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.

@wooden

If you can’t get past 111, can you go to A&E? I know you shouldn’t do that unless you have been given the go ahead by 111, but would A&E turn a sick person away?

Changing that’s awful. And my main concern too. Hard to reconcile what is going on.

The trouble with wanting to get back to treating other illnesses and catching up with operations is that the public doesn't trust the hospital environment. We fear we'll catch it from hospital staff or the ward. Not sure how to deal with that.

A&E would definitely not turn a sick person away @Coffeepot72 , that would be an absolutely appropriate place to go if you think you need urgent medical help.

@WoodenTickingClock have you got an urgent care centre near you that would assess her?

I have seen some awful posts on sm from nurses/drs ranting and effectively screaming hurling sweary abuse at "lockdown flouters" and very very unprofessional. Of course it raises the emotional temperature and gets them attention which is what they want. One dr was so awful on a fb thread I considered contacting the gmc!

@Gruffawoah The primary visit (day after you go home) is being done by phone. Day 5 visit is going ahead as normal to weigh baby and do the blood spot test. If weight loss is within normal range the next visit is then day 14 and discharged on that visit. If it’s not normal than extra visits for weighing are added. Mental health support is by phone call in between visits if needed. So it’s going ahead but nothing like the level of service we used to provide. And yet midwives are sitting around with nothing to do, crazy!

Thank you @farfar, that’s good to know

Why would you not go to A&E if you need treatment? Why are people so accepting of this?

I also work in a Hertfordshire hospital and it's totally empty and strange we are all waiting and waiting it's bizarre...

I agree things to need some semblance of normal before the backlash of this brings the country to its knees

I go to work and weirdly feel safer and less hysterical than at home with the news not sure if any other nhs professionals feel the same?

So many stories on here and in real life about people not being admitted because they are not ‘serious’ enough then they die at home (and aren’t counted in the figures I guess?).

Something needs to be done.

To me, the most frightening thing about this pandemic is the idea that if I catch it and am desperately unwell, I will be told to just stay at home and get on with it. If all these hospitals are practically empty, someone needs to look at changing 111 policy and getting poorly people in to receive medical assistance and support before they are practically dead. The current 111 policy is an absolute scandal.

Shezh21

I’m sorry, I don’t have any clips

The pattern for the conference tends to be that the Minister gives the death toll, mumbles about testing - then they move on to one of the medical staff to give stats in the number of cases and the number in ICU. Every day I’ve watched, they say “we’ve got plenty of capacity in

ICU”.

OP, I knew you’d say it was the initial rushing about that was hard work.

I’ve said on here before that I know two people whose active cancer treatment has been halted and all I get is rubbish. One poster made the assumption that they must be young with slow growing cancers. In fact, one is 75. That’s the elderly they don’t care about. It makes me wonder if they see this as a way to get out of expensive treatments.

This is very personal but I couldn’t help noticing, when my dad was clearly dying and the doctors wouldn’t admit it, there was disappointment when his last treatment was cancelled. The oncologist actually said to me “But what we ordered cost thousands and it’s tailored for him”. Not my fault!

My father was an HCP. I think a lot of people don’t realise how the NHS works and just believe all the covid stuff and “save the NHS”. In the end the economic crash will leave the bare bones of the NHS.

Yet the people I know who have been very unwell with covid have been admitted - one died, two did not - why is it so different?

There must be huge variations. I work in a large hospital (not London). ITU areas (both the Covid and non-Covid areas) are crazy busy. I have never known it like this. We have extra staff (I am one of them) but are certainly not tripping over each other. It is so ,so busy and we could do with lots more staff.

Delayron “ So many stories on here and in real life about people not being admitted because they are not ‘serious’ enough then they die at home (and aren’t counted in the figures I guess?).”

Mum’s friends were turned away by virtue of age and health. Again, no one actually cares about the elderly, it’s just a convenient way to control us “you’ll kill your granny”.

I absolutely agree @mitsyblue, on my days off I see the news and get really anxious about going into work and what I’ll face etc. Then I get to work where it’s quiet, see hardly any patients, spend most of my day doing admin tasks, catching up on e-learning etc. and feeling like an absolute fraud when I’m praised as being a “hero” and given discounts everywhere I go. I feel safer at work than I do at the local supermarket!

Surely it would make sense in some areas to have certain hospitals to become Covid hospitals and make others for other cases.

@QuietHospital I think you are right about being scared to come in, I have been asked to go in tomorrow for some wound treatment. I'm going because I know I have too but would be lying if I said I wasn't scared!

Hospitals aren’t turning sick people away and we wouldn’t. People just aren’t getting to us unless they’re really very sick indeed. I’ve heard stories of paramedics not bringing in younger patients with fast breathing and that is unsafe practice. There was a message early on about staying home unless not coping and that has been misinterpreted.

My friends husband is a political journalist on TV. He said that hospital trusts won't let him come near the hospitals. Doctors and nurses want to talk, but are being censored

That Nightingale hospital in London is empty by all accounts. What I heard was the government didn't speak to the ICU commissioners about how it would work before they went ahead with it, so the London hospitals aren't sending any patients or staff there. It's just a big empty PR stunt. Happy to be corrected on this as it's mostly hearsay from the same source plus bits I've gleaned from the news.

@QuietHospital The message about staying at home is still on the NHS111 CoVid advice. I played around with the symptoms as I was curious as to what I needed to report to be told to contact 111, I had to report that I was virtually dead before the computer system advised me anything different than stay at home and isolate.

So it seems some hospitals are busy. Most are not. So surely it’s the time to make some hospitals covid hubs and leave others to get back to business.

I have s feeling most of this waiting now is due to lack of testing. Are NHS staff being tested as standard yet?

It is not that surprising to hear of quiet hospitals because we, the public in UK, have been overwhelmingly told that if we are ill with covid there is no treatment and we cannot go to our GP, cannot go to a doctor, should not go to hospital, should not go to the chemists. Instead, to stay at home and somehow “nurse/doctor” ourselves by washing our hands - through a vicious, novel cvirus. It is unspeakably outrageous and sad to read all the stories of people dying at home and in homes, deprived of any medical care. It’s like something from the 18th cen.