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.

What I am finding bewildering is seeing friends going from sensible and data informed in March/April to conspiracy theorists/"I'm just ignoring the news because it makes me anxious" now. I think a lot people can't cope with extensive periods of difficulty and uncertainty. How lucky they are to be able to bury their heads in the sand.

This 'blood on their hands' article makes for pretty sobering reading

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-55479018

as does the article in today's Independent about how we're running out of beds (SE in a dire situation, and everywhere else getting a bit dicey too)

My sibling works in a hospital in the SE. Their hospital ICU is full.

How lucky they are to be able to bury their heads in the sand.

^This with bells on. Some of us don't have that luxury. There are so many people who have lost loved ones without being able to be with them at the end. Others, like me, have long Covid.

@Madhairday

I agree with all your posts *@RedToothBrush*. It's always interesting to me that minimisers bleat on and on about how we all get our facts from MSM and don't bother to do any actual research like they do, about how we don't even bother to listen to all those 'reputed experts' on YouTube out there who challenge the narrative. We're the sheeple, after all, and they're the special ones who know the real truth.

It's scary. It's a whole lot like brainwashing.

The facts are there to see, on PHE, ONS, reported clearly and regularly. You don't have to look too hard, yet people don't look at all when there's some bloke on FB who says hospitals are EMPTY and nurses are just dancing all the time.

Doctors and nurses do not only give medications, they also provide emotional support to patients. Maybe the people on Facebook saw me with another nurse singing Christmas carols trying to distract patients who just saw that one of the beds in the bay is now empty because the porters have just been to take a patient to 'Rose Cottage'. Btw 'Rose Cottage' is a euphemism for 'Mortuary'. Please, please stop being ungrateful for the fact that you are alive and your nearest and dearest are alive, and that you do not have to risk your life or their lives because you are trying to keep others alive. Please stop it.

@scaevola

This 'blood on their hands' article makes for pretty sobering reading

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-55479018

as does the article in today's Independent about how we're running out of beds (SE in a dire situation, and everywhere else getting a bit dicey too)

This bit especially:

Prof Montgomery, who was on shift as he gave the interview to 5 Live, said it was "a great myth" that hospitals are being overwhelmed with elderly people.

"The people we are getting are, like the first wave, my age really. I am 58 and I would say half the patients are younger than me. It is middle-aged people or a little bit older that we are getting."

But people will see this and still say its scaremongering (fixating on the death rate and ignoring the more problematic hospitalisation rate).

I think if it was purely escapism through fear of the truth of what's happening, I can have some sympathy. But the fact that these displacement delusions are so dangerous - frightening others away from vaccines, refusing to follow rules "because it offends my basic human rights" etc. means that it becomes hard to have sympathy. And their influence on others is quite powerful.

I have worked for a long time in archives and research relating to medical / social history and recently I spent the best part of a week speaking to the media about anti-vaxxer claims that the new vaccines could have the same effect as thalidomide. The absolutely non-scientific and irrational ideas that anti-vaxxers were coming out with showed they had no knowledge of thalidomide whatsoever and couldn't be arsed to actually look it up. Meanwhile though, the vulnerable thalidomide survivors themselves, whose lives were affected by a poorly tested drug, become very afraid of having a vaccination.

I haven't really been following the news too much, I work in a hospital and have been using that more as my indicator of how the land lies in our area. (rightly or wrongly)

Our critical care beds are full.

Surgical wards are now being made into ICUs

Three normal medical wards have been taken over and expanded for Covid-19 patients.

Hundreds of staff members in our hospital alone are self isolating due to T&T or have Covid.

Elective surgery has been cancelled as we don't have the beds for patients post op - so think of all of the additional people that WILL have poorer outcomes due to the demand this virus is placing on the system.

People aren't taking themselves or children to A&E when it's desperately needed due to fear of Covid and when they finally make it to us they are in a far worse position than they should be.

Staff that are able to are picking up extra shifts to fill the deficit so people are tired, most of us haven't recovered from the first wave and certainly are not ready for the second.

It's not good and it's frightening, I love the NHS but hope upon hope that I don't need to make use of its services any time soon.

Despite that we rally, we endeavour to give exceptional care, we support one another and try to keep morale high. The team work has been astonishing and I couldn't be more proud of what we have been accomplishing day in, day out.

I disagree, my belief changes regularly based on articles I read.

My Dads a Paramedic, he was begged to help because staff were pretty much dropping like flies round him, friends he knew, he has one lung, asthmatic, and is 67, but if he could help even one person, he was going to do it with no-one telling him that he couldn't. He's been at deaths door several times in his life, and I am so proud to say he helped out his local hospital and schools from April to December, working every single day, until he caught covid despite the PPE he wore constantly without a single complaint... I might not see him again, already haven't seen him in a year, but this thing is not being exaggerated, its deadly, and those who cannot help directly actually CAN, by wearing a f(&ing mask and staying at home where they can and not being a selfish conspiracy believing ar*ehat.

