www.hsj.co.uk/news/hospitals-critical-care-unit-overwhelmed-by-coronavirus-patients/7027189.article
A senior director at another London acute trust told HSJ: “Given we’re in the low foothills of this virus, this is f*ing petrifying.
“The thing people aren’t really talking about yet is that we are going to have to quickly agree some clinical thresholds for admissions to intensive care. This is what the Italians have had to do, and whether it’s set at 60 or whatever, we are going to have to do something similar. There’s no way we’re going to be able to scale up to the level we need otherwise.
“The trusts in outer London seem to be hit much worse at the moment, probably about two weeks ahead of the rest of the country. Barnet, Lewisham and Greenwich, Epsom and St Helier, North Middlesex and Hillingdon are all struggling.
“I was in denial about the seriousness of this virus a couple of weeks ago, but not anymore.
“I’m now on calls with commissioners about getting more people out of hospital and into the community, and they’re saying ’yes that’ll be done in the next week’, and I’m on the verge of screaming at them. Things are going completely nuts.
“And there’s a real problem with private care homes refusing to take patients back unless they’ve been tested for covid-19. But that’s not the national guidance currently and there just aren’t enough testing kits to do it.”
Not seen any plans for casualty clearing stations of partly recovered elderly who no longer are too sick for hospital but too infectious to go back to very vulnerable care homes.
They need to sort this quite as the hospitals can't afford the blocked beds on this one.
Evening standard says the pub closures etc in London will be from monday.
That is utterly INSANE given how London hospitals are already struggling.