Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Covid

Mumsnet doesn't verify the qualifications of users. If you have medical concerns, please consult a healthcare professional.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5

Original poster

Why are we Forgetting Save the NHS / Flatten the Curve

110 replies

Flaxmeadow · 01/10/2020 21:51

We, and also other countries, locked down to prevent the collapse of the health service. To prevent millions of people catching the virus in a shore space of time. To stop services being overwhelmed, not just by those dying but by those many more who would also require medical assistance

Science and government told us back in the summer that if we hadn't had lockdown, then in the UK half a million people would already have died. This is a conservative estimate and is agreed on by most scientist, and these kind of numbers agreed globally too.

This is why we have lockdowns. To flatten the curve. So that we still have a functioning NHS, functioning social services and police.

Are people forgetting all this now and if so why?

OP posts:

Qasd · 01/10/2020 22:00

Because if you “lockdown to save the nhs” then people naturally assume you can open up when there is not obvious threat and it turns out you cannot. Going back to the sane the nhs narrative when there are 2500 patients nationwide in hospitals with this illness would be the fastest way to end compliance!

Don’t get me wrong I do understand the issue is expential growth but that is a more complex message and slightly different to match hence the change of messaging.

TheGreatWave · 01/10/2020 22:07

We did what we were told to flatten the curve. Now it is about eradication, the goalposts have massively been moved. People are also, rightly, getting angry that many other services have been stopped or delayed in this quest to save the NHS.

Original poster

Flaxmeadow · 01/10/2020 22:16

Qasd Yes I see what you mean but I do wonder why did people assume everything could open up again? We have already been told there would be rolling lockdowns back in March and that the virus is going to be a long term problem.

TheGreatWave
I don't remember seeing or reading anything about eradication?
People have always been able to access health care not related to covid, infact people had to be told to do it. Yes some appointments were delayed for a few weeks but then new ones sent out not long after

OP posts:

Triangularbubble · 01/10/2020 22:22

Because they can’t articulate how or when we might move on from “saving the NHS”. Because the NHS is not the be all and end all, despite the attachment people have to it, and it barely functioned before covid. Lots of people don’t use it from one year to the next. Healthcare is important, so are jobs, housing, social opportunities, education, families and lots of other things. Those things probably depend on controlling coronavirus too, but so far that’s not been the messaging...

Lemons1571 · 01/10/2020 22:25

People have always been able to access health care not related to covid, infact people had to be told to do it. Yes some appointments were delayed for a few weeks but then new ones sent out not long after

A few weeks there is no way you can be talking about the uk!!

Appointments are sent out, cancelled, new appointment sent out, that one cancelled, new appointment issued, guess what - cancelled!!

Enrico · 01/10/2020 22:29

The NHS should be saving us.

It hasn't though.

MaxNormal · 01/10/2020 22:31

Because I have no covid fucks left to give and I dont care if the NHS explodes in a big fireball at this point.

TheBossOfMe · 01/10/2020 22:31

People are having life saving treatment for cancer delayed endlessly. Endlessly. Condemned to die.

Willow4987 · 01/10/2020 22:33

“People have always been able to access health care not related to covid, infact people had to be told to do it. Yes some appointments were delayed for a few weeks but then new ones sent out not long after“

This simply isn’t the case. I had an appointment cancelled in July with the promise that it would be rebooked when they’re allowed to. It’s now 3 months later and I’ve still not heard anything. Let alone the wait time on that appointment when I finally get given the date. If I’m lucky and hear soon then by the time the standard 12 week wait for an appointment goes past it would have been almost a year since it was originally made

tobee · 01/10/2020 22:36

People have had had their treatment curtailed. My Dh had his dialysis treatment cut by 1 and 1/2 hours per week at the height of the first outbreak. This is essential life saving treatment. Just one example.

I disagree that most scientists agree we would have had 500,000 deaths though.

Pinkchocolate · 01/10/2020 22:40

Because it’s affected mental health enough already. I’ve stuck by every single rule and you know what I’ve got? A depressed, anxiety ridden teenager. Albeit we are all alive so it is what it is and I did what I felt I needed to but I’m not willing to spend another six months at home. My teenager needs human contact, my youngest needs socialisation. I don’t not care about the NHS but I do have other priorities in my children’s health. I’m also sad to hear friends with genuine health issues feel bad about using services because of Covid. I won’t even start on how sad it is how many treatments have been delayed. It’s all a big mess.