If you ask the conspiracy theorists what other countries are just letting it rip through the population they can't answer.

Livinginthecity no other countries are doing that and I agree, they can't answer that for that reason. Even with the lockdowns and (pathetic) tier systems, we're still struggling. Without either of those it would be even worse.

You just need to look at countries in Latin American to know what happens when the virus is allowed to run rampant. And the US in some states, too. Over 300,000 people have died of Covid in the US (another country where conspiracy theories are very popular).

My sister says her hospital is still pretty dead, however says their main issue is so many staff off sick isolating. Said its quieter than usual, but harder as short staffed.

@Enigmasaurus great post. I support you, for what it’s worth.
@Carriecakes80 that’s so sad, i’m so sorry. What an amazing man your Dad is.

dd has just handed in her notice. She says she can't do it any more. The last straw was a shift where she was nurse in charge of a ward where they had only 2 nurses instead of the 6 rostered. A doctor had to do her drug rounds with her; there were no other nurses. She did four night shifts Christmas week; none were fully staffed, she got no break on any night and no shift was shorter than 14 hours.

She's covering in ICU as well as her regular ward (which is now a CCU), and now ICU means looking after at least 2 patients, and helping other nurses when patients need procedures, turning etc. She says it's not safe.

Her last two week's holidays (and last three planned trips home) were cancelled; she's asked for a week in January in lieu of this week when she should be off. They've refused, so she's quit.

She will finish out her eight week's notice, but they've broken her

Oh, and she is one of only two nurses on her ward who have received the first vaccine dose. She happened to be on ICU when they got a call to say there were a few free doses.

Her booster appointment was cancelled

TurquoiseBaubles this is very similar to my brother, who is probably a good deal older than your daughter. He's 54 now and has been a nurse for his entire working life, across A&E, ICU, critical care. He's also had it, totally burned out. The cuts across NHS staffing over the Tory years have been horrendous and this is one of the real reasons why the NHS is struggling, alongside the awful crisis that we're in.

@TurquoiseBaubles

dd has just handed in her notice. She says she can't do it any more. The last straw was a shift where she was nurse in charge of a ward where they had only 2 nurses instead of the 6 rostered. A doctor had to do her drug rounds with her; there were no other nurses. She did four night shifts Christmas week; none were fully staffed, she got no break on any night and no shift was shorter than 14 hours.

She's covering in ICU as well as her regular ward (which is now a CCU), and now ICU means looking after at least 2 patients, and helping other nurses when patients need procedures, turning etc. She says it's not safe.

Her last two week's holidays (and last three planned trips home) were cancelled; she's asked for a week in January in lieu of this week when she should be off. They've refused, so she's quit.

She will finish out her eight week's notice, but they've broken her

That's such a shame, we lost 25% of our department during the first wave, just such a long and hard slog with no real end in sight.

I hope she is able to have a good rest afterwards

Well the hospital in which my dad has passed away from covid this morning is busy with covid. New Years Eve we never be the same again 😢

I think a lot of the denial we're seeing right now is a coping strategy. It's just the human way of dealing the biggest, scariest tragedies. It's awful but it is a natural response to something this big. People can' help it, I guess.

That said, I am thinking so much about those working in hospitals right now. I am so sorry things are so desperate. I know you're all about to face a really dreadful few weeks when it's already been very tough and I wish it didn't have to be like this. I think people will wake up as things get worse - they really need to be broadcasting more footage of what it's like in hospitals as they are so far removed from peoples' lives right now. You are valued by many, whatever it feels like and there are still lots of people who are staying home and being extremely careful to try to make things better for you in any way we can.

A lot of people on this thread have stated that they would really like to do something to help but are not sure how. My partner and I felt the same way, so we're giving blood as many times as we're allowed. The blood service is also desperate for plasma from people who've had Covid.

I just wanted to say thank you to all those working in healthcare right now. Despite the deniers, there are many, many of us who are so grateful and are doing everything we can to stay away from hospital right now, with COVID or anything else. I fear things will still get worse over the next few weeks before they start getting better again.

I was in hospital for an extended period last year. Every single night a trolley squeaked off down the corridor with a body bag on.

People die in hospital all the time . I know things are busy now, but it’s not as if death is some new phenomenon.

DH’s old colleague and good friend Ant McKeever (very very well known in certain circles senior NHS exec) whose currently clinical lead for South Essex CCG was on 5 Live asking for people to be sensible and responding to the fact they’d put a call out to the military for help as they couldn’t cope - this was true and yes they now have military doctors in helping them at ICUs in Essex - this is about as bad as it gets. DH has worked through lots of winter crises and has never known the military having to step in.