When will people be happy to start living with the risk of catching Coronavirus?

[wakeupitsabeautifulmorning]

Considering there possibly won't be a vaccination for quite some time, if at all, but things are going to have to start returning to normal for the sake of everything else - economy, education, other health issues etc. There is currently so much opposition to easing out of lockdown, people will have to get back to work and schools cannot be part time for years (childcare issues plus the massive impact on disadvantaged dc, plus the dc not engaging in home learning). Spoke to a few people today who are horrified at the thought of a return to normal as they are frightened of catching the virus. I was a bit surprised a they were under 35 with dc (no known health problems). It's like they think it's just going to miraculously vanish.

Seriously I am concerned about all the untreated injuries posters here are sustaining banging their heads against brick walls. I know I have taken too many blows.

I feel your pain.

Inkpaperstars but that sounds as though you think these services wouldn't be overwhelmed if Covid magically disappeared overnight.

Yes lockdown is stopping people from accessing those services!

People who get diagnosed with breast cancer through routine mammograms is but one example. Not everything presents itself as a lump or whatever that you then get an emergency appointment for!

A&E being open is not enough.

How doesn’t lockdown stop access to those services? They aren’t open or they are vastly understaffed at the moment.

Then you read posts from hospital staff saying wards are empty. Not much going on in hospitals. So why are we still being denied medical treatment?

And then to be told your looking at next year? 7 months at the earliest? How many will still be alive in 7 months time?

Routine smears. If this was 10 years ago these months would have delayed treatment and it would have been a harder fight.

lockdown is not stopping people from accessing those services

Yes it is. My smear was cancelled. My mother's mammogram was cancelled. My Uncle's biopsy was cancelled.

All my therapy has been cancelled.

My husband's dialysis treatment was comprised. He should have been having 4 hours of treatment 3 x a week. It was reduced to 3 1/2 hours 3 x a week. Not much you might think but it made a difference to his health. And that's just one personal story.

For every NHS service that has been cancelled, you would hope that there has been a cost benefit analysis. You would also hope that these are reviewed very regularly. I don't know if this is the case or not, but it definitely should be.

Oh well that's ok then!

I don't see that there's so much difference between people saying "we don't need lockdown because the weak will die anyway!" and those who think hospitals should massively compromise treatment for anything other than Covid.

Um, this virus a brand new novel, vicious thing

www.nature.com/articles/nm.3985

It's not a war or something where you can 'beef up' and 'push on' to get back to normal. To go normal now (without masks) would be like stepping out in the 17th century when contagious TB tuberculosis was rife and killed 1,000s. Or when Polio would strike in the summer months sweeping through towns in epidemics every few years. This is what this is now !

Yes lockdown is stopping people from accessing those services!

The numbers of infected and hospitalised came down rapidly in my area, our Trust is doing screenings, and people are getting cancer treatment. Friend further south has been given a date for a procedure she's waited a year to have. Of course if the easing of lockdown results in numbers in these areas going up again, then staff will be redeployed, more will be off sick, hospitals will be more dangerous in terms of transmission and services may be withdrawn again. If you look at the other thread on lockdown started today by a poster complaining about lockdown and other medical procedures, a number of posters are in Trusts where these are going ahead again because of low numbers of infected. So it's not ;possible to state that the lockdown is to blame, it's the impact of the virus on services and resources, human and otherwise.

Oh so when it seems like lack of treatment will start costing more, we might be eligible for treatment?

There is no might cost more. Those that survive will cost more. Our shite health is being neglected.

I wish people would stop saying "oh we don't know anything about this virus". We know loads now.

Without lockdown many more people wouldn’t be on furlough

So it's not ;possible to state that the lockdown is to blame, it's the impact of the virus on services and resources, human and otherwise.

What utter nonsense. My BIL who is a skin cancer oncologist isn't seeing people even referred to check if their moles are melanoma or not. He is not off sick and nor are any of his team. He is literally sitting there doing naff all. He is furious about the whole thing.

@NowIm why can't they do video consultations?

venetianblue

Do you mean my BIL or my therapy?

If my BIL, they cannot check moles via video link.

If therapy, I really haven't a scooby.

@Now I don't understand why they can't do consultations by video, and then have patients in for biopsy and operations. I heard many private hospital clinics like Bupa are hosting these sort of interventions for nhs

They absolutely cannot examine suspicious moles via video link. They need to see everyone in person for something like that. You need the proper equipment to tell you what is suspicious and what isn't.

Yes lockdown is stopping people from accessing those services!

No, Covid is stopping people accessing these services. Why people think treatment would be continuing as normal if we carried on as normal and let Covid rip through is beyond me. It’s just bizarre.

Of course, it could be argued that the NHS over-reacted and haven’t responded quickly enough to reducing cases, but that’s very different to “lockdown”.

My BIL who is a skin cancer oncologist isn't seeing people even referred to check if their moles are melanoma or not. He is not off sick and nor are any of his team.

I didn't say this was the case in all Trusts! But to make the problem categorically one of the lockdown, it would have to be the case that all trusts are all closed down at the same level. That's not true, in some areas where lockdown has decreased local rates substantially services have resumed! But I will tell my friend whose morphine-based medicine I collect from the local pharmacy that the cancer treatments she's had for weeks now are a fantasy!! And my neighbour who was referred for cancer treatment last week....and so on...Because if your BIL's Trust has high infection rates or organisational issues it must be the same everywhere!!!

Derbygerbil, I agree with every word you write.

Derbygerbil - I agree with you. I'd like to live in this parallel universe where Covid rips through the population and workers are dropping like flies. But non-Covid healthcare all goes ahead, our children get a good education and we're all at the pub, theatre, hairdressers and popping on flights to Greece.

I don't understand why they can't do consultations by video, and then have patients in for biopsy and operations. I heard many private hospital clinics like Bupa are hosting these sort of interventions for nhs

I agree but this isn’t the fault of “lockdown”.... lockdown is just an obvious scapegoat that doesn’t stand up to any scrutiny. It makes as much sense as blaming the bogeyman!