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'm an ICU pharmacist. It's not been too bad in my Trust...that was until I came back to work today and we are full. We are a Tertiary cancer centre and we are now cancelling surgeries because there are no post op ICU beds. It's a very worrying situation. Luckily because of the advances in treatments throughout the pandemic (steroids being the main one, and early non invasive ventilation) many patients have managed to avoid critical care so we are seeing a much lower percentage of hospital admissions with COVID needing critical care however the numbers have gone up dramatically in my region (south east) in the last 5 days and we are now full. We have a lot of staff off with COVID themselves or isolating after being contacted by track and trace, it really is becoming a major problem.. they had to put a plea out on boxing day for help as they didnt have enough nurses to look after the patients. I think we're all a little bit broken from the first wave and flu hasnt really hit us yet. To make matters worse I am wracked with guilt as I'm 35 weeks pregnant and go on maternity leave next week so I feel terrible I'm leaving my amazing colleagues during such an awful time when there are so few of us trained in critical care at such an important time.

To those of you wondering about the vaccine the hope is the astrazenica one will be approved by the end of this week and that will significantly improve the situation around the country. There simply arent enough of the Pfizer ones to go around and only 800000 doses were promised before mid january so there are many many in the top category who have yet to receive their doses. I can assure you I really dont think the media are exaggerating or scaremongering. Keep safe everyone

@Cheeseboardandmincepies - tell us why you feel like that. I may help other uninformed people to understand what's happening at the moment.

You also need to understand how google works, they adapt your search based on things that you've clicked on recently, so it does sometimes feel like a conspiracy theory, if you have clicked on many similar posts. If you open a private window, it will be less biased.

I'm an ex nurse and my son is an AHP.
I can absolutely testify that hospitals are struggling. My son qualified this year and worked his busiest shift to date on Christmas day. Hours on ITU, no free beds and incredibly sick patients. At the beginning of December a quarter of his department were off, either with covid or isolating.
NHS workers are fatigued, angry and morale is low.
How much longer do we expect our NHS staff to cope?

Community palliative care nurse specialist. I work in peoples homes and in nursing homes.

In 30 years nursing I have never witnessed anything like this.
Since March we have been teaching and training primary care staff in the management of dying Covid patients at home. We are supporting newly qualified district nurses to care for dying patients at a crazy rate.
We are seeing large numbers of frail elderly patients deteriorating rapidly with respiratory distress. Many die within 24-48 hours. Not all are tested for Covid. They won’t count in the statistics.
We facilitate rapid discharges from A&E and hospital wards for end of life care at home. Families are so desperate to bring their loved one home that care packages, equipment are not available.
The patients we see are often cared for by family members who are also positive. Our only defences are a blue mask, an apron, gloves and a packet of dettol wipes for our shoes and steering wheels.
We have enough small oxygen tanks for now. But families are scared of running out and are stock piling.
We have enough emergency end of life drugs at the minute for pain, dyspnoea, delirium, terminal agitation, secretions. How long for? I’m not sure. Syringe drivers? Enough for now as long as we get them cleaned, serviced and back into circulation within hours.

And we still have all of our other patients to care for. Those newly diagnosed, those struggling with advanced disease, those whose treatments are being postponed and cancelled. The dying.

I don’t care who believes my story. We are broken. But we will keep on going because we have no choice.

@StripyHorse yes we'll have to pay nhs England an excess fee per patient above and over our funding. Mental really

ICU / ECMO retrieval doctor. London.

We are struggling. Next couple of weeks likely to be higher admissions followed by long run of covid patients compared to normal viral pneumonitis (discharged someone recently with ~300 days of ICU).

I'm hospital staff, we are packed out. We have over 300 Covid positive inpatients many in ICU. Elective procedures have been cancelled for the last 3 weeks. No beds to put them in. It's scary.

@Daisysflowers

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

No it's realky not. The problem Is the hospitals being overwhelmed so they cannot admit anyone for anything

Oh that and people DYING

@Lostinacloud

Are in-patient numbers possibly higher than April because hospitals are accepting less critically ill covid patients this time around? Lots of stories and personal accounts of very unwell people refused entry into hospital because they weren’t blue enough back in April and also sadly lots of elderly people in their own homes or care homes left for nature to take its course because of their age and chances of survival. Seems this time around people are getting treatment much earlier and the scandal of the care homes is not being repeated. Not saying this is the only reason but suggesting it could be a factor.

I think the reason is partly due to the fact we now know how to treat covid better so those that would die quickly first time around are not, or at least not as quickly this time so the throughput of patients is slower although the next few weeks will tell if this is the case as there's about a 2 week lag plus the reporting has been delayed by Christmas (like at the weekends normally)

I've looked and my local hospital that's actually very big I at 90% capacity, this concerns me greatly.

@MrsBlobby43

My brother works on a covid ward. Couple of weeks ago he had 24 patients in. As of yesterday 168! Not all on ventilation but a good majority.

I would be interested to know how many hospitals have an ICU. If you divide the number of hospitals by covid patients you get 17 covid patients per hospital. So based on those figures in your brothers hospital it sounds like a vast majority of hospitals don't have Icu.

@StripyHorse yes we'll have to pay nhs England an excess fee per patient above and over our funding. Mental really

WTF ! you have to pay an excess fee for treating people in the most clinically appropriate way ? What else are they suggesting ? going out into the streets and ringing a bell and shouting 'bring out your dead' ?

