Are hospitals starting to get back to normal now CV deaths are so low?

[thisisthebestoftimes]

Just wondering what is happening with regard to cancelled operations, appointments etc. now. Hospitals must be very quiet if not.

I’ve had a non urgent appointment this week with clinical genetics - but face to face tests I was due to get have been postponed til October or so . So I think they’re doing stuff over phone but still not doing anything more invasive .

I think so. DH has some MRIs postponed in March and he received letters rescheduling them a few weeks ago.

Given the number of twats out sunbathing, shopping etc as if everything were back to normal, we'll have to wait at least 14 days to see if the infection rates start shooting up again.

DS1 had a non urgent head MRI yesterday, so looks as though they are clearing the backlog.

We're starting to get back to some kind of normality. The trouble is a lot of hospital work centres around surgery. Surgery is still seen as high risk for all the staff involved, this means all of the PPE and lots of extra, time-consuming cleaning. This is seriously limits the amount of work we can actually get through.

Until we find a more accurate way of testing (swabbing is only 70% accurate) or a vaccine comes I can't see it changing anytime soon unfortunately.

Partner had a non urgent op yesterday - he could have had it now, or wait 3 months to 'see'. Decided to go for it while there was the option.

Ward was full. ENT.

My daughters appointments for an ongoing condition are still remote on the phone any my maternity appointments are still remote or if in person a mask and no partners. So no imo still lockdown procedures

Things are getting back to normal at DHs hospital but slowly.
Deaths are low but there's still quite a few patients in hospital being treated, capacity in the hospital is also lower than usual due to various factors - split between CV19 / normal areas, shielding or ill staff, SD measures, PPE requirements mean it takes longer to see people so it's slower.

To be fair tho @ginghamstarfish we have actually had this a few weeks prior and it hasn't caused a spike. The beaches were packed a few weeks ago when the sun was out, there was plenty of outrage and yet here we are with numbers still declining. We all said the same about VE Day and about the protests and it's just not happening. I think it's about time we dialled down the hysteria a little bit

I have a chronic condition and hospital monitoring hasn't stopped at all for me so I've been in a few times for blood tests since lockdown started. They are slowly starting up clinics but as we're nearly all on immunosuppressants they are trying to keep people out of risk so lots more phone consults and only coming in for procedures.

Our hospital seems to be getting back to normal(ish). I had a biopsy postponed in early April and had it done last week. Several friends have had non urgent appointments sorted now.

Yeah I had a none urgent appointment cancelled in April. They called yesterday and I’m having it done tomorrow

Some of the responses on here surprise me. My MRI referral is still not being accepted. (It was supposed to be in march but got cancelled but we've been told we have to ring the doctors to get referred again. But they're still not accepting them. Some in this thread have had appointments for that though?

Had a routine appointment through for ENT however which I wasn't expecting

DD had an appointment this week which was changed to a telephone consultation. Doctor said there was nothing he could do to help her without seeing her, so she is now back in the queue for an actual hospital appointment. So it felt like the telephone consultation was just weeding out who actually needed to be seen and possibly working out priority.

I had a non-urgent scan today. (Non-urgent for them, very urgent for me.) It was eerily quiet, and we were done in 15 minutes. But then I never really go to a hospital, so perhaps it is always like that.

Dh is an endoscopy consultant, they are only able to do about 50% of their normal workload. Endoscopy is aerosol generating which means high risk. So the air in the theatre has to “settle” for 20 minutes after each case, and everything has to be thoroughly cleaned down. Also staff have to wear full PPE - despite management trying to persuade them that only aprons and gloves are required

I had new appointment letters sent quite a while back for August setting up things that were scheduled originally for March. They've changed some things, one appointment they're waiting for results to decide if it's phone/ letter / in person.

Also blood tests are now by appointment only.

I have had a face to face non urgent orthopaedic appointment in the past couple of weeks. It was an odd experience.

My husband has had a non urgent appointment done as a telephone appointment and my daughter has had routine bloods taken at the hospital.

Think they are working through cancelled appointments and triaging to assess priority of those to be seen. Many still have separate CV ad non CV areas.

Not in Scotland. A friend of mine is a surgeon doing things which are non-emergency surgery (along the lines of hip/knee replacements). She's been told not to expect to see any patients until at least the end of July. She stopped seeing them mid-march.

The backlog must be enormous. And people waiting for something like a knee replacement, a cataract operation or to have their gallbladder removed have had 6 months of crap quality of life too.

In our area pain infusion treatments are postponed for a full year!! People usually have them every three months.

It’s incredibly concerning about the backlog there’s going to be. It’ll probably put some things back years and so frustrating too as it seems lots of hospitals are extremely quiet now.

My ward is back to normal, it’s so busy I almost miss it being a Covid ward.

@ginghamstarfish

Given the number of twats out sunbathing, shopping etc as if everything were back to normal, we'll have to wait at least 14 days to see if the infection rates start shooting up again.

Can we have one thread where nobody mentions "twats on beaches" maybe? They've been going to beaches for weeks now and no ill effects so maybe it's not such a huge problem as you think.