Hospital staff, tell us the reality

[Ihateme]

I’m am so fed up of seeing people comment on here that schools should be going back, that people should not be reporting mass gatherings in tier 4, how dare people begrudge a child their birthday party etc...

The hospitals are in a worse state now than they were during the first peak. Would any doctors or nurses care to confirm this? Maybe then these Mumsnetters will get the message.

Sister's partner works for the NHS in a tier 4 area. Says wards are nearing capacity. Another friend who works as a pharmacist reposted something from their friend who is a paramedic saying that a lot of ambulances from North of London are being drafted into London to deal with the level of emergency calls. Ambulances at our local hospital are queueing up.

I probably come across as a massive nerd / pompous idiot

Honestly ? No , you come across as exactly the sort of person everyone deserves to have looking after them at the worst point in their life.

In my hospital (mental health) very poorly patients are ripping PPE off staff and spitting at them.

Its horrific 😞

@numbcheek yes I am local I went to A&E on the 11th with a stroke. I have been very lucky. I think I had the last "proper" bed, I got treatment in the 4 hour slot because the ambulance came quickly got me straight in etc.

I guess if it happened now or same day as you were there I could still be the incoherent stuttering mess I was....

It was a very sobering experience.

I spent 3 days on the ward. I know how my Mum spent the last 2 weeks of her life all to well, no visitors, staff utterly stretched even when on a non-Covid ward. It's horrific

My Dsis spoke to a friend who is a consultant anaesthetist at a London hospital and he said their ICU is already over capacity.
Hes been interviewed a few times for the BBC , he was very unwell with covid in the first lockdown, and his wife who is a nurse, was ill with it in the autumn.

There still seems confusion by some on how Covid 19 is recorded on death certificates.

Death certificates have two parts, part 1 the underlying cause of death, part 2 any conditions that may have contributed to the death. The conditions mentioned in part two must be known or suspected to have contributed to the death, not merely be other conditions which were present at the time.

Part 1 lists the underlying cause where you are asked to start with the immediate, direct cause of death on the first line of part 1 then quoting from link below: ‘to go back through the sequence of events or conditions that led to death on subsequent lines, until you reach the one that started the fatal sequence. If the certificate has been completed properly, the condition on the lowest completed line of part I will have caused all of the conditions on the lines above it. This initiating condition, on the lowest line of part I will usually be selected as the underlying cause of death, following the ICD coding rules.” Full details here: assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/877302/guidance-for-doctors-completing-medical-certificates-of-cause-of-death-covid-19.pdf

ONS last mortality monthly update shared as of November 2020 58,977 deaths had coronavirus listed as the underlying cause of death. ONS have also calculated elsewhere so far approx a further 10% of deaths listed coronavirus as a contributing factor in the death.
Details here: www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/monthlymortalityanalysisenglandandwales/november2020#deaths-due-to-covid-19-registered-in-november-2020

So as of today in UK 79,351 deaths have been registered with COVID as involved in the death. About 90% of these will be with COVID as the underlying cause, not just a contributing factor. So approx 10% of these COVID deaths (roughly 8,000) will have COVID mentioned as a contributing factor but not the underlying cause of death.

[quote BritWifeinUSA]In early 2018 the hospitals were at “the highest occupancy levels ever” but no one suggested closing the economy and schools then. It was over 92% then.

www.rcseng.ac.uk/news-and-events/media-centre/press-releases/nhs-bed-occupancy-rates/[/quote]
It isn't just about the hospitals being close to full covid capacity, its the rate at which infections and subsequently hospital admissions are increasing.

@RandomMess I'm so sorry to hear that and I'm glad you got the bed. Hope you're on the mend.

So sorry about your mum x

I've just realised that the dosage of these steroids would've put me on the shielded list as they are immunosuppressive. I'm going to have to get an urgent call in with the doctor tomorrow as I wasn't given the information at A&E...just the drugs. Why oh why aren't hospital pharmacies 24 hours? The mind boggles.

I've had two miscarriages since the start of March lockdown. One at 6 weeks and one at 12 weeks. With the second one I had been bleeding for four weeks and they wouldn't see me. It was only when I woke up haemorrhaging and in excruciating pain and DP rushed me to A&E I was seen. They were incredible. I collapsed from blood loss in the entrance to A&E while DP had to stand outside.

They should have seen me earlier however I then found out that 2 midwives and 1 dr on the maternity department had died from COVID in the 2 months leading up to my admission. It isn't a joke. The vast majority of nurses and NHS workers are putting themselves at enormous personal risk for let's face it, nominal pay. They don't do it for the money and they are being used as cannon fodder.

My best friend is a practice nurse and she has had three people come to surgery THIS WEEK that tested positive for COVID three days before. Didn't say anything, because a lot of people in this country are dame fucking selfish. NHS front line should be the very first people to be vaccinated

*damn

Big thank you to all on the frontline, NHS, police and others.

@CherryPavlova

MadamBlobby in previous years the level of concern, the overstretched services, staff on their knees has never come close. We are not talking a bit busy. We are talking lack of oxygen, moving someone with appendicitis 250 miles to be seen in an emergency department. We are talking about staff caring for dying colleagues. We are talking people dying from treatable conditions because there aren't ambulance able to get to them. Yes for a few weeks we need to make sure people are being mindful. That people aren't so drunk they need hospital care. That they aren't involved in alcohol fuelled fights. We need to keep enough key workers well to maintain essential services. That might be mildly inconvenient. It might be boring. Some are struggling but its about clinical safety as a priority for health and social care services. If that means the gym is shut, so be it.

I agree that all this is required for Covid. But not to protect the NHS/vulnerable in a normal/stretched winter.