@SparkyLauz

The reason why hospitals are at capacity is because they shut down too much earlier in the year, people didn't get treatment for things they needed (which weren't covid related) hence this has caused a backlog in patients needing attention/ surgeries and missed important diagnosis. X

That's NOT why ICU is full of people on oxygen, it's why other LISTS are full, not wards.

Some hospitals have no ICU.

Most district general hospitals have between 3 and 8 ICU beds.

Some of these will be occupied by non covid patients at any given time.

Tertiary hospitals also have high occupancy with non covid patients as they admit from a wide catchment area for specialist input (eg neurosurgery, trauma, transplant) are cannot turn down these referrals.

This table gives you some info breakdown on critical care seevices

www.kingsfund.org.uk/publications/critical-care-services-nhs

Also ICNARC (one of the most comprehensive national audits of critical care in the world) has lots of information, if you like tables etc

www.icnarc.org/Our-Audit/Audits/Cmp/Reports

@StrugglingICUnurse

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....

No it hasn't. There are plenty of us who are on their knees thanking you for being there, for doing the work you do & doing it so well.

I'm not sure how to better show support than to try to stay out of hospital & to support you in threads like this.
If you have any other suggestions I'm all ears!!

Don't feel guilty taking a few days off, you deserve it and also,very selfishly, you're much more use to us if you look after yourself xx

We are walking a narrow path between increasing numbers of patients and decreasing numbers of staff (due to testing positive/being unwell or contacts of those testing positive).
Even if all NHS were vaccinated there would still be staff shortages because of self isolation as no proof cannot pass on the virus

I work in a London hospital and covid admissions have gone up over 60% each week for 2 consecutive weeks. This winter things will be worse than ever before as never have staff had to isolate and become unwell despite ppe. Additionally in the 1st wave..paediatric staff and intensive care beds could be borrowed. Winter is one of the busiest times for paediatrics with viral induced wheeze and bronchiolitis as well as asthma, sickle cell, meningitis and non covid illness/injuries. With the private sector not contracted to help with non cover elective surgery..the NHS has battled to maintain these waiting lists but are basically digging in sand with a spoon.

I worked through the swine flu pandemic and did not feel the same palpable fear from experienced health care staff as I do now....there will be so much ptsd and staff absence/leaving the workforce...resilience has a bottom.

@Kidsaregrim

I'm sorry you're being treat so badly. It's appalling. How can jo public help?

We have an amazing vaccine, we are pouring doses down the sink because of the shelf life and people not coming for the vaccine, god forbid we give that vaccine to our colleagues - nope you are not elderly and do not work in a care home so are not allowed so you watched it binned in front of you

That's beyond awful. There must be something we can do?

SparkyLauz

The reason why hospitals are at capacity is because they shut down too much earlier in the year, people didn't get treatment for things they needed (which weren't covid related) hence this has caused a backlog in patients needing attention/ surgeries and missed important diagnosis. X

LOLZ

[quote parallax80]Also ICNARC (one of the most comprehensive national audits of critical care in the world) has lots of information, if you like tables etc

www.icnarc.org/Our-Audit/Audits/Cmp/Reports[/quote]
Thank you, some good information in these.

I know we no longer clap for the NHS
But I support you all as best as i can via staying home , working and paying tax
That’s sound utterly pathetic I know

But please don’t think because the
Clapping has stopped we don’t care
I do care and im actually glad OP started this thread

This year is the first year I have ever felt grateful to work and pay tax

I wish I could do more to express this

I am a nurse on a Covid ward. It’s been the worst time of my life. A few months ago people were clapping, now I feel insulted thinking back to those claps because I feel everyone who clapped has forgotten us. Since October it’s been way worse than the first wave. But no one cares.

I’ve come home from work sobbing so much my husband can’t get any words out from me. I’ve had to sit with young people with cancer and tell them they’re going to die as treatment isn’t working.

I’ve worked my ass off ALL day trying to save a really poorly patient, to have their relative calling me up 10x complaining about not being able to visit, or annoyed that the patient caught it from x, y, z. Or relatives calling up worried care in the hospital isn’t good enough.

I’m on anti depressants and undergoing counselling just to keep myself going.

I wish I could say I’m over exaggerating, but the fact is I feel every shift I work on the ward we’re locked in the ward and totally forgot about by the outside world.

The best thing anyone can do is turn up for an appointment if you are being vaccinated and use the vaccination that has been allocated to you.

Once out of the fridge and mixed you have to use it within 6 hours, if the last 4 patients do not turn up thats 4 doses wasted!

I’m already in the process of trying to change the way we work, many many colleagues are taking up the baton for immunising anyone available before the vial wears off, be it security, domestic, nurse, receptionist, jo bloggs walking down the street anyone as long as it’s not wasted! The look in the eyes of the daughter bringing her elderly mother to an appointment, knowing she would love a vaccine is heartbreaking when I know there are spares!

There are so many people working in the NHS at the moment that are on their knees and some amazing ones that are just thriving under the pressure, I wish I could be that person!

I read on here about people wanting to become HCP’s and I silently scream inside “don’t do it” but when I put that uniform on tomorrow, hear a babies heartbeat for the first time, or be the first person to ever touch them I realise why I do my job. Unlike the heartbreak of ICU Nurses and Doctors it isn’t all bad and us midwives get some incredible moments but the hierarchy and management have a lot to answer for! I’ve never seen one in the whole pandemic don a uniform and help, clean, check, reassure, make a cuppa, you don’t really see them unless something negative happens.

OP I bet you wish you had never asked now 🙄