To say please don't go to your second home

[Beesisabuzzin]

With talk of London going into lockdown tomorrow can I remind second home owners that Cornwall has one hospital. Devon has four hospitals. Where I live in Devon there is no food in any of the supermarkets. Please, please stay away, our communities cannot deal with an influx.

It’s not going to happen is it? The huge numbers of people still in pubs and clubs. The huge numbers doing what they damn well please. ‘Oh I won’t get it’

Whilst the rest of us do what we can to stop it. Selfish selfish selfish.

This is why all of Italy went into lockdown rather than just the North, after trying to cordon off just the North didn't work out. The only way to stop flight from locked-down areas is to lock down everyone.

*These areas are glad enough of second homers and holiday makers' money to keep them afloat.

It isn't the second homers being selfish. We want your money but we don't want you?*

I am from one of the areas mentioned in these threads. None of my family, friends, or anyone I know benefits economically from second home owners.

Please don't come. My father is in one of the hospitals mentioned undergoing tests to confirm whether he has cancer.

For healthcare I would rather be in London (or anywhere else) it has been stated in the news that Wales has the least ICU beds and a population with more health issues. My local hospital is shambles at the best of times, the health care workers are amazing but the facilities are shit. Yes, we have beautiful beaches but right now I’d rather be near a good hospital.

If I lived near London, I’d rather stay anyway, so as to be close to big hospitals if needed.

I’m sure there are people outside London that have second homes too.

Parts of north Wales rely totally on tourism.

We are talking second homers, not tourism.

Instead, consider offering use of your second home to a local health worker/delivery driver/teacher so they can carry on if their family should need to isolate at some point.

(Yes, I would, if I had one. Sadly, I don’t).

Sorry, per 1000 (typo!)

@SarahInAccounts

This may shock you, but us rural folk are capable of supporting ourselves. We don't need your money. Heck, we can even afford indoor toilets, electricity and hot and cold running water.

I am from a coastal town originally and people have actually asked if I will be returning to stay with family... I was very much I am definitely staying in London! I hope other people do as well.

I'll just post that article again- London will be by far the best off for healthcare- but the South West by far the worst:

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/03/18/hospitals-outside-london-danger-overwhelmed-major-coronavirus/

London will need an extra 129% critical care beds to cope

South West England will need an extra 598% critical care beds to cope- and I assume that's before they factor in a load of Londoners travelling to the South West and spreading it to even more of the older population.

Mine is in the USA and we can’t even go :(

No cases in that area either.

There’s no need for the ‘Londoners’ ‘yuppies’ hate on this thread. London is a pretty scary place to be right now and I can understand the urge to want to flee. Ultimately, we’re all selfish and will prioritise ourselves and our families above all else even when we know it’s wrong. I won’t be leaving London even though all my instincts want me to go down and stay with my parent who live in Devon. But please - everyone is just trying to do the best they can

The government should make a statement about this. They've had to do this in Norway because a large percentage of the population own cabins in the mountains and people were leaving Oslo and the other big cities to spend time at the cabins instead but the local medical infrastructure isn't sufficient in the places where the cabins are to cope with that many people getting ill.
The government told them to leave and return to their main place of residence immediately and that medical treatment would only be carried out in the commune where their main home is.

We don't literally have 1 hospital no. But we do have only 1 hospital that would be anywhere near coping with a fraction of this. The village hospitals, of which there are a few, are basically set up with small specialist and tiny outpatient units. Of course they can be requisitioned. But we won't have the trained staff or equipment.

Second homers are not celebrated, rightly or wrongly. Yes they pay into services, but also contribute to high house and rental prices and housing problems. It's sad going into little fishing villages etc and seeing half the homes empty or being let out as holiday homes half the year. When you think it was once a busy little town. But that's life and things will always change. I've never met anyone in real life who has a problem with tourism though. And that's not just because we want your money. It's a pretty part of the world. Of course people are going to want to visit.

Please don’t come to Wales!! We haven’t got the resources to cope and our population is on average, older than the English average!

I totally agree (though living in a city that is normally awash with tourists staying in hotels and airbnbs, but now fairly empty, I am hardly in a similar situation).

Something has to be done in the next week, preferably this weekend, now the schools are closing. So many families will have planned and paid for Easter holidays too.

