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.

Why have the clinical outcomes for the UK been looking so much worse than Germany, France etc?

Unfortunately a lot of this will be due to population-level factors. The UK has a lot of obesity, poor fitness levels and chronic Vitamin D deficiency.

This goes to show how we can’t trust the media because they have an agenda. I know a couple of nurses and they say the same but go on social media and it’s different. If you point it out though you get accused of being Tory.

It is an interesting thought about the whole ' protect the nhs' not them protect us!
Whoever thought it up was extremely clever there. Food for thought. ( plays into the whole ' get lockdown over with ' narrative though!)

I have heard more direct messages in the last few days from medics for people to seek care immediately. On R4 mostly. Not for CV19 but other.

well the lockdown has worked then hasnt it.
that was the plan.
flatten the curve.
but the lockdown exit must be done in a controlled fashion, this thread has the risk of people becoming lax about social distancing, protesting like in USA.

The final third lay empty. Some MPs have concerns about how this happened, about how many patients were discharged - or denied treatment - to create space. But at the time, NHS staff were told to do whatever was necessary to prepare. Its mission was to prepare for a Wuhan-style Covid onslaught

From the Fraser Nelson Telegraph piece. This is something which is barely being reported. How many cancelled operations? What kind of backlog is being created? One poster in this thread described her husband struggling to breathe and seriously ill, but actively prevented by an NHS medic from going to hospital. How many are dying at home to protect the NHS?

if there had been no lockdown the NHS would not have coped.

People on mumsnet think the whole thing is grossly over exaggerated and everyone should go back to school and work. I don't myself , but what with threads like this and some sections of the press it will be easy for people to start getting twitchy.

A nurse friend of mine tells me the ITU here (London, initially one of the boroughs with the lowest rate of infection) is not full but constant and she can’t see an end to it. Such a different message to the one I’m reading here.

I have five NHS workers in my family. The ones in hospital do agree that it is quiet but absolutely like it that way because it means the patients get the care they need.

But all the ones who aren't allowed treatment are being left to die. Our local hospital cancelled my husband's cancer treatment - he's not elderly. He has a blood cell cancer that anyone can get (young and old) that has no lifestyle causes. The NHS has just abandoned him. But that's ok - the staff are having a quiet time, so it's all good for them!

It is an interesting thought about the whole ' protect the nhs' not them protect us!

It epitomizes the peculiar back to front relationship between NHS employees and their patients. The stay at home message is ubiquitous in this global pandemic. To protect ourselves and our communities. To stop the spread of this blasted virus. But stay at home to protect the health service? As a previous poster asked, WTF is the point of a health service which actively discourages people struggling to breathe from seeking its help?

Well I understand your frustration ,but surely its better than being overwhelmed with Covid 19 patients! One of my Cousins is a Doctor in a busy hospital in the North of England .She and her colleagues caught Corona by having insufficient PPE! Has recovered now thankfully and back at work .If it is quiet ATM then thank goodness for that .Clapping NHS workers for Covid response .but also all manner of other work and A and E on a normal W/E as well I should think!

Cancer patients being left is awful. Something needs to be done about this.

People on mumsnet think the whole thing is grossly over exaggerated and everyone should go back to school and work.

No they don't. There are a variety of opinions on here as there are anywhere but I wouldn't say that "end the lockdown" is the prevailing MN opinion quite the reverse.

I have also had a text from GP reminding us that they are there for us and to call them etc.....

Understand the points made about ophthalmologists getting too close to patients and their materials (PPE etc...) getting used elsewhere. I guess I am just worried about my sight as what started as a fairly benign problem is steadily getting worse. I would have preferred if they had postponed it for a few months rather than cancel it which I guess suggests they think this could go on for a long time.

That’s not what I meant @user1497207191

It is horrifying that people are being denied cancer treatment.

I meant that the people I know in hospitals fully support the lockdown because they are terrified of being over whelmed by Cove and what to start admitting people for other treatments. Until some wards are free of Covid patients they cannot risk introducing cancer patients into the hospital for treatment.

I think that threads like this one might start to sway people's opinion though!
I'm all for lockdown and it appears to be working but at what cost to other patients?
It's an impossible situation for everyone.

Me too. North east. Never been quieter, lots of sitting around nothing to do.

Until some wards are free of Covid patients they cannot risk introducing cancer patients into the hospital for treatment.

Exactly. Lifting lockdown early does not help cancer patients as it does not help meet this aim.

Tg people don’t listen to SM, or shouldn’t.

@Frompcat

What about all the deaths from other conditions which will occur as a result of indefinite lockdown? What about increased suicide? What about increased domestic violence? Or do only covid deaths matter?

We can do something about Covid deaths. Keep the lockdown.

If we lift it tomorrow it will not prevent suicidal people killing themselves or men from beating up their wives. There are strategies in place for those.

Interesting that you seem to know about my medical records. Or are you just guessing? I'm elderly, immuno compromised, and have lung disease. Of course it will probably kill me.

That's why I'm currently shielded.

@user1477391263 i am sure that those things come into play but the relatively small no.s in hospitals in the uk compared to france when the uk is not at the same stage as france for me is startling.

Listen to Bluegrass. Huge amount of conspiracy and propaganda.
Surely your friend has also worked out (as mine who is an oncologist) that those most at risk from dying of CV are potentially safer at home until the curve had definitely flattened. Which hopefully it has.

I am so worried about the knock on effects of all this for people's non COVID health needs. My specialty has all but ground to a halt (despite their being increased demeand currently). I have however started rebooking some appointmnets form next week because I refuse to continue denying people the treatement they need , and I aslo worry about the massive backlog we will face to catch up all the missed appointments atwerwards. Its absolutely ridiculous and the fallout from it all is going to be massive.

Spoke to a neighbour who is a nurse this week who said the same about our local hospital (midlands). Intensive care is almost full but all the other wards are at low capacity.

I also know a friend whose husband has cancer who can’t get treatment while this is going on.

Can you imagine the mess things are going to be after this? Surely many people are going to die because they couldn’t get the treatment they needed? And how on earth is the NHS going to cope with catching up with all these cancelled treatments? Not to mention the impact the damage to the economy is going to have to millions of lives (and NHS funding longterm)

I'd understand if the UK hospital death rates were low but they're appalling. Seems like the current system isn't doing anyone any favours. And before people talk about the general poor health of the British population, Germany has a higher percentage of diabetes and heart disease than the UK and an older population. As do others with much lower death rates.

The UK has numbers I would expect of a country with an overwhelmed health system. If that isn't the case I'd be asking some serious questions about why so many are dying if doctors are twiddling their thumbs. And if you're an NHS worker or know one who is liking the quiet how are you or your family/friends explaining these stats?