Rant alert! How do those who want Lockdown to continue justify the suffering of everyone else?

[Thefrenchbaguette]

My 3 month old has been waiting for a hip scan to confirm her rather obvious DDH. She needs a harness, the GP already confirmed she will need one and put in an urgent referral at her 6 week review and still nothing because they're not doing them at all here! You can only use a harness up until 6 months and after that the treatment for DDH is an operation! My baby is going to have to have a completely unavoidable operation or suffer lifelong damage to her hips because the NHS is just not interested in anyone who doesn't have Covid19! There isn't even the option to pay for it to be done privately! I am furious and so sick of seeing countless threads and comments about how lockdown needs to be continued and even stricter! All very well with your comfortable house and perfectly secure income and no real risk to your overall well-being but what about everyone else who is suffering?!
A friend had an abnormal smear come back in January but the follow up has been indefinitely postponed! How many people are going to miss life saving diagnosis', life saving treatments! It's disgusting and I feel so unbelievably angry at what this country has come through so 90% of people can avoid getting what is essentially a bad cold!

I also think the advice of the person above- health visitor, GP, get these people to apply pressure to get this sorted out. They should be chasing the hospital for the scan/appointments.

OP, btw, you probably know this, but a decent sling - not a Baby Björn or similar, needs to be a cloth one or Mei Tai style (look at the Marsupi) with a broad base so her knees are higher than her bum iyswim - may help things in the meantime. My middle child had a slightly concerning hip at one check - doesn't sound as pronounced as your dd's, but pretty much living in the sling for a few weeks sorted it, so it may at least help stabilise things for your dd. But really, I'd be getting a stiff legal letter written at this stage.

the irony on this thread is quite something. you are selfish for only thinking of your daughter whilst I insist upon a harsher further lockdown to save my own bacon and my children.

let's be honest, everyone is selfish arent they. most people do only care about themselves and their loved ones, lets not pretend the OP has done anything different to those who want lockdown to continue.

I do care about your daughters potential operation OP because it is so unnecessary to put a little baby through that when it could have been avoided. I sympathise with those affected by COVID but I also hugely sympathise with those who are going without whether it be medically, financially or emotionally due to this lockdown. it sucks

I have hip dysplasia that was not picked up as a child. I need a hip replacement and my regular review has been cancelled and I will be contacted in the future. All physio patients have been discharged and have to be re-referred. Wales here

Op, you missed the memo.

Suffering is fine as long as you're not suffering with covid.

Mental health
Routine appointments
Cancer
The economy being destroyed
Children left uneducated
Abuse

Just remember none of these things are as bad as covid

Hth

I have cancer

I have mental health illness (including an inpatient stay) which is managed by medication

However, I recognise that steps have to be taken to manage pandemic and public health at the expense of my individual situation

I won’t say ‘HTH’ (as it’s a smug passive aggressive expression) - but you know whilst personally Imwould prefer to go my own sweet way and fuck the elderly and Those requiring intensive covid treatment, that isn’t how I think!

Re. your daughter's treatment, try complaining to the hospital and contact your MP. Some treatments that were not supposed to be put on hold because of Covid, such as cancer treatment, has been in some cases unfortunately.

"Excuse me? Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance have said it, and my family personally know people who died of pneumonia, tested negative yet Covid got put on death certificate"

It's actually quite hard to get a positive result, even though people are absolutely positive. You have to be tested within 1cto 3 days of symptoms starting, you have to get enough saliva on the stick, and there is a 25 percent test failure result...ie people are positive, but testing negative. as such medics are using their analysing skills.

@Nihiloxica

The enemy isn't lock down, it's the virus.

Nope.

The enemy is lockdown enthusiasts who want to suspend our society, and all its protective qualities, indefinitely using the pretext of a killer virus.

Let's hope an actual killer pandemic doesn't arise in the next few years, because we have well and truly blown our load on this one.

Unfortunately, this is spot on.

@Nihiloxica 🙌🙌

This is understandable but misguided. Your anger is better placed by resenting the political mismanagement in the UK and the effect of 10 yrs of tory austerity on the NHS's capacity.

