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.

Bovary “ The backlog from Covid will provide further evidence that this state behemoth is not fit for the 21st century.”

Before this, I was a supporter of the NHS bit now I’m no longer sure.

Is it possible to have people such as cancer patients in a hospital that also treats covid patients without a high risk of infection?

Yes this is an issue.

@IceBearRocks brilliant post.

People don’t understand capacity. We had to stop routine ops as those areas are now ready as itu beds. Many paediatric services were moved out of trusts, which in turn means those services are quieter as elective admissions were cancelled. People are dying, hcp are ventilated and dying because of exposure.
It’s good that some hospitals have capacity and that we’ve the nightingale units ready. We’re prepared (well apart from the ppe!).
It would be far far worse if we were at capacity now.

The UK already has one of the worst cancer survival rates of the developed world.

Cancer treatment was certainly at breaking point (imho) based on DH last year.

Early discharge to free beds and then endless visits a&e followed by re-admission for 2 days and repeat the cycle.

Cancer patients should be at a&e at 2 am because the system has failed them but we met so many , time after time.

Now we sit in limbo- has the treatment worked or not?

FiveFootTwoEyesOfBlue
Thank you.
Norfolk/Suffolk area.
We were so shocked when they sent him back, he's been admitted occasionally over the last few years when much less unwell than this time.
We know pre-Covid he would have been admitted.
The whole situation makes the loss so much harder to bear.

@Kljnmw3459 I've been in two hospitals treating covid patients in the last few weeks.

I'll be going 5 days a week from Monday for treatment. They've told me not to worry and to be honest I'm not worried.

I'm pretty sure the covid patients are away from the radio and chemo patients.

I'd be far more worried if treatment was cancelled than I am of catching covid.

@IceBearRocks thank you 😢

I don't know why so many people are shocked non-ITCU are quiet!
People are following advice and elective surgery's cancelled (including my daughters)

So yes! Quiet for a good reason! Also for being prepared for staff shortage (self isolation/ shielding) and staff re-deployment.

ITCU will differ (common sense)

Please don't knee jerk to Piers ducking Morgan. Or the woman I know on Facebook who EVERYDAY posts some conspiracy over hyped let's lift lockdown post (surprise her parents own a restaurant and a pub)

Common sense please prevail!!!!

The other part of this post about the ramifications of cancelling all non-urgent appointments, testing and surgery's is TRULY TRULY TERRIFYING but this was the plan to contain the spread! The alternative is terrifying also. Would you have gone to hospital for a routine surgery on Thursday 9th April (for example)

The worst part of this is people not being seen until they are dying. Or being (subversively) encouraged to die at home.

That is the true tragedy and our death rate could be improved with more people getting care

We could get back sooner to some normal life with better testing

It's a terrible situation 111 should be under inquiry after this and yes the government will have made mistakes

UNPRECEDENTED is the key word at the moment

Without hindsight would you have made a different decision?

I think I would have made the same decisions as the government (and I don't like the tories!)

IceBear good post.

Hard to know why such a disparity of experiences.

Cancer patients shouldn't be at a&e at 2 am because the system has failed them but we met so many , time after time.

Shouldn't
Shouldn't

I have said from the beginning that this country has the weirdest attitude to illness. All this talk about protect the NHS!. The NHS is an organisation, we are supposed to be protecting people. It's is absolutely disgusting that people are being told to stay home until they are almost dead before they will be admitted for covid symptoms. Surely if someone is struggling to breathe, even if they wouldn't have ended up dying, offering them oxygen as a help to manage their severe symptoms is a kindness.
It is unspeakably cruel and to tell people and their families that they must stay at home not matter how they are struggling to breathe.

I said from the beginning that if I or DH were in that position, we would drive each other to the hospital If the ambulance refused to take us. We would go to the covid part of a and e and just present ourselves. I do not feel at all guilty about that and would advise anyone else struggling to breathe and being told to stay home to.ignore that advice . Go to the hospital your self if you can

When it comes to preparation and transmission control the balance must be so delicate, complacency would be a disaster.

But I am really encouraged by this. I have had treatment at a private clinic suspended as they have given over all beds and staff to NHS cases due to pressure on NHS beds.

One thing I am wondering....if hospitals are so empty why the PPE shortage? Is it that the cases you do have suddenly all need staff wearing PPE?

Also wondering if this is a sign that regional shifting of patients, staff and resources isn't happening the way it should.

@Coffeepot72 of course you would be treated if you were ill, we have suspended virtually everything else to make sure emergency care can be delivered

Ps) I'm not saying there was any overreaction! I'm so grateful we haven't been overwhelmed as the biggest fear for most staff was not being able to help everyone who needed it. Let's hope we can stay on track

@IceBearRocks

Stella8686 is your daughters condition life threatening? My DH's is.

Thank you @NurseJaques

@iamausernamenotanumber
Glad to hear they’re gassing very few patients....

@IceBearRocks Posted to soon sorry. I absolutely believe that ICU’s are not seeing the same quiet period those of us not involved in CoVid are seeing. But why cancel routine maternity visits and reduce clinics etc. when we are sitting around doing nothing? We’re not needed for CoVid as we are not nurse trained so would be no use. So why are we restricting services unnecessarily? I think that’s the theme being raised here.

Stay at home to protect the NHS please x

I have been thinking about this slogan. It is very peculiar. It is indicative of the reversal of priorities which defines the problem with the NHS. Most of the planet is under some form of house arrest. The message is stay at home to prevent the spread of the virus. Stay at home to protect yourself. Your family. Your community. Stay at home to protect your health service? The job of a functioning health service is to protect its patients. It is really interesting that in the UK, that is reversed.

@bumblingbovine49 absolutely ... something is seriously wrong when the survival of an organisation is dependent on it not doing its job.

@Inkpaperstars we are wearing PPE throughout the hospital as every patient is a suspected/possible covid case and so are staff... That's a lot of PPE!

Imo we would be very quickly overwhelmed once services open, people start using public transport, popping to get a coffee etc

Only wearing ppe in our trust when caring for COVID + patients.

The UK has 125K confirmed cases of CV19. It is sixth after the US, Spain, Italy, France and Germany. It has the 4th highest death rate at 16.5K after Italy, Spain and France. Unlike other countries, the UK is only counting hospital deaths, not community based deaths which means the death count is much much higher.

Why are they not taking people into hospital and trying to save lives if the hospitals are not full?

It doesn't make sense.

@IceBearRocks thank you for sharing such a moving account of the reality of the situation we are in. I truly admire everything you and your colleagues are doing to fight this. Thank you.

Why are people not presenting for treatment/assessment?
Fear of catching CV and giving it to your family. You have to think: is my current condition worse than the risk of CV? The threshold for seeking treatment is suddenly much higher. People won’t risk it unless they’re really injured and unwell.

A&E would definitely not turn a sick person away
I was there last week and it was for non CV patients only. CV patients were directed elsewhere. And so they should be! The patients in A&E included elderly and vulnerable people who’d had falls and other accidents - it would be totally irresponsible for someone with CV to just wander in and infect them all after they’ve been shielding for weeks.

we, the public in UK, have been overwhelmingly told that if we are ill with covid there is no treatment
But that’s correct isn’t it? Unless you’re ill enough to need oxygen they can’t help you. If you go to hospital unnecessarily you’re exposing others to your CV and if you don’t actually have CV you’re exposing yourself.