To ask what NHS frontline staff think of Breathtaking?

[CloudyYellow]

I have watched all 3 episodes. I worked on the frontline during Covid. I found it very triggering and my fury is back.

https://www.itv.com/news/2020-04-06/it-is-scary-inside-the-intensive-care-unit-where-nhs-staff-and-patients-are-battling-coronavirus

There are subtitles available on I-player (and ITV X for Mr Bates). We have subtitles permanently enabled as DH is HoH.

We were threatened with disciplinary action for wearing one at the start of the pandemic. Apparently they hindered communication and scared patients. If caught wearing one, we should expect a warning
*2 months later, 38 degree heat, no fans in our office and we were threatened with disciplinary action if we temporarily removed a mask to have a sip of water"

Bloody hell, that's disgusting 😥
I can kind of see their reasoning, as in that they wanted to keep a sense of normality around patients who will have already been scared, but for goodness sake you all needed to be protected too.
Thanks for all you did

Yes they did.

I'm a nurse but In a nursing home and I found it really triggering , the lack of Ppe the patients being discharged into nursing home the amount of deaths I had to watch as a result of this, sone of our patients were young as well not the elderly people you associate with nursing homes. Living in the campervan as I didn't want to infect my family. My 3 year old crying when I got covid as he didn't want me to die . All very accurate and triggering as well, brilliantly done .

The absolutely disgusting protesters abusing NHS staff outside hospitals, online, in person pathetically assuming that it was all made up are and were vile.

The idiots with no medical qualifications, anti vax bile idiots, spewing their rubbish. I have neighbours like that, think they know everything because they read it on Facebook. Ignorant vile.

Thank you to everyone who helped others.

I agree. I'm furious about the PPE scandal too. I'm even more pissed off that those people have not yet been jailed and monies recovered.😡

My Dad died in 2021 and we weren’t allowed to see him before he died due to Covid. I can’t bring myself to watch Breathtaking.

Huge love to those of you who worked on the front line or lost loved ones.

Tell me you’re not an anaesthetist without telling me you’re not an anaesthetist!

Anaesthetic machines and ICU ventilators are very, very different. For one thing, anaesthetic machines are not designed to run continuously for weeks on end, and tend to break when they are used like that. As previous posters have mentioned, the way they process CO2 is different, the ventilation settings are different - you only use an anaesthetic machine for long term ventilation of patients when you have run out of proper ventilators, ie when your system is at the point of collapse.

'Anaesthetic machines and ICU ventilators are very, very different.'

Yes yes we know that but in a pandemic when there's a deadly respiratory virus and lots of folk with respiratory problems a dusty old theatre vent is better than no vent at all.

And the people who died, entirely preventably, from acute renal failure because we didn’t have enough CVVH machines? What’s your answer to that?

Janiie, there were patients, lots of them, under my direct care, who would definitely have been admitted to ICU in the normal run of things, who were not admitted due to lack of capacity, and who died as a direct result of that.

There were patients, again who I was directly involved in managing, who were admitted to ICU and who would have been filtered in the normal run of things, who could not be filtered as we were didn’t have enough machines, and who died as direct result.

I have colleagues in multiple different London teaching hospitals telling me that the exact same thing was happening in their trusts too. Some stories much much worse than mine.

The NHS was overwhelmed in April 2020, however much you would like to argue otherwise. And patients died as a result.

'And the people who died, entirely preventably, from acute renal failure because we didn’t have enough CVVH machines? What’s your answer to that?'

We were talking about ventilation? You suggested theatre vents don't oxygenate patients properly. They do.

No, I was talking about the NHS being overwhelmed, quadrupling ICU beds and running out of CVVH machines. You then replied to my post at 14:15, saying if we weren’t ventilating patients in car parks, everything must have been fine and dandy.

Just watched the first episode and very triggering. I’m upset and angry- we worked in primary care on the front line and were told to wear bin bags! We lost a lot of colleagues and it hurts.

I've just binged watched it all. Bloody traumatic.
I work as a midwife so remember it vividly as we all do. I do remember right at the beginning we were asking about wearing masks and being told no need as they would scare patients.

We unfortunately had some ladies that became seriously ill with covid requiring early caesareans and the ensuing complications that resulted for the families. Our women with covid had to labour without birth partners. We were in full PPE assisting a labouring woman for a 12.5hr shift. I never want to repeat it again.

The rules and regulations changed virtually daily it was so stressful. Those awful masks the gowns so hot and uncomfortable. We had mobiles to call for equipment to be put outside the room. Showering before going home. So many awful memories.

Our hospital had vented patients in theatres as ITU was full. To all the doctors and staff of all grades in ITU and the covid wards you are ALL bloody amazing I cannot think how stressful your working life must have been over the many months of covid. Thank God for your skills and compassion.

Hopefully this dramatisation has shown the public the reality of what went on in hospitals. Not forgetting the amazing staff who work in nursing homes and the community who also took the brunt of it.

We all tried our very best with the guidance we were given by NHS England and the Government.

@Boomer55
Yes, my Dad died, alone, in a care home. The staff couldn’t get any PPE, and our hospital discharged positive patients into care homes. Covid ripped around his care home, and he died of it

The day my dad had to die alone, Johnson and co were having a garden party, complete with a buffet and cases of wine

😡😡😡 There's no words, it's disgusting So sorry for your loss

'You then replied to my post at 14:15, saying if we weren’t ventilating patients in car parks, everything must have been fine and dandy.'

No, not fine and dandy please don't use such glib language about such a serious issue.

Rather, the NHS managed the surge by quadrupling ICU beds. Unlike places like Italy where hospitals were overwhelmed. Managing an icu patient in a safe environment like a recovery room does not compare with hand ventilating in a corridor. Does it?

What job did you do?

Anaesthetic machines and ICU ventilators are very different, particularly in the context of respiratory failure.

She keeps avoiding this question - based on her comments, she did not step foot inside a hospital at the critical time

Yes but completely adequate ways of oxygenating people requiring respiratory support.
Being on cpap or a theatre vent being cared for by critical care staff in a recovery room is managing a surge, not being overwhelmed.

The thing I have never understood is why there has never been any blame or responsibility pointed at where this horrid virus came from. We know it either escaped or was let loose from experimental labs in China but considering it could have wiped out humanity, there has never been any redress whatsoever

Yes but are you going to tell us what your profession is and what you were doing in the spring of 2020?

So healthcare is fine as long as we do not have trolleys of people lined up in Tesco car park.
Some people have a very low bar.