I know that the current plan is to suppress a massive peak of cases keeping the care needed under the threshold of what the NHS can cope with and we've done this by:
- social distancing
- lockdown conditions
- shielding and isolating vulnerable people
- in my hospital we've stopped virtually everything that doesn't save a life in an emergency
- GPs and care homes are keeping people out of hospitals with no face to face input
- loads of procedures have ceased as they have a high transmission rate: dentistry, endoscopy, ENT etc.
We'll see over the next week or so whether these measures have kept the numbers low enough for capacity...it certainly feels like it is in my hospital.
But then what....surely we need to keep these conditions to keep the capacity low enough until there is a vaccine?. So wouldn't we have to remain in lockdown and continue to cease all non corona activities within the NHS ?
Somethings in society are not that easy to turn on and off again if numbers increase so I'm struggling to see that that would be a way to run non life saving treatment within the NHS. And some activities can't resume until corona is out of the equation.
I know that no one knows and sorry to post again but I feel a bit like I'm looking down the rabbit hole and have been getting a bit panicky....almost like I've realised we may be in this situation for 12-18 months and I can't escape...bit like feeling you're locked in a room...sorry can't explain that very well just putting it down out of my head has helped.