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.

I think my OP has been misunderstood. I DO believe the hospitals are worse than ever, and hoping staff can share their stories to confirm this so that those posters who don’t believe schools should close or that people shouldn’t be reporting others can see the reality of the situation. It’s dire.

DS2 is a nurse in A&E and DDIL is on the wards. DS2 is seeing more admissions with Covid now than he did at the peak and DDIL’s ward has been changed to a Covid ward. DS2 said there’s 19 nurses off in A&E and 30 off on DDIL’s ward. Their hospital has opened a second ICU.

They’re both knackered, physically and emotionally. Neither of them saw any family over Christmas because they deemed it too dangerous.

It is really dire. The summer was hard work and very different from normal, but still doable. Now it's much harder.

I used to work in a small county hospital. We had 10 physical beds in ICU, but were only funded for 7. Eventually, they got approval to open the 8th bed. When things got busy, we'd overstaff and open beds 9 & 10, but the expectation was always to get back down to 7 (then 8). I spoke to one of the nurses a few months ago and they had expanded to 42 beds. They had taken a ward next to them and converted it to ICU. They were expanding into theatres recovery. Hot ICU and cold ICU.

This is happening up and down the country. So bear in mind, when they are saying that 'ICU is getting full' they are talking about an ICU that has already been doubled, tripped, even quadrupled, in comparison to before Covid.

@ghostyslovesheets

I don’t understand why it’s wrong to debate this

it isn't - no one has said you can;t discuss the pro's and cons of different approaches to a pandemic - the issue is with pople refusing to accept there is one!

That’s exactly what it is though.

If you are of the opinion that schools should be open or if they close it should be for 2 weeks maximum then you are a covidiot who doesn’t believe there are a lot of people in hospital needing oxygen.
If you wouldn’t report a neighbour having a friend round you think it’s all a hoax.. apparently ..

Coincidentally I was reading this earlier www.theguardian.com/society/2020/dec/29/know-you-are-loved-hope-and-tragedy-in-nhs-hospital-as-covid-vaccine-launched
What I found quite scary is how young the patients look (from what you can see of limbs etc), and that’s backed up by one of the comments in the article.

BIL is an A&E consultant.

We asked him how things were at work. He was cagey about it. Said it was worse than its been in previous years (always said it was incredibly stressful in December / January). Said he'd been working extra unplanned shifts over Christmas as there'd be staff shortages and he'd had to go in as an emergency (unheard of). Said it was far more diffiult to get things done and it was taking longer due to the limitations of PPE. He said they were coping but only just.

But it was the cageiness that really was the most telling thing. He's never been like before.

He's in a T3 area with a low incidence of the new strain. So not one of the worst affected areas.

So yeah its bad.

But why believe me and his account than the news reports like this one:

news.sky.com/story/covid-news-live-latest-uk-updates-pressure-mounts-on-englands-hospitals-as-vaccine-patients-receive-booster-jabs-12174643
COVID news live - Warning of six-hour waits as ambulances back up outside hospitals

Unless you are a gigantic bellend who wants to encourage conspiracy bullshit and put lives at risk and put staff under even greater pressure?

This is coming from people who actively don't want to believe it because its doesn't suit them. Its inconvient. They would rather be in denial.

We've had a friend of DH just this week, spout bullshit about how a friend of ours has long term covid complications because she took drugs in her youth. Which is fabricated bullshit. She's in her 40s and fit and healthy. He's obese in his 50s and a prime candidate for problems - he just doesn't like the restrictions. He's a bellend at the best of times but he's outdone himself with this one.

Its disgusting what people will say / do to justify the unjustifible.

Those who seek to undermine the truth, are not acting in good faith. Calling it a 'debate' doesn't change material reality.

SE England. A neighbour is a consultant at our local hospital - regularly gives our road updates. Posted this on our WhatsApp chat today:

"Currently 150+ patients with COVID-19 in hospital (of our total of 750 beds). 22 in critical/intensive care which is an expansion on normal numbers. We also have many on high flow oxygen treatment who may yet deteriorate. All elective operating has stopped. Day Unit is closed. Private hospitals are not reopening after Christmas as unexpected Critical Care transfers can’t be supported at present.

Staff vaccination programme is expected in the New Year but no firm date as yet. There are some small amounts of unused (presumably patients not attending) Pfizer vaccine from GP programmes being offered to high risk staff.

Sorry it’s not good news. "

My Sibling works in HR at large hospital trust in London. They were in tears with me Xmas eve as they were so understaffed due to COVID and people isolating.

SIL works in dentistry and has been redeployed to covid wards in london, she was called back from annual leave yesterday to come back to work and is currently going to work 16 days straight

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/

I work in a microbioloby dept and we're being asked to change our working rota to enable us to do more urgent tests of patients coming into hospital. Its got to do with the new strains emerging and potential atypical symptom presentation. We've already been volunteering for extra shifts, new staff hired to run new equipment, but its not enough.

