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 work in ICU. Also very quiet, we have 3 COVID units set up with 24 bedded capacity and room to expand, we currently have 2 COVID positive patients. The ICU I’m in is functioning as normal albeit accepting patients from a far wider radius. Half the hospital has been redeployed to us to help and we’re tripping over one another.

I know the hospitals a stones throw away are struggling massively so I have no idea why we’re not receiving more patients.

Agree same here. Feels v v different to news reports.

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

I was told (not confirmed granted) how many patients were currently in Nightingale London. Why are not ALL covid patients being taken there? If family are unable to visit does it matter where in the London area they are? Let’s use the hospitals as hospitals and nightingale as bespoke with spill over into other hospitals when required.

Apparently Nightingale has loads of PPE.

I will admit I’m not medical and it’s all hearsay but if you are all saying it’s quiet why not start covid non covid hospitals?

I'm another of the posters who was told by the ambulance triage that losing consciousness coughing and very low peak flow with severe asthma and pneumonia wasn't enough to be seen.
That is how the system is set up - but I also have quite a few friends who work at our local hospital. The hospital is asking people not to turn up at a&e with covid symptoms without calling 111 or 999 first, but noone gets referred in without turning blue. But at the same time my friends whp work on ICU and the wards are telling me that they have plenty of empty beds and would rather people with my symptoms were admitted - but there doesn't seem to be any joined up thinking between the 111 service and the hospital. Our ambulance service is on its knees though.

Also mirrored where I live in all 3 of my local hospitals. Particularly the one I work in. We have never had this mad rush that the media keep portraying! Also have enough ppe.

@Laniakea

'Why are people happy that it’s quiet? Do you think that people not accessing services they need is a good thing?'

Wtf? People aren't 'happy it's quiet' - people are discussing that it is unexpectedly quiet when we've been told that it would inevitably be absolutely stuffed with people dying in the corridors and questioning the gov advice to not bother A&E.

Also discussing the viability of the cancellation of literally most other things, including cancer treatment.

I don't think anyone is just 'happy they're quiet'.

Laniakea, don't know about others but to me it says that there is capacity to treat non-Corona patients. Which would prevent non- Corona related deaths. And that must be a good thing?

The PPE (ands constant downward revision of what’s needed as they run out) is a big old mess, don’t get me wrong. We had YEARS of being told that Surgical masks were next to useless except for preventing surgeons spittle and beard hairs falling into surgical wounds. And that they needed changing frequently. Now we can wear them all day and it’ll prevent us getting covid when we get coughed at. These patients cough a lot.

Fascinating thread. I have just been told I can't see the consultant I was supposed to see, due to Covid (am in an area with 12 cases overall). I am in absolute agony, and am now supposed to carry on like that until I can put myself back on the list in three months' time. I cried on the phone. The receptionist said she was very sorry, but all appointments are being cancelled due to Covid. I am almost tempted to go to A&E, just because I can't bear the pain. I have been like this since November. It was being investigated, scanned etc - but now all is on hold.

I dread to think of the long term effect this is going to have. Just after lockdown I got my smear test letter, I have no idea when I’ll be able to get my test, let’s just hope it’s clear

The hospital I work in is also empty and we are looking at how to stand back up elective and outpatients. ICU capacity was almost doubled in preparation to just over 90 beds. Currently single figure Covid patients in ICU (and it's never got higher than mid teens).

Last few days in the NW it’s ramping up.
Still large parts of the hospital quieter than normal, obviously entire day surfer unit is empty - ready and waiting to be used as the next Coivd unit if needed, but ITU and Covid wards are busy.
Not sure why we are picking up in the NW 3 weeks into lockdown?

We are really busy in areas with covid but because activity elsewhere has been stopped there are empty beds and even empty wards and ICU is managing. A&e is managing too and sometimes much quieter than normal.
Our trust daily traffic light status is much better than winter when it was black all the time with ambulances queuing.

Pratnav, go to A and E. you can't be in pain and not get any help.

Why are people happy that it’s quiet? Do you think that people not accessing services they need is a good thing?

I'm happy that it's quiet because I nearly fucking died on Friday and had I not been able to get to see a doctor pdq I may well have done!

In my experience 111 were more than happy to call me an ambulance after heairng my symptoms(rapid breathing, chest pain, vomiting) but suggested if I could get family to take me in it would be quicker. Hubby was not actually allowed in the hospital due to covid so drove right up to the A and E door and handed me over. I was taken to the ward for diagnosis straight away.

Same here OP.
Our hospital is fairly quiet.
I'm being kept in endoscopy and we're not even doing two week cancer waits, there is going to eb a huge consequence for some of these patients!

We've cut our hours down 8-2 every day because there isn't enough work.

Let's hope normality will resume soon!

Interesting post - thanks OP.
My DH has an incurable (currently treatable) cancer. Previously his NHS treatment has been extremely good. Always quick response the queries etc. But he is now in limbo and it's very scary.

Im in London and feel exactly the same OP. Yes the ITU ward is busy and not with new patients. A and E is down by 80percent. All the paeds wards closed.

Im frankly sick of seeing staff at my sister hospital on social media dressed up in all the PPE doing silly dances and everyone telling them what heros they are. We are paediatrics and it hasnt affected us at all. We have had 10 staff to 14 patients. I shouldn't complain but i worry about these free meals the trust is providing When we are well able to pay for them. The massive loan they have taken out from the government and how they will pay it back with the interest slapped on it.

Things need to start moving Im scared for those that darent come in.

From what I saw at our A&e (30 covid 19 deaths at hospital) you could just walk into a&e with Covid 19- the signs said to go XX way if you thought you had it and YY way if you didn't.

The issue is if the government and media reported the fact that most hospitals were coping well, had capacity, and staff etc then there would start to be civil unrest over lock down.. In the first three weeks the nhs were in many places still prepping so any lack of adherence to lock down on a big scale would have been catostrophic.
Now there is cautious commentary about nhs coping.. Giving the impression this is because the infe rates plateaued due to lock down.

I'd also like to debunk the reporting over ppe.. I work spilt roles a cross south west primary care and several London trusts.. None are short of ppe.
There have been no actual footage of empty stores or hcp on wards with no kit on.
So where are these hospitals with no ppe?

Yep. Friends who work in hospitals say the same. One is in a London hospital and is bored and frustrated. They (a doctor) have been diverted to Covid and are currently nursing(and I mean carrying out nurses duties) about 6 patients on the Covid wards whilst their normal patients go without treatment. It does feel like something’s gone a bit wrong in the organisation of this all.

Really sad when my heavily pg sister waited hours and hours to be taken into a and e due to massive queues for 111 and maternity units.
And also when people/family are dying in care homes as their family are being made to sign dnr with regards to covid. And their deaths don’t even count.

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

The Trust I'm in (Midlands) ITU is full as are most of the wards with Covid positive patients

My hospital (East of England) is also very 'quiet'. 4 closed wards, ED attendances down by 50%. We are starting to gear back up and I know many of my colleagues think we stopped elective work too soon. But I disagree. We had no idea of the scale of what we were facing. Hindsight gives you 20:20 vision but at the time most people inside the NHS were anticipating running out of beds, patients in corridors etc. So we went early. And I don't think was the wrong thing to do.

However, I lose sleep over our non-covid patients. Where are they? How much are they suffering because they are afraid to come to hospital? It is going to take years to recover from this and many more lives will be lost due to delayed treatments. But, again, I think we all did the right thing as to have waited or not done it could have lead to the complete breakdown of the NHS.

None of the decisions were easy and you could argue there were no 'right' decisions. Just least worst.