The hospital I work in is so quiet

[QuietHospital]

London hospital.
Half empty. Some wards have less than a handful of patients, some wards are closed. Most staff have been moved to wards so are falling over selves. While their regular work goes undone.
A&E very quiet. I’ve sent patients there who are seen immediately. The heart attacks, strokes and appendicitis cases are presenting too late. People with covid are waiting too long to present. If you get breathless then for goodness sake come in. I’m so cross at the initial advice to stay home until struggling.
Had a look through covid ward lists and vast majority patients are aged over 70. Hardly any patients under 60, those who are have underlying health problems for the most part. Lots more men than women affected.
It’s just a snapshot but echoed by colleagues in other hospitals.
I think we can / should start to move back to normal life soon for the well young people among us. I fear for the short and longer term economic hit. It’s crazy to have all these young well people furloughed or made redundant.

I know nothing about medicine but was under the impression you had to be practically deceased before ringing 111, and if you ever get through you would be told to deal with it at home.

This thread has been reassuring because I now know that A&E is still available in an emergency. I am very grateful to all the contributions here, I gather lots of you are medically qualified.

The situation with covid maybe but people get sick & die for lots of other reasons & saving the NHS by ignoring that shouldn’t be seen as acceptable let alone a good thing.

Gwyn I thought the review was 14th May?

I’m also wary of the public transport situation

One week the mayor told us the Tube was safe. Then we were begged not to use it because the service was reduced because so many drivers were ill or self isolating. Then police appeared at stations deciding who was a non essential worker, even though official advice was that if you couldn’t work from home, it was okay for you use it.

Then the weekly email said Tube use was down 95%. That’s a lot of lost revenue. Now you don’t have to touch in on the bus to protect the drivers. So no revenue there.

How much higher will fares be after this? But how convenient that Londoners can’t protest. I’m surprised other UK places haven’t done car protests.

Apart from the draconian lockdown law, which could have been less strict, the government have terrified people into thinking they ought to stay at home till there’s a vaccine.

It doesn’t take brain of Britain to see this was a disastrous over reaction.

PS - yes @mitsyblue I think Piers Morgan would be very interested in this thread, can we get hold of him on Twitter?

So "saving the NHS" just means don't use the NHS and die at home?

Beijing sounds close..

Just looking at calendar, yes it is 7th bit especially with 8th being a bank holiday, I doubt there will be easing.

An to someone above saying they have lots of ppe,send it here , we're working out how to reuse ours safely.Were struggling,the rules have changed again and if we do get busier we will run out.

Same here. Hospital half empty, more staff than patients in some wards. All these nurses who have come back from retirement or came from clinics, the student nurses too have nowhere to go.

I worry about my 'frequent flyer ' patients, where are they? Who is looking after them?

I thought it was just the hospital I work in due to the media reporting but so many others are experiencing the same.

Good post OP.

Thank you for posting it.

I think it’s confusing to many people. At first, I got the impression that if you developed symptoms of COVID19 you were to self isolate for ten days and get on with it. Under NO circumstances should you turn up at your gp surgery or A&E. With this advice, people were dying in their homes. Now, we hear hospitals are not being utilised. Makes me wonder what will happen to the 5 Nightingale facilities?

The week before lockdown I’d been at the hospital after an 18 month wait to see a consultant who ordered various blood tests, x-ray and MRI scan. God knows how long I’ll need to wait now. Nothing’s been done and there are some days when my husband has to help me dress, I can hardly move. Obviously, it’s not life threatening but I’m so sick of being in pain.

A friend in Glasgow describes ITU overflowing and I’ve heard Dundee the same, yet Scotland is said to be less hard hit than England? Must be such regional variation.

On the other hand, does the Scottish daily briefing not indicate that ICUs are not at capacity, numbers are dropping, and the Louisa Jordan is unlikely to be used?

Maybe this means that non-emergency and routine appointments can slowly start again in may? Use resources to work through the backlog? Good news that there is no lack of ppe!

Beijing “ So "saving the NHS" just means don't use the NHS and die at home?”

Yes, and sit and think, ah, my treatment doesn’t matter because Covid. Lovely dying thought there.

My non urgent surgery which was cancelled beginning of April without being given a replacement date has just been rebooked in for me for early June.
That surprised me and made me wonder if things were not as busy now

Lilac you get to think that with Covid too obviously.

i dont think anyone has over reacted-yes i agree people should still seek help for other illnesses but im glad there are spare beds and extra staff aro9und imagine the opposite

Agree

A lot of the NHS will.never return to previous working practices. So much red tape has been shown to be unnecessary (a good thing) but also our trust managers are already starting to see some of the usual work that we did as unnecessary, hinting that because it has been able to be stopped without any real repercussions, it would be an easy service to cut longer term to save money. Plus considering setting up telephone clinics as routine practice with face to face only when needed for examination or investigations

I think people are afraid. I know I was last week when I had symptoms (not at all related to covid) of what could possibly have been life changing if not seen quickly.
It turned out that I was ok, thankfully.
But it took lots of persuasion to get me there from the call handler at 111, they even got another nurse to ring me back after 5 mins and check I was coming in.
1, I did not want to waste resources
2, I did not want to risk being exposed.

I know hospitals will be super clean etc so dont bash me for my thought process at the time.

When I got there I was the only person in a&e.
Loads of staff in but no patients.

I desperately want normal life to resume but also concerned about risk.

This thread is horrifying. Not so much because of what it says but because of how different it is from everything else that we are being told (apart from the 'we are coping' line).

How odd. My cousin works in a London ITU and she is having a vastly different experience

I came on to say exactly this. My cousin is a doctor in a big London hospital and is finding it all very busy, stressful and overwhelming. She was part time following maternity leave but has gone full time for the forseeable future. I have tow other cousins who are doctors in other areas of the UK who aren't on Covid wards but are working extra hours and are running out of PPE.

Everything in the media suggests medical staff and PPE equipment are stretched.

Surely, if hospitals are as quiet as people on here are saying, the govt/medical officer would be keen to get this information known at the press conferences. They get ripped apart on PPE and death rates daily but just skirt around the questions with 'we are very well prepared' type non answers. If they knew something like this, why wouldn't they say it?

I honestly don't know whether to believe this thread or not. Lots of people agree on it but, for all we know, they could all be the same couple of people with an agenda. We can't necessarily trust it - it's the internet and anyone could be anyone. Not that we can necessarily trust the media either. Conundrum!

Maniac I agree with you. Hard to reconcile this thread against other information.

Manic..

My BIL has had his cancer treatment 'put in hold' he was due to have an op at the end of March and it was cancelled.
It's frightening - heaven knows what has happened inside his body over the last 4 weeks.

But there has still been seventeen thousand deaths in the last 6 weeks. Up until today there were almost 800 plus each day. Four hundred odd today and I hope it continues to fall - but with the daily death rate as high as it was / is I can't understand why hospitals are reportedly so quiet.

Also, I have a friend in ICU who has been on a ventilator for 2 weeks. They had the paramedics out to their house 5 days before being admitted and was not admitted due to not being serious enough. If there was bed space and going in earlier could have increased their survival chances then that is shocking. They are only middle aged and has an adopted child with severe emotional and behavioural needs that the partner will not cope with alone.