DH and I agonised about whether to continue with a trip down we'd arranged when DD was supposed to be skiing. It is hard to get over the "but we've paid for it" attitude, but I would hate to be indirectly responsible for wiping out a demographic so that I get a few walks on the beach.

People are really knuckling down and finding ways to help each other out round here - I am not so sure the support network would be there for the occasional visitor.

Saying that, I do have a list of fantasy self-isolation locations. I certainly envy families with a huge garden and swimming pool.

I had no idea cornwall has only got one hospital. That's fucking appalling.

DS injured his ankle when we were visiting Cornwall. The nurse in the local minor injuries unit directed us to Penzance, where there was a unit that could xray him. She warned us not to go to Truro A&E: “you’ll be there ‘til Christmas!” This was in May, not even high season. The health services are really stretched in Cornwall. We visited once when I was post-op (with surgeon’s approval) and DH and I had already agreed we’d get in the car and drive home early if I needed to be seen, rather than jam up local services.

I'm in Suffolk in a seaside town with 60% non permanent residents ( every other house in our square is a second home). Late last night our digs started barking. This morning the cars are all here, outside the holiday homes. We have no hospital less than an hour away, a health centre already struggling and no care workers anyway for love nor money. We have an elderly permanent population. I'm the mum of a chronically sick DD. I'm so worried that our already limited resources will be overstretched

I live near the lakes and the amount of tourists on Facebook pages announcing theyre still coming like they're doing us a massive favour and the businesses encouraging it is disgusting.

Meanwhile not too far away, a school closed because the head had coronavirus symptoms, she wasn't tested as she wasn't ill enough to be hospitalised. The school reopened, the kids went back for a week........ That headteacher is now in intensive care with pneumonia. I'm guessing she's finally been tested. and all of those kids that have been in that school have been sharing the illness and passing it round.

Until quick and accurate tests are being carried out constantly everyone needs to just stay in their own areas. We have one, very small and very basic hospital. I think there are something like 4 ICU beds if that.

My area in the Lake District is reliant on tourism, I’m still annoyed at the bloody teacher who didn’t isolate themselves coming back from Italy
Mind you (if it’s true,I’ve heard from 4 separate people )the bloody idiotic teenagers from Trinity School who have been running around Carlisle spitting at people are something else

Central London here.

First I have not noticed any food shortages. There may be "out of stock" stickers on some items, such as paracetamol, and a lack of choice of toilet roll (DD is very impressed with the shea butter variant) but we have had no problems with anything else, in any of the probably 50 or more supermarkets within walking distance. I assume that the problem lies with the out of town supermarkets which people drive to where they do big shops.

My two nearest neighbours packing up. Next door has a very very small baby and is running home to mum, which I understand. Her husband has been working away almost entirely since the baby was born and I think she is completely overwhelmed. (I had a mild bug soon after the baby was born so did not visit, and I assume others were reluctant to risk bringing germs into her house.)

The other neighbour is elderly and a widow. I assume she thinks self isolation will be easier elsewhere.

We will stay put. We have a small flat which we used as a base during the decade my mother was living with dementia, which we have not been able to sell. But can't see any great advantage in retreating down there. I think the message is getting through to London faster than elsewhere in the Country.

What concerns me is the idea of being locked in. I work from home, and so am acutely aware of the impact, not going out, even for a couple of days can have. DH and I have been cycling for about an hour each day, as a way of getting sunlight and exercise whilst remaining distant from other people, but guess we will be told to stop. The only thing I think I can do to prepare is to remain as healthy as possible. Perhaps time to dust off my Jillian Michaels DVD (though I suspect it might kill me) and perhaps use any shopping pass to walk 30 minutes to Borough Market rather than the 5 minutes needed to reach the dreary Sainsbury's Local. (No idea whether that will be allowed - or I could cycle.)

Include people with caravans in this too, so many people on FB sites say they are going away, Camping sites saying they are staying open.

People down here have a stretched NHS but they should try London and see just how stretched it is up there. It's bad everywhere, because of the choices people made when they voted.

Thank you for this. My 3am panic this morning was that we should up sticks down to stay with my father, who is otherwise on his own. He isn’t in a second home destination but is rural, with plenty of land and enough space for us to keep clear of him for 2 weeks. It would mean the kids would have a much more pleasant lock-down and that I wouldn’t be so worried about him.

When I woke this morning I knew it was a stupid idea but you’ve made me see why. Thank you.