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.

@Tangledyarn Thank you. I hope you recover soon.

'The protect the NHS thing is definitely a bit crass but it came out of their researchers at the last election (and famously during Brexit : it's hardly a surprise that Boris' gang are behind this!) telling them how much the British people value and gold dear the NHS. So it is playing in a rather exploitative way to that sentimentalism.'

But it isn't meant to be out of sentimentalism or the dear NHS, it means to protect the ability of the NHS to cope with the surge. Which worked as demonstrated on this thread.

It varies massively, some family members are in areas that are swamped and some are very quiet. It isn't consistent that's why a blanket plan of stopping routine procedures was necessary as it couldn't be predicted where and when capacity would be under pressure.

Spotted this article just now , asking questions over increased death rate with this weeks peak rate not all being attributed to the virus.

"He said it could be that people with other illnesses were avoiding going to hospital treatment - visits to A&E have halved since the pandemic started."

Nothing to do with the NHS closing down to everything but covid and emergencies then? Nothing to do with them closing cancer depts and stopping essential cancer treatment? Nothing to do with GP surgeries closing and not even doing basic things like blood tests or review appointments? No, what a surprise, who'd have thought that deaths would rise when virtually the whole of the NHS closed down!

Hospitals here are busy. Even routine emergencies (if there is such a thing!) are taking over 24 hours to be seen. There are half day waits for patient transport and ambulances.

Patients are being released thinking they have recovered from Covid19 and then having to be re-admitted.

I don't know anyone in RL (doctors, carers, nurses, paramedics) who shares OP's perception.

I do however see that the Government has been paying an agency to set up accounts across social media pretending to be healthcare staff who think the lockdown should be lifted and that herd immunity is a good idea.

Of course on Twitter they were caught out because the NHS Trusts reported them and they had used photos of real healthcare professionals who also reported them. It's a bit easier on a forum where no id is needed.

We are in the Northwest- our neighbour is a doctor in a&e and says both local hospitals have been, and are still, empty. A new dedicated wing has been thrown up for Covid patients which has not yet seen any patients.
Another friend is a nurse in ICU just outside London. She says it was busy for a week or two (all patients being over 60 and with significant existing health issues) with people who had become very ill very quickly, but there are now more nurses than patients!

Icebears post implies they are copying and pasting something they have read on social media, rather than direct experience?

Most healthcare professionals are educated enough to know the difference between 'your' and 'you're'

Of course on Twitter they were caught out because the NHS Trusts reported them and they had used photos of real healthcare professionals who also reported them. It's a bit easier on a forum where no id is needed.

*Absolutely!

Not my sisters experience at all.*

'Nothing to do with GP surgeries closing and not even doing basic things like blood tests or review appointments? '

Where has this happened? Ours is open, yes the main doors aren't but admission for appointments is via intercom. My relative is still having their inr checked and another had fbc last week.

You need to contact your MP, GPs are obviously essential services.

@missyB1

What I hope this does is to make the public sit up and take much more notice of how their NHS is funded and run. All through the austerity years the public swallowed the Government line that spending on the public sector must be restricted. The effects of that were devastating in terms of lack of investment and improvement in services, lack of staff, demoralised staff leaving in droves etc. But also the lack of primary care, not enough GPs and what GPs we have being discouraged from referring patients to secondary care because of lack of capacity there. It’s become a vicious circle.
People need to demand better when all this is over. I fear they will just turn a blind eye again.

This. I've worked in the NHS for many years and there's so much I could say about it, but it's been dying for years. It was at absolute breaking point before the pandemic so, yes, stopping everything else was the only way the NHS could hope to manage the influx. It was the only decision but that's because of decades of underfunding and 'efficiency savings'. Most of the public have been fed, and believed, political spin that cuts weren't happening and the NHS was inefficient.

I truly believe this is the nail in the coffin of the NHS and what we will shortly witness is its death throes. But the clapping and general deification of what should be a national organisation, not a charitable concern, has just provided a smokescreen for the existing major problems. And I agree that many many people will die from tbe repercussions.

I think the government are more likely to be supporting messages that play up how busy the nhs is right now. How else do they justify the damage they have done...that will affect all of us for decades?!
One of the first legislative changes made allowed a higher number of deaths to be recorded as corona-related...so that’s hardly playing things down is it?? In fact the way corona deaths are being counted right now is very concerning in terms of numbers being massively overstated.

Argh, bold fail. Original post by missyb1

@Justaboy can't you answer that question yourself?

The whole country would need to be in isolation completely for that to be the case.

