also predict that people would essentially stay in lockdown as much as they have. Hospital A&E's also haven't been swamped by the usual Fri/Sat night 'accidents', as the pubs are closed and there's hardly anyone on the streets, nor the 'I've stubbed my toe I need an ambulance' call outs. Yes, I believe there's many cases where people haven't called for services when they actually did need them. But to be fair I think they might have been the percentage who wouldn't want to 'bother services' regardless. Perhaps it possibly just looks more visible without the number of time wasters now?

@ToffeeYoghurt you have proof that all the deaths at home were denied help?

The stay at home save lives, whilst benign and helpful in some ways has also raised anxiety to go to hospital, or to take children. So people have died at home rather than call for help. A&E doctors have been all over the news the last few days telling of reduced admissions for heart failure stroke, Paediatricians too.

These are people being refused, these are people scared