Look at other countries. How they mamaged better. How your little one would be getting the right treatment in Germany for example, without risking the health of a whole generation of elderly and healthcare workers.

Unfortunately - this was all very predictable. Im not a genius and I predicted the UK, the US and Swedens situation. It was nt based on intuition, but reading the papers and realising that political ideology would exacerbate an already rotten situation.

"I have hip dysplasia that was not picked up as a child. I need a hip replacement and my regular review has been cancelled and I will be contacted in the future. All physio patients have been discharged and have to be re-referred. Wales here"

Wales already had a problem of very long waits for his replacements so I sympathise here. I think the issue is how stretched our NHS was even before the pandemic and I hope all this will make people see the importance of funding it appropriately. (WG funding being affected by people voting Tory in England).

Thefrenchbaguette I don't know if this helps you but my daughter was diagnosed with DDH quite soon after birth. I was advised to put on two nappies as it acts like a harness. She was going to get a harness fitted but by the time the fracture clinic had sorted it out she no longer needed it. She is 24 now and has not suffered and life long damage.

Nightingale hospital which was built to cope with demand only had less than 20 ppl in it ...so why werent all covid patients taken to that so hospitals could resume doing other urgent treatments like cancer, surgeries provided patients tested were negative

I've coped quite well during lockdown, but now it's starting to get to me. I'm a selfish cunt, I want a pint, I want to go for a meal, & I want to go off on my travels. I know someone who died from respiratory problems, & it has to be the worst death that I've ever seen. I've lived with cancer for years, I'll probably die from it at some point. If I had a choice I'll take the cancer, not Covid. We all want lockdown to end, but my fear of covid is greater op. Don't forget the people who've continued to live life as normal throughout this, if anyone's to blame for this thing going on for so long it's those bastards who're probably carriers.

I am sorry that you have had to wait for this appointment, TheFrenchBaguette. It must be very worrying. For what it's worth, Professor Karol Sikora, the cancer expert, has also expressed his worries about the number of people affected because routine out patient appointments or planned surgery are delayed.

The sad thing is that the NHS was already having problems dealing fairly across all conditions even before coronavirus. The point made upthread about child and adolescent mental health services is one of the NHS's most serious problems.

I guess you have already looked at Steps?

www.steps-charity.org.uk/conditions/hip-dysplasia-ddh/

They may have advice for you - especially if other parents in a similar position have been in touch with them. I was thinking they might have a template letter to send to your MP.

Munchkin, I'm really pleased it was sorted simply for your dd, but I do just want to add that there are different degrees of DDH and not all of them can be sorted that way. Some do need greater intervention and that is time critical. I'm sorry, not at all criticising your post, but I wouldn't want the OP to gain a false sense of security iyswim. If a DDH is 'obvious' as she says, it is likely to need close checking at the very least.

Yes its absolutely terrible that 40,000 people have died and I'm not denying that for some it can be a truely horrid illness, but, if you put it into context, it equates to only 0.06% of the poplation. There are going to be far far more than 40,000 people in this country whose lives will be destroyed due to the lockdown measures that are in place with the ramifications of this being felt for a long long time through our children and grandchildren (redundancies, no new jobs being created to move into, the loss of homes with not enough council/social housing to pick up the slack, children living in poverty, disrupted education which can have a longterm impact on a childs potential, death or the worsening of/development of further conditions that could have otherwise been avoided putting further strain on our healthcare system). People really need to start getting some perspective on the situation. The continued calls for lockdown to continue is a selfish viewpoint which serves only to ensure you and your own immediate family are okay, not wider society as a whole.

"Your baby will not die from having a hip problem."

"A lifetime of pain and disability for her is fine though? Which may well be the result of late treatment. Personally I would prioritise the OPs child over a ninety year old with covid."

Thats not the case though is it?! That's quite shortsighted. Its prioritising a child with a hip problem against a whole range of people, other babies, other children, other young adults, other parents. Why are people now thinking it's just a 90 year old at risk?!