Utterly pointless thread. Because anyone can post whatever they like and you have zero way of knowing whether it's the truth or not. My sister Kate who is a A&E nurse in Manchester, brother in law Adam who is an obstetrician in London, friend Pete who is working on a Covid ward in London, cousin who is a gravedigger and has never been busier, friend who's in the Army and has been told to prepare to deploy to stop people leaving London, neighbour who comes home in tears every night because of how awful it is.

All total bollocks. Since March we've had endless posters with "friends" who know exactly what's going on.

@ShatnersWig

I know some paramedics in Surrey. Some people have been waiting 14 hours for ambulances. Staff are being asked to not have their time off, or if they do take their time off, to be on the phones to reassure those while waiting 14 hours for an ambulance.

DSS's lodger is a paramedic in London. He hasn't been home to Sussex for days, has worked all over Christmas, has worked his days off and extra hours on the days he's on duty.

He says he could never have imagined how busy it could get. Older staff are likening it to 7/7, but being like that for day after day, not just one day.

@RedToothBrush

Those who seek to undermine the truth, are not acting in good faith. Calling it a 'debate' doesn't change material reality.

I don’t know which posters you are referring to because I hardly see anyone saying it’s not real. I can think of one a few weeks a go who thought MI5 were doing something .. I rolled my eyes at that.. but generally people accept it’s a pandemic myself included Maz But yes, to what degree our rights are removed from us SHOULD be a debate. The annoying thing is that I’m sure everyone on here has a different view point too. Should schools have gone back in 2020 at all? If they close now, when should they reopen? Once the vulnerable vaccinated or do we need to wait until every last person vaccinated? Was it right that things re-opened a bit in the summer? Was it ok that until fairly recently I could get a haircut?

Why can’t people debate the degree to which things close down?

@RedToothBrush COVID news live - Warning of six-hour waits as ambulances back up outside hospitals

That's why we are being asked to do more urgent testing. Atpyical presentation of symptoms means patients coming in via ambulances may need testing before they get put onto wards. Leaving patients queued like that means a complete break down in the norma lworkflow of a hospital.

I think there's a lot of mistrust towards mainstream media, which give the conspiracy theorists and armchair pundits a voice they would not normally have.

I'm not in a hospital but I'm a contact advisor and the last few days I've contacted people who did not follow the rules (in wales) over Christmas and have now been identified as contacts of positive cases, so could potentially be passing it on to others. If they had followed the rules then they could go to work, shopping as normal. How hard is that to understand?

www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/29/im-going-back-to-carnage-a-junior-doctor-on-working-under-covid

not sure if this has been shared

My DH is on a bank staff for a trust he used to work at and they sent a long winded text out (probably the only text he's ever had from them) pleading, and I mean pleading, people to cancel annual leave and to do some shifts with them. He can't as he works full time for another local trust, didn't have much leave over Xmas as it is. We're in Essex, obvs with some of the highest Covid case rates right now. Can imagine the next few weeks will be gruelling for hospital staff.

@AlwaysCheddar

Op is right to ask. One minute media tells us we’re all going to die then says the next minute that only 371 deaths have been due to Covid with no other prevailing health factors. One person says beds are empty, another sats London nightingale is being used (but it’s closed)... too many ‘stories’.

I’d like to know how many people have died of Covid alone - and none of this in the past 28 days rubbish.

That is not how it works. Death certificates will state more than one cause often. Covid would be causing other issues such as organ failure. The 28 days might include a small number of genuinely unrelated deaths ( accidents) but will also exclude others To be honest, there is not much excuse for this ignorance at this point. I am not a health professional but the information and reasons are easy to find. The arrogance of armchair experts is tiresome and dangerous.

In my own workplace, not clinical but I am a 'key worker', we had 7 of our shift self isolating over the weekend. We managed as our workload was very low, being just after Christmas. You could apply that to other workplaces, especially essential services and think how 7 staff being off for 10days at a time would impact those services.

I know of a very close relative who was in a London hospital recovering from heart surgery. The staff knowingly put a Covid positive patient in their ward and I can only imagine this was probably due to staff and bed shortages or lack of equipment. My relative caught covid from them and is now fighting for their life so yes I think the situation in my location is dire.

Sadly Covid kills the very old or very frail. In Tayside there were 285 ‘with COVID’ deaths. They attributed just 5 deaths solely due to Covid to the under 80 age group. The population is 416,000.

Deaths for 2020 will be less or the same for previous years. At the moment ICU bed use is below average.

The crisis in the hospitals are because 76,000 nurses and doctors are ringing in sick either self isolating, close contact or feeling unwell.