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.

@MarshaBradyo I lurked and posted occasionally on avid and wise

(or, to be fair, you - apologies if you have been here forever!).

No, only since 2008 or so. So not that long, it seems.

there has been reporting that some doctors/coroners are being told not to put covid on the death cert if they died with co-morbidities and just to list those.

Can you link to this reporting please effingterrified?

Oh and btw, I’ve been around here since 2004 and am not employed in any guise by the CCHQ, civil service or any other shady outfit (unless museums count as shady)

I am suspicious of many of the posts on here, coming on the exact day that a government-led disinformation campaign using sockpuppet accounts to push ending lockdown has been revealed.

Has it? Where!?

Pomegranate now you say you posted, your name does ring a bell!

Funny being on here for ages, nice to be recognised but also probably posting too much 🙈

Nurse, glad to hear you are real!

It does not change my original point that I personally am very suspicious of the multiple people claiming to be HCPs on this thread who are arguing not only that their particular hospital is quiet, which is possible, as the disease is at different levels in different areas, but more, are using this to very deliberately push the line that therefore we should be lifting lockdown asap and, even, that the whole thing was overblown in the first place, which I don't believe any sane HCP would be doing.

I know people who have died in this - one was a young dad who was in perfectly good health as far as I knew.

Young people in good health do not just drop down dead normally.

This is not normal.

I do not want anyone else's father/brother/son/husband or mother/wife/daughter/sister to die of this unnecessarily.

We should not think of ending lockdown yet.

Hi if this is a genuine reply please please make this more public, post it to social media! There is currently not a word from any uk doctor about the situation, in America so many docs are speaking out, please please start telling the public.

It's infuriating for people who have had procedures cancelled to read that people are seriously sitting around doing nothing

I just remembered I name changed @MarshaBradyo

I liked the things you linked but I think I have total opposite body shape and look to you

Dh is worried about his sick Liver patients, Crohn’s and colitis patients and the cancers he would normally be diagnosing. Those patients are still out there, not getting seen, not getting treated. The long term effects will be serious.
As I said before the NHS needs it’s own exit strategy for this. As there are so many regional variations each Trust may need to devise their own. Hopefully they are working on it.

Peapod29 - I posted the link upthread. It's been widely reported:

twitter.com/jdpoc/status/1252266724449230848

Oh did you, I’m sure there’s been other threads. Hi anyway!

but more, are using this to very deliberately push the line that therefore we should be lifting lockdown asap

No one is though, just pondering whether sentencing others to their deaths by cancelling certain procedures was an overreaction or not.

My DH has had back pain for several weeks and is two years post op for a colon resection due to cancer. He has had two telephone appointments with our GP who decided it was musculoskeletal but she was unable to get an x-ray appointment for him. Recommended at home exercises and pain relief.

The pain and lack of range of movement got much worse. Ten days ago I drove him to A&E. He'd rung me to pick him up within half an hour. They said they were only treating suspected/confirmed Covid-19 patients, heart attacks, strokes, setting breaks and doing stitches where required. Wouldn't examine him just sent him on his way with a prescription for Naproxen. A&E was empty, the hospital and car park deserted.

The pain has continued and even got worse. This morning I noticed he was yellow and in tremendous pain, he can't hold a conversation. I tell him I'm taking him back to A&E, he doesn't even try and argue. Again A&E empty etc.

Hospital have phoned he is indeed very poorly with a liver issue, infection, anaemia. He's on IV antibiotics and having an urgent scan this afternoon.

I'm sat at home frightened , worried and a bit angry. My DH is one of many who couldn't get the help they needed because Covid-19 trumped everything else. There has to be a better way.

Sorry to hear, everyblue :( I wonder why there are no attempts of distributing patients to less busy hospital if there really are so many half empty ones?

My neighbour is a hospital pharmacist and she says I the hospital is deserted .we have hardly any cases in my locality . Seems madness everything is on hold

www.heraldscotland.com/news/18392616.warning-backlog-surgeries-break-nhs-72-cut-urgent-cancer-referrals-revealed/

Pretty worrying really, how many deaths from cancer will we have in the next few years?

Nidhanaroxana - there is no way of knowing if the supposed medical professionals on here are genuine or not.

There are certainly plenty of people on this thread saying that their local hospital is overrun and they/relatives who are HCPs are run off their feet.

Definitely no time to end the lockdown yet.

Far too early, and there is no properly resourced exit plan in place.

To end lockdown before we have got hold of sufficient testing capability to ensure a thorough test, trace and quarantine strategy, and before our hospitals have finished dealing with the current wave, would be to commit mass murder.

@StopGo so sorry. Your poor dh. So shocking x

@effingterrified I know people have died, I have nursed some of

And I Agree with you... I don't think we should lift lockdown, I don't think there has been any overreaction etc.

So despite the fact you don't think I'm a real HCP and that I am lying about my current workload we can't have an argument because I am not disagreeing with any of your points... I'm so confused about what agenda you think I'm pushing?!

@StopGo sorry to hear that, it is actually shameful.

@effingterrifiedn by the same token there is no way of telling whether those who are run off of their feet are telling the truth. People shouldn't be gathering facts based on a message board, or in fact 99.9999% of the internet.

I hope someone has analysed the tradeoffs between treatment and contracting Covid-19 during treatment before making these decisions

Some people are run of their feet, some aren’t.....

We do need to consider opening some further services.

People are misinterpreting "Protect the NHS". It's saying that it needs protecting from being overrun and unable to cope. By staying at home and flattening the curve we are protecting it's ability to help us, and therefore in effect saving lives.
So it's all tied in with "Stay at home" and "Save lives". It shouldn't be looked at in isolation but as a part of the whole message. Staying at home will mean (and it is proved to have worked by this thread) that the NHS will be protected from being overwhelmed, and will thus actually save lives.

I suspect that there is currently a lot of scurrying around by top bods to take advantage of the situation we find ourselves in, now that it looks like the curve has been flattened, in order to find the best way to move forward recommencing normal treatments and testing. The changing situation is fast moving. That spare capacity may well have been needed. We are actually lucky that it wasn't. It takes a while for any organisation to catch up. Hopefully that will happen soon - especially in relation to admitting people before their condition is blue lip critical in Covid cases. Hopefully urgent care and treatment for cancers etc will also recommend soon, although this needs to be balanced with the risk of catching Covid 19 against the risk of delaying treatment. Tricky.