Can I also say, having had a lot of experience with the NHS prior to Covid-19, that it is often really inefficient and things get lost/deprioritized/phone calls don't occur, so the absolutely worst thing you can do is just sit home and fume. If you wait for them, you can be waiting a long time if something isn't immediately straightforward. Get on the phone, contact the GP today, asking what he/she is doing to chase this scan, ditto the health visitor, if you know the consultant's name you are supposed to be seeing, leave voice mails for them, and their secretary, ring PALS and say you are concerned to get this sorted rapidly (and would hate to be making a complaint in a few months time), contact your MP and so forth. If, and having contacted private providers for a scan, there is no joy, you know you have done everything you can to push this forward (and would indeed have grounds for complaint).

I have had to do this several times, it's not fair, pushy people do get more in the NHS (e.g. phoning the secretary of a consultant, to see if they are in/in any private clinics, taking a last minute appointment).

Even if the answer is: no clinics are not running in this locality, perhaps there is somewhere else your GP can quickly refer you, or that you can travel to get the initial scan.

They ceased “non-urgent” medical treatment simply because they didn’t have sufficient PPE to protect clinicians. As such appts have been cancelled, and a lockdown rather hurriedly and last minute shoved in. We’re now in a situation where non-urgent healthcare is now becoming urgent for many.

Not sure that's so. My DD had surgery just before lockdown. Her non urgent follow ups have been by email and phone because her consultant has been deployed into Covid services, not because he had a lack of PPE. That's the same for many clinicians - Anaesthetists for example are needed to care for ventilated patients and those on CPAP, rather than undertaking routine surgery. Again nothing to do with PPE.

@ThighThighofthigh, this might help

www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2020/may/29/excess-deaths-uk-has-one-highest-levels-europe

The first graph clearly shows a significant increase in mortality rates, way above the norm, when Covid was at its peak, but that either weren't tested or tested negative for Covid.

Sorry if this is a stupid suggestion, but for the meantime could you make your own harness out of fabric?

I don’t want lock down to be eased per say, however, I work at one of the largest trusts in the country, it is true, that most of us have barely any work to do. We’re only allowed to see urgent patients who are in imminent risk of danger, and we are limited to how many patients we can see a day in our department. Everyone else is dealt with over the phone or has their appointment delayed, we are extremely concerned about how we will cope when things “go back to normal”, our waiting list for MRI scans is over 10,000 patients now. I don’t know how we are going to deal with such back logs, I work in cardiology and it’s also very concerning the numbers of patients coming in with MIs (heart attacks) has halved here, we’re worried all these patients are sat at home too scared to come in and once lockdown is removed will present with acute heart failure as they didn’t receive treatment.

I would personally, like at least in the nhs for us to ease our restrictions so we can begin to tackle this backlog and get patients seen to. My colleague has cancer and has had his operation to remove it cancelled three times, I wonder how many other patients are in similar positions. I understand the reasons why, however, I am struggling now to justify so many people suffering for this long and to this extent.

'How your little one would be getting the right treatment in Germany for example, without risking the health of a whole generation of elderly and healthcare workers. '

I'm in Germany and this is broadly the case (certainly for paediatric services) but not completely so across the board. There has been concern here too over cancellation or postponement of cancer treatments. I did have a lump checked (all clear) very quickly just after all this kicked off. A dear friend of mine who needed a double hip replacement had been going to have her surgery cancelled but was given it due to the pain she was in - and luckily so, as she had an infection in one of the hips and would probably have gone on to develop sepsis if left.

What I do think is that the German system will be more responsive to people advocating for their treatment. That's systemic, though. The NHS seems quite monolithic from here.

Interesting you mentioned the Nightingales @cyclingmad. I just googled them as, to my understanding, they were set up to take the Covid non ICU people. Couldn't find that but I did find out that the one in Harrogate is opening up 7 days a week to do the CT scans and radiology needed to reduce the waiting lists for those interventions.

Perhaps that's something the others could be doing? They can switch back to Covid hospitals practically overnight then as furniture etc would still be in place. Apparently the trusts using it are testing patients first so no Covid 19 carrier will get treatment, no one isolating or on shielding lists will use the service, just in case. But it will mean those people who need a CT scan or radiology can at least start on the first step.