We aren't "locked down" at all

Justa I’d suggest it has worked in that it has kept us under capacity. Although big caveat that people dying at home due to log jam or severe triage is not working. Lockdown in U.K. wasn’t to eradicate it as a goal. So when people say it’s working I assume they mean wrt capacity.

Are you suggesting it hasn’t worked because it hasn’t eradicated the virus?

@Wiaa you can't have it both ways. Either the other wards and other health professionals are dealing with non-COVID patients or they're not. The suggestion on this thread is that since people are not presenting to hospital (in part perhaps because of the government's ridiculous message) these wards are empty, hospitals are quiet and health professionals are (to quote previous posters) "twiddling their thumbs". But then in other hospitals people are working overly long hours and struggling to stay on top of COVID wards. Seems a bit daft to me if there are health professionals in other wards or sites who could be redeployed as they have been in numerous other countries. Likewise for an under resourced and under funded system. I'm in Greece. We wrote the book on austerity induced underfunded health care systems. Yet even we have enough sense to set up a separate triage line for COVID, hire extra staff and redeploy existing staff where needed.

I had to take a family member to A&E at a London hospital this week with severe breathlessness. The waiting room was empty and he was seen immediately by the triage nurse who then rushed him through to Majors for more detailed assessment and care.

I wasn’t allowed to go through with him, but when they had him settled the triage nurse came back to me and said it was absolutely the right thing to go in to A&E. That sounds obvious, but I did get the impression that they were concerned about people being reluctant to come in when they needed to. I have never seen an empty A&E waiting area before (it was a weekday, early afternoon).

He has had great care and is doing much better now.

@GetOffYourHighHorse
Exactly, why does no-one understand that the planners didn't have a crystal ball

I love the way loads of HCP have shared their experiences of the current NHS situation on this thread and then posters have either replied 'that's not true because my neighbour sisters aunt is working in a busy a&e' or even better that these are fake accounts as part of a government conspiracy

Mumsnet is batshit crazy sometimes, I love it though!

To me it feels so weird but it does make sense that we are not busy. I am in Lincolnshire, covid case numbers are currently low. We have stopped nearly all routine services including outpatient clinics and elective procedures. Staff from clinics etc. have been redeployed to wards, which are currently half full! Even our covid wards are not busy at the moment and icu is not full. We have never had so many staff on wards and we have never had so few patients

Obviously this situation won't continue. I'm scared that lockdown will ease, cases will skyrocket and that will coinside with all the people who've been putting off getting medical help for non covid reasons also needing help. And the backlog of people we will need to work through for all the services currently on hold will probably bring the system to its knees!

I'm currently not busy but very worried about next few months. I don't have any political motivation for sharing this information, I'm just talking about the strange times I find myself in.

Cumbrimam you may think that but only if you ignore that certain sections of the Government have been pushing anti-lockdown stories for over a week including: send the schools back in May; let people use the parks and have picnics; give us a 3-point plan to lift lockdown, etc.

Anyway, regardless of what you think, the Government is paying an agency to set up fake NHS healthcare accounts to say that herd immunity is a good idea; that they don't want people to clap for the NHS and that they want the country out of lockdown. It's also a fact that the accounts were reported by NHS Trusts who confirmed the staff did not work for them.

Thanks for posting another view on this as the news gives me anxiety. I'm pregnant I've not seen a midwife or spoke to one person since I was 8 weeks now I had my 12 week scan rushed in and out which I understand. I'm now 20 weeks I had an appointment booked but they cancelled it's all very weird and concerning like I've slipped through the net when I'm meant to be under consultant led care but I don't want to trouble them if they are under pressure.

Haven't read the full thread - how does this square with lack of PPE ?

@NurseJaques wouldn't be the first time they'd set up fake SM accounts to spread their propaganda though would it? How is that "batshit crazy"

This thread has appeared at a very convenient time.

@circusintown

I suppose because this thread dhas lots of HCP describing EXACTLY what I and many of my frontline friends nationwide (as well as my sister who is an ICU nurse in Australia) are currently experiencing and discussing amongst ourselves along with the fact that bed occupancy figures and A&E attendances are so low it surprises me that so may people think this is all made up

Following what is happening elsewhere in europe it's likely that the lockdown will start to ease next month, this may mean restarting other medical procedures.

Politicians 'don't have the guts to admit COVID-19 was exaggerated'

NurseJ going by this thread a more accurate picture would be some are over capacity and others under?

It’s not so much that some are quiet it’s more what is done next.

It should be earlier admission. Not we overreacted let’s end lock down.