StealthPolarBear · 01/10/2020 22:41

The strategy is no longer about the nhs

Why are we Forgetting Save the NHS / Flatten the Curve

Original poster

Flaxmeadow · 01/10/2020 22:44

The people I know, who I've shopped for and are shielding, have still had appointments for their serious health conditions. They've said it's easier now in some ways

GPs and hospitals are still treating people and always have. I had a GP appointment in April. I know some routine screenings are behind though

MaxNormal Do you really not care if health services social services, police etc collapse or are just in a bad mood or something?

OP posts:

JacobReesMogadishu · 01/10/2020 22:47

people have always been able to access health care not related to covid, infact people had to be told to do it. Yes some appointments were delayed for a few weeks but then new ones sent out not long after

Sorry but that’s total bollocks. I have a really rare growth inside a bone which needs urgent surgery to be removed. It’s never been biopsied even so no idea what it is. I’ve had no treatment and was meant to have surgery in March. I ring up monthly and still no date. I can’t drive anymore, I can’t manage stairs, I’m struggling to walk. And nobody will do anything. I hope to god it’s not cancer but who knows.

MushMonster · 01/10/2020 22:54

Because we did not manage to erradicate it with the first lockdown. I was hoping after driving the cases so so low it would disappear, but no
So now we are facing a prolongued term, years of this, as other pandemics have been previously. We will have to flatten more curves, but hopefully smaller as the doctors had some time to study some treatments and are more prepared.
I have not heard anywhere that the new goalpost is erradication. Where did you get it?
People are tired of restrictions, but some quite a few are just reckless and careless.

Original poster

Flaxmeadow · 01/10/2020 22:54

The strategy is no longer about the nhs

Where does it say that ?

OP posts:

MushMonster · 01/10/2020 22:58

And we do have serious troubles to access healthcare, including a simple call with a doctor where I live.

TheGreatWave · 01/10/2020 22:59

Nope, no new appointments sent a few weeks later and no mammogram that is due for me.

I even had letters cancelling appointments I didn't even know about.

MaxNormal · 01/10/2020 23:00

Flaxmeadow I genuinely am so far past giving a fuck about covid. The measures have completely screwed us.

Original poster

Flaxmeadow · 01/10/2020 23:02

Because we did not manage to erradicate it with the first lockdown.

But that wasn't the point of the lockdown

I was hoping after driving the cases so so low it would disappear, but no sad

But why did/do people think it would disappear? This is what I'm curious about. Why do people think it would disappear when we have been told repeatedly that it won't

So now we are facing a prolongued term, years of this, as other pandemics have been previously.

Yes we were told this in March but people seem to have forgotten

We will have to flatten more curves, but hopefully smaller as the doctors had some time to study some treatments and are more prepared.

Yes hopefully

People are tired of restrictions, but some quite a few are just reckless and careless.

But we were warned that there was no quick solution

Yes they are reckless and getting much worse. This is what worries me

OP posts:

Original poster

Flaxmeadow · 01/10/2020 23:04

I genuinely am so far past giving a fuck about covid. The measures have completely screwed us

What do you think should have been done instead of lockdowns?

OP posts:

MaxNormal · 01/10/2020 23:04

Wait till furlough ends, joblessness goes through the roof and there's a long miserable winter.
Then you'll really see people start to get reckless.

MaxNormal · 01/10/2020 23:07

They can keep locking down if they want but its utter bollox to end the furlough scheme if they're preventing sectors from reopening.

Its beyond utter bollox to stop medical treatments as others have shared has happened to them.

StopMakingShitUp · 01/10/2020 23:09

I can have my smear and flu jab in a few days.

My appointments with my consultant for my chronic lung disease that where due to happen in March have been cancelled and not rescheduled yet, I had a telephone call and was told she wanted to see me in October but she even said herself realistically herself it won't happen. I've basically been told to self manage and phone her PA when my lungs bleed.

I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis at the very start of March, referee for scans at the end of March and again, cancelled and not rescheduled.

I'm supposed to have yearly mammagrams and my jan2021 one had already been cancelled back in summer.

Every letter stated they were looking at safer ways to manage outpatient appointments. Basically anything I can't have at my local GP had all been cancelled

GerardWay123 · 01/10/2020 23:11

It's about control, control, control.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5