Will other parts of the NHS be overwhelmed now?

[Crosswordocelot]

Part of lockdown was to protect the NHS and to stop everyone getting cv19 at the same time thus needing treatment.
But now I'm wondering about all the things that have been put on hold....wont those dept be swamped and overwhelmed when they need to "catch up" with 3 months of missed appointments and treatments? And will some people need more longer, more invasive or intensive treatment for something if treated at the first stage was minor but if left could become a bigger problem....?
I was talking to a dentist recently and they didnt know when they would be back to work but some colleagues had been made redundant. But they were talking about dental problems which would be a lot worse/harder to fix if left untreated.
As well as cancer patients.
I dont mean that lockdown shouldn't have happened but I'm just thinking that parts of the NHS will be overloaded with a backlog of patients for many more months.

Can i ask a question? I work for the NHS myself but don't know the answer.

What will happen to the money raised for NHS charities? Will that be used for the future, on some of the issues outlined on this thread?

nah wouldn't have worked because patients won't come in. People are so scared of Covid they've forgotten their lung cancer or heart valve problem is much more likely to kill them.

No, other way around. NHS has basically put up the shutters. Both me and my OH have had treatments/appointments cancelled that we were both happy to have gone to. The silence from the NHS when you try to contact them is deafening.

What will happen to the money raised for NHS charities?

That will depend on each charity's trustees who are the ones who make the spending decisions. I suspect each charity will have their own preferences, base upon the charity's own constitution. At the end of the day, they can only spend money on what their constitution allows it to be spent on, so many are pretty strictly limited.

Yes, I have colleagues who are behind on cancer prostate surgery by hundreds of cases despite carrying on during covid with the most urgent. They also lost lots of nursing staff to help with covid patients, so if there is another surge it will all go backwards again.

nah wouldn't have worked because patients won't come in. People are so scared of Covid they've forgotten their lung cancer or heart valve problem is much more likely to kill them.
It’s the other way round. I begged to go in. My DH begged to go in. We are in a high area for Covid. You cannot get seen.

@daisypond

nah wouldn't have worked because patients won't come in. People are so scared of Covid they've forgotten their lung cancer or heart valve problem is much more likely to kill them. It’s the other way round. I begged to go in. My DH begged to go in. We are in a high area for Covid. You cannot get seen.

And the NHS block booked private hospitals which were not needed so that option was closed too Staff there left doing nothing

I work with cancer patients and we've has very few referrals coming through during lock down. We are worried about being swamped once people start being diagnosed ( possibly later than they otherwise would have been )or chemotherapy restarts or people start to relapse because months worth of chemotherapy has been on hold.

My sister works for a hospital which had to shut down the phlebotomy clinic because the entire staff caught Covid from patients.

Hard to plan services when you can't take bloods.

Becles- I can believe that. I have ex colleagues who work in a hospice, over 30 staff have had covoid out of a total of around 60, some have been off for weeks and still extremely fatigued after 3/ 4 weeks off work, others are going off with stress/ breakdowns unable to cope.

I wonder if it will be able to be counted, how many died because their treatment was cancelled or delayed due to covid. Over 118k people in the UK died of cancer last year. But hey, at least it wasn't covid .

And the NHS block booked private hospitals which were not needed so that option was closed too Staff there left doing nothing

That's odd, as I know people locally to me have been having operations for cancer at our local private hospital.

I find this beyond worrying and frustrating. I am worried sick about it.

It seems like only Covid-19 matters.

Why aren't more people rising up against this? Why do so many people want lockdown extended? Can they really not see the bigger picture?

This says it all.

Me too @Baaaahhhhh; surgeries have been going ahead at local private hospitals although only for surgeries that can be reasonably done as day stays so urgent but not complex.

My role gives me an overview of many consultations that happen across the hospital and I would estimate 80% of patients have refused investigations or face to face consultations till after the immediate threat is contained, despite reassurances from the doctors and a break down of risk vs benefit.

Obviously different people in different trusts will have different experiences but I think the massive drop in A&E attendance across the country is pretty good evidence a lot of people just don’t want to be anywhere near a hospital at the moment.

Why aren't more people rising up against this?

Because the NHS has become a religion that you're not allowed to question/criticise.