My friend is an OT at the largest well known hospital in Newcastle. She was drafted in to help on a covid ward as so many staff were off sick. She said they are at capacity and running out of ventilators. She's now off sick too.

My staff, oh my staff have worked so bloody hard all year, we are exhausted and demoralised. The public support has vanished - while it might not have seemed much at the time, without it life feels like one long invisible slog. Sorry for going on and on. I'm on a few days off. The guilt for not volunteering for even more extra shifts....

Thank you 💐💐💐
A few days off are crucial so that you can still be there next week.
I hope that people like you will be truly recognised by better pay and conditions. Time to stop paying into the pockets of Sky and football players and recognise the true heroes of today.

@Trollsinthedungeon

That’s reassuring to hear. I always remember going on some vaccs and imms training a few years ago and the training talking about severe (and unexpected) flu case, with longs totally consolidated, but so, so few ECMO beds in the country.

*cases

@Christmasfairy2020

Mp posted this earlier

That is awful. I’m in Edinburgh, we had strict level 3 since October and our number was 70-80 per 100k. Looked today and we were at 140 which was horrifying.

Last night in A&E there was sick patients who had been waiting 12hrs+ for beds on respiratory medicine, 24 patients waiting for beds and another Majors worth of current (not breached) patients to be seen and managed. Resus absolutely full to the brim the entire shift.

But new patients still come through the door at the same speed as normal. Drunk ones, ones who’ve been fighting, itchy rashes, 3/12 histories of abdo pain, heavy periods, sore shoulders and other bits and bobs that could have been seen elsewhere. But of course, the GP’s have been closed and they didn’t want to wait.

This is a small district general in the midlands.

Those on a 12+ hour wait had already been there for their initial four hours. 16 hours of waiting on an A&E trolley.

You are all amazing. I don’t know how you keep going. I’m a bus driver and I’m terrified (asthmatic controlled by steroids with damage to my lungs) after watching a parent die from Covid. I took no time off at all (we’re short staffed too) and it’s so demoralising watching people pull off the mask as soon as they think you aren’t looking. I don’t know how you deal with all you are and just keep going. I’ll keep myself as safe as I can to help you, but we’ve had 2 outbreaks in our depot that the protocol stopped spreading further. Our luck will run out and I’m so, so sorry for that. You’re all beyond belief you’re so strong.

ITU is full, we're having to manage ITU and HDU patients in ward areas. Despite that we're being sent ITU patients from several counties away, because the situation is even worse there and we are the closest viable bed. We've run out of staff and redeployed a cohort of ward nurses to care for ITU patients--I found out yesterday morning by text message that I've been redeployed to ITU, I have about eight shifts' worth of ITU experience (it takes a year or so of full-time ITU work and CPD to be a competent autonomous ITU nurse, because the environment is so technical and so specialised). I'm going to do my best, but these are wartime measures, not safe, managed ITU care.

And redeployment is leaving our wards short, of course, so care will be stretched there too.

And this phrase bays and bays of ecmo patients gave me chills.

It is an emergency.

@Daisysflowers

Everyone is entitled to their opinion. The main problem is how this has divided everyone.

This view interests me. Lots of people have 'opinions' that are factually wrong.

I wonder are they entitled to opinions based on falsehoods?
I also wonder what is going on with people to make them want to cling to opinions based on falsehoods?

The number of people in ICU with covid is not something any of us are entitled to have opinions on - it is a fact.

We are all entitled to opinions about topics such as what should win the Oscar for best picture. But only a grade A fool has 'opinions' about things they know nothing about such as epidemiological risks.

Conspiracy sites are rotting too many brains. I am really shocked by how many completely ignorant people are repeating utter rubbish.

Also baffled by these “opinions”

I am watching doctors, nurses, scientists on the news all day long talking about full hospitals and then so many idiots on here are of the opinion this is not the case. Just WTF

This thread should be compulsory reading for anyone who doesn't think this is a real crisis or that the restrictions don't apply to them because they are some sort of "special case". You are part of the problem, and you need to think on.

It is chilling, and my heart goes out to everyone involved in healthcare at the moment, from those working hands on, on the frontline, to the cleaners, porters and admin staff who all play a role in keeping the NHS running, as safely as possible, every hour of every day of the year.

I think everyone should be mindful of the fact that 10 years of inadequate NHS funding hasn't helped. Remember this next time you vote, for these are political decisions.

A massive thank you to all who have posted of their experiences, and to everyone working their arses off, and often putting themselves at risk in the process, to care for us all.

Having come back to this thread after a covid icu night shift I’m both uplifted and saddened. Big love to my nhs and social care colleagues up and down the country x

Someone saying it’s been established ventilators don’t work well for covid. It is established that NIV is the ideal, but there comes a point when a patient is so hypoxic that without intubation and ventilation they will die. A covid patient may come to ED and go to the ward on nasal cannula/face mask oxygen, deteriorate and need CPAP/HFNC and HDU level care, we’ll keep them as long as possible but when their po2 (blood oxygen) gets so low they need intubation or they are very likely to die.

Many patients we’ve had have been on CPAP 100% oxygen, had a po2 of 4-6, spo2 50-75% and needed intubated. This can happen in the space of 15 mins.

I don’t think people realise that there isn’t an established treatment as such, like there’s no drug that ‘cures’ covid, we have them on respiratory support, dexamethasone, anti coagulants, some clinical trial drugs. We treat the symptoms and are just waiting and hoping that with the support provided the body’s immune system will kick in and the patient will recover.

I appreciate for the majority of the public that are not nurses, doctors, AHPs or health support staff it is unimaginable just how severe the effects of covid are.