The threshold for hospital admission and those living alone.

[SquishySquirmy]

I have been worrying about this and thought perhaps someone might know how this is being handled. Apologies if it reads as scare mongering, I do not wish to be alarmist.
It does not affect me directly, but I do know many people of various ages who either live alone or who live with very young children and no other adult in the house.

Due to increasing pressure on the NHS, it will obviously not be possible to admit everyone with moderate symptoms (CV or otherwise) to hospital.
From many reports it appears that you probably won't get an ambulance until you are struggling to breathe/incoherent and confused. (No criticism of the emergency services intended, I know they are under great strain).
At which point, you rather rely on someone else calling the ambulance for you.

So what is in place when there is only one adult in the house? Are they more likely to be taken in sooner rather than later as a precautionary measure?
If someone has been in contact with the NHS (phone or internet) with moderate symptoms is there a follow up procedure in place? Procedures if someone stops answering their phone?
Could the NHS responder volunteers be mobilised to perform welfare checks?

I know that this will be an issue for those falling ill alone even without Coronavirus, but surely exacerbated now by social distancing.

A side note: when DD was small and dh used to work away from home for weeks at a time, I coached her from a young age on what to do if something happened and made sure she knew our address. I know that sounds super morbid (and I did it in a way that didn't scare her) but I think it is worth considering.

This is all very sensible although of course sobering . Thanks for raising it.

What makes you think hospitals won't be able to admit people that need care?

London hospitals still have plenty of space and they are treating thousands of COVID patients. They have stopped all non-emergency stuff to make space but that's another story. The Nightingale has less than 30 patients at the moment with potential to treat 4000! A&E departments are the quietest on record, with the vast majority of non-COVID patients staying away.

So she said - do you think this is almost as bad as it will get? I’m not so sure. I think they are already not taking people to hospital, just not telling us that.

This is something I've been worrying about too. I also live a very long way (and a logistically very difficult journey away) from a hospital with suitable care. I'm in the vulnerable group (asthmatic) and I'm scared to even leave the house.

I think they're not taking people to hospital too.That poor woman in London Kayla Williams. Think they've said not taking anyone from a care home too. I think when the care home death statistics are released we'll be similar to France and looking at the deaths of hundreds of people a day.

The only advice I can think of is make sure you call from a phone number that is registered to the address you are at.

A landline is ideal – 999 call-takers can access the location. I believe there's now location-finding of various sorts for mobiles, but I imagine it's still the case that an actual registered address is best.

If you call and are audibly confused and struggling to breathe, ideally the call-taker should take this as a sign you need help.

The other thing I can suggest, from long experience of debility and confusion, is TRAIN YOURSELF NOW. Make a decision NOW that certain criteria, eg can't get out of bed, or labouring to breath, automatically mean: "Call 999 from the landline." In fact, keep a phone by your bed for this reason.

Don't wait until you're in the situation and start trying to make decisions. It will probably still take you a while when you're confused to twig that you've met the criteria, but at least you'll have the answer to hand when you do.

Things can definitely get worse facinated, especially outside of London. But that's why enormous field hospitals have been constructed around the country and so far only a handful of patients have been admitted to them.

What I think no one predicted was that A&E attendance would fall so dramatically. Obviously there's reasons for less trauma, drug overdoses etc but where are all the heart attacks, strokes, sick kids etc? That's why you've seen people on TV appealing for people to still attend A&E if they need to.

There was a thread in here from someone with awful symptoms of breathlessness and felt she was drowning. Called an ambulances out more than once and although her oxygen sats were low they weren’t low enough to be taken to hospital.

I’m pretty sure in normal circumstances she would have been taken in.

So yes, if I was a single adult I’d be worried.

And the thread I’m thinking of the ambulance crew told the woman’s partner to ring back if she was going blue! That’s pretty serious!

Ugh. Reading this I think I should fly back to my home country. Much less cases and what I have read patients with breathing problems get admitted before they are blue.

kingis

Ugh. Reading this I think I should fly back to my home country
Is that even a possibility?

Thing is I worry about the strokes, heart attacks etc too.
In normal times, someone might have a heart attack at home, but they may also have a heart attack/begin to show signs of a stroke at work, or whilst shopping or socialising with friends. Now though many are working from home, and all socialising is virtual!

I would happily knock on the door of a neighbour if their geographically distant relatives/friends/ colleagues could not get hold of them (and of course stand 2m back when they answer!). I would happily sign up to a scheme/network which involved welfare checks of local people who became uncontactable.
If one of my non-local friends or family drops off the radar, I would love a number to call to check. I know there is the police and emergency services, but if it's due to a flat battery or a phone on silent or they are just asleep that seems like an overreaction!

I feel like a well organised scheme to address this problem could genuinely save lives.

I signed up to the NHS responder scheme, but as far as I could see this is not covered.

There are a number of stories of people being refused an ambulance ornrefusd hospital admission because they are ' not bad enough' for them to die at home very shortly after. So if we are not short of ICU beds or beds generally, why is that happening ?