Have you noticed the new narrative coming out of the NHS that their wards/surgeries/clinics are empty because patients are frightened to go? Nothing to do with the NHS basically shutting down to everything except covid then back when the lockdown started? Typical victim blaming in full force to divert attention from their failings.

@Speeding201700

This says it all.

Sad but true!

The backlog will be huge. The nhs have fell apart for those who havent got covid. How long am i going to have to wait for carpal tunnel surgery - how long is a piece of string.

I'd like to point out that there is still a lot going on in hospitals/ in the community. Not everything has shut down, some areas working differently (i.e. phone/ video consultations) to limit the risk to vulnerable patients, but keep on top of much of the workload. There will be a massive backlog, but suddenly opening the doors and reverting to the pre-COVID situation is not the answer.

The NHS was at breaking point before Covid, A&Es weren't coping, waiting lists for everything were getting longer, but there was just an unrealistic view from the public that the nhs can fund anything. There needs to be a massive overhaul, and look at taxes, drug companies, waste in nhs resources etc. with more money in social care, mental health and communities to reduce inequalities, encourage healthy lifestyles, support parenting. More over, health needs to be removed from party politics - no sensible long term strategies can ever be agreed, when politicians use it as a bargaining chip for voters. Pouring money into more and more complex treatments for many conditions caused in part by above issues is short sighted.
Maybe now is the best time for planning a new nhs.

This thread highlights why ‘the NHS wasn’t overwhelmed…’ It’s nothing to celebrate, but a direct result of virtually everything else being put on hold. And with a 2 month lockdown.

Well some areas will be backlogged and there are many excess deaths currently that are not direct Covid deaths but a result of the general mantra of not seeking hospital help unless at deaths door.
On the plus side there has been a huge leap forward in telehealth, which will help very some waiting lists under control. One of my specialist staff had discovered that a large amount of what she does have to face can be done remotely and her waiting list had actually gone down during Covid. My daughter's last paediatric appointment took 5 minutes on the phone when usually DH and I would both have time off work and DD would miss a few hours of school. Other DD saw a GP by phone who diagnosed a fungal infection and prescribed a shampoo all in a few minutes with no driving involved.
Our patients are being discharged much more efficiently from hospital at the moment. Some of this is emergency systems developed during Covid but we were also observing this week that patients themselves who will sometimes get quite comfortable in hospital are now realising that hospital is not a SAFE place to be and they are wanting to get home ASAP. Hospital is never a safe place but we have so many battles with patients and families as to who will find the care needed to get them out of a hospital bed. I do not exaggerate when I say that I have known more than one patient spend up to 2 years in an acute hospital bed whilst family members refused to let the patient find the care they required. Post Covid, I am hoping these battles can happen outside of acute hospitals so that we can treat poorly people. I actually am feeling fairly positive about this winter as not only are there better systems in place but sadly the high death toll will have included hundreds of elderly frail people who had they not died, would have likely died of something this next winter as they were the oldest and frailest of our population that come into hospital every winter.
The biggest hold up will be non urgent elective surgery such as routine hours and knees. I expect many ops will be contacted out to private hospitals to try and catch up. This will not necessarily be bad for patients as those hospitals can be much nicer!

fund not find.

hips not hours.
Need to check my posts!!

I'm a GP if I need to see a patient now it's taking 30 minutes. 10 minutes or more on the phone getting the history then they come down for the examination as we need to have you in and out quickly I need to put my PPE on then call you in your car to come in to where we are examining you then clean the room down after each patient then write up the notes back in my office maybe phone you back to discuss some more then go into the next one.
We are going to have the surgery doors closed for a long while.
All initial contact will be by phone to reduce footfall.
I'm cross to hear some Gaps saying emergency only appointments we have been dealing with everything apart from in the very early few days when we shut the doors and had to get rid of the backlog.
I'm dreading if we get a second wave and how do we differentiate the normal childhood coughs and cold from Corona virus. I'm done...3 years and I can retire.

A lot of the getting back to normal is hampered by PPE requirements. Any anaesthetic needs ffp3 masks for the staff and there is a limited supply. Also need to make sure there is enough stock to cope with a 2nd surge of covid pts too.