Marseille's Covid-19 hospital beds 'close to saturation'

[user1497207191]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-54151281

Not looking good is it? We're about 2 weeks behind France.

I wonder if all the covid deniers would like to comment - you know, the ones who were saying the daily rise in infections isn't a problem because hospitalisations and deaths are low. Well, hospitalisations and deaths were low in France too, a couple of weeks ago!

I know. This is what many people are failing to understand. That and that even if people aren't dying that it doesn't mean everything can go back to 'normal'. Filling the hospitals up with even moderately sick patients impacts on other necessary health services.

What I don't understand is people who want to lift all restrictions, citing the need for cancer treatment, routine scans etc, to go back to normal. The filling up of hospital beds with covid patients is completely counterproductive to that goal...

Deja vu. This feels like February again - here we go.

@Redolent

What I don't understand is people who want to lift all restrictions, citing the need for cancer treatment, routine scans etc, to go back to normal. The filling up of hospital beds with covid patients is completely counterproductive to that goal...

Exactly.

Here here redolent

Yep agreed I think we are in a February scenario again but with the knowledge and insight this time

@Redolent

What I don't understand is people who want to lift all restrictions, citing the need for cancer treatment, routine scans etc, to go back to normal. The filling up of hospital beds with covid patients is completely counterproductive to that goal...

Well yes, we could have used the time to establish separate hospitals for covid, but why bother when you can just cancel everything else and become the national covid service

It’s scary that actually we may well need a full lockdown again but it’s not clear if it’s possible to implement it now. And the alternative is going to be bad again

@PremierInn

It’s not about establishing ‘separate hospitals’. The physical building is the easy part. You need trained staff and specialists to man them- nurses and doctors, aka finite resources. ICU beds in particular at very labour intensive. Where are these workers going to come from?

My friend was in early training as an ophthalmologist when covid hit in London. She has to be redeployed to a covid ICU unit for three months, where it was an absolutely manic and crushing experience that she wasn’t prepared for (they were all told to go see their families and write their wills in mid-March)..Only now they’re starting to get back on top of her old workload. The last thing she or anyone else wants is to go back to covid wards, but what else would you suggest?

Look at you All, so doom and gloom, it’s like you’re praying for a lockdown. Lighten up and stop all this miserable talk

[quote Redolent]@PremierInn

It’s not about establishing ‘separate hospitals’. The physical building is the easy part. You need trained staff and specialists to man them- nurses and doctors, aka finite resources. ICU beds in particular at very labour intensive. Where are these workers going to come from?

My friend was in early training as an ophthalmologist when covid hit in London. She has to be redeployed to a covid ICU unit for three months, where it was an absolutely manic and crushing experience that she wasn’t prepared for (they were all told to go see their families and write their wills in mid-March)..Only now they’re starting to get back on top of her old workload. The last thing she or anyone else wants is to go back to covid wards, but what else would you suggest?[/quote]
Yes there was a lot of panicked redeployment in the early days and weeks
I'm not talking about the staffing of the covid wards - you're right, there's only so many icu staff to go round. Well, that's what you get for years of underfunding so all those people who paid fifty years of less tax might or might not be surprised to hear we have less icu beds than we could have
But specifically talking about the effect on cancer patients, routine scans etc, as quoted upthread - keep those going. That was surely the point of the Nightingale hospitals - for round two?

This is why we have the Nightingale hospitals.
They knew this was coming all along.

Here we go...

We couldn't staff the nightingales the first time. Why would they be able to a second time?

I was always intrigued as to who was going to staff the nightingale hospitals 🤔

It’s a local spike. To be expected. It’s a virus that you can’t eliminate.

Our hospitals are often close to ‘saturation’ especially in flu season. Nothing unusual.

You can’t stop this virus. I don’t know why you think you can. France had a tough lockdown, kicked the can down the road a bit, but like you are seeing, lockdown can’t stop a virus. Unless every person walks around in a hazmat suit forever, the virus will spread.

Best thing you can do is get yourself immune healthy.

Look at you All, so doom and gloom, it’s like you’re praying for a lockdown. Lighten up and stop all this miserable talk

Nothing like burying your head in the sand! its happening in France, Israel is in lockdown, you guys are the problem here, Covid doesn't understand British exceptionalism.

We're about 2 weeks behind France

You have no idea about that. No one does. The virus behaves differently in different countries depending on all sorts of factors. Yes, we might go in a similar direction but that's just one possibility. The virus is pretty much everywhere worldwide now so we're all on our own trajectory, speaking at the level of different countries. We might be 2 weeks behind Belgium, who are seeing a levelling off of cases.

I think whereas in February we were two weeks behind France I dont think we can say we are two weeks behind anymore - each country now is following its on path on this.

What is shocking though is the numbers that make Marseille reach this point are not that high

31 out of 35 resuscitation beds and 129 of 155 dedicated Covid patient beds

My heart sinks reading this. If this is where we are heading, this will disrupt ongoing treatment for so many.
My husband has only just had an October date through for his his first full MRI since cancer surgery last September.
He has been having localised scans every 3/4 months which cannot see everything of course. These scans show he is currently cancer free, but they cannot see everything as clearly as an MRI.
I hope the hospital is operational for his appointment and he can have the full scan, would be good to see his consultants too, we haven’t seen them since February.

I'm not sure you can say we are 2 weeks behind France without looking at the extent of their measures compared to ours. For example, the article that because of this spike :

"Large-scale gatherings for the public are limited to 1,000 seated people, with minimum one-metre (3ft) distance"

1000 people? What on earth was the limit before? We are not allowing anything more than 30 therefore we cannot make predictions based on what is happening there

I think "bedwetters" is a really insulting and offensive term and has no place in civilised discussion.

I’m not sure we are 2 weeks behind France. And specifically one area of France. Our deaths & hospital admissions are still very low. That’s not to say they won’t climb but I don’t think there’s a single area in the UK that’ll be critical from a hospital perspective in two weeks time.. that said, I suspect we should probably be advising the vulnerable to shield again soon & hopefully lockdown care homes! I’m no covid denier but there does now need to be some balance. We have to accept this virus & an ‘acceptable’ level of death. Just as we do flu. Up to 50,000 people a year die of flu & we don’t bat an eyelid. At some point, I feel we’ll reach a plateau of what we deem acceptable with Covid as well.

Bedwetters You sound nice.

Something doesn't seem to add up here though, Marseille was not badly affected back in March, yet current hospital numbers are only at 38% of what they were at the previous peak.

mobile.twitter.com/redouad/status/1305615733196492800

Why are they "close to saturation" now but were not saturated / overwhelmed in March? Doesn't make sense.