What is the real situation in hospitals?

[Purplehaze34]

It’s hard to tell from the media and I have no friends or family who work for the NHS.

Does anyone work in a hospital? What is it like regarding the Covid situation there? Are ICUs/critical care extremely busy?

[PrivateD00r]

@IrmaFayLear

MissAHannigan - that's my question too.

What if someone tests positive on the maternity ward? Or the cancer ward? Presumably if there's a private room available they can isolate them in there, but if there are several what do they do?

I have to go to hospital this week and I am nervous about covid positive people trundling around the hospital [scared face]

I am a midwife. Positive covid women stay in maternity - it would be totally inappropriate to move them to a covid ward! They are in a side room and are meant to enter and leave the hospital via a back entrance so they aren't near other women and babies. If necessary, someone else would have to vacate a side room for them but generally we know to expect them and keep a room ready for them.

Anyone having an induction or ELCS will have been tested in advance with a result before coming in, spontaneous labourers are tested on admission and the results are rushed through so often we get the result before the woman is moved to the ward. All women are tested every 72 hours

[PrivateD00r]

Our hospital is currently running at 115% capacity, with a queue of around 50 in A&E awaiting admission. This is worse than usual even for this time of year. I am recovering from covid at present and narrowly missed requiring an admission, it caused me so much stress knowing there wouldn't be room for me if I needed it!

[treesliding]

@MissAHannigan

If someone comes to hospital for one thing, e.g. they've fallen and broken their leg but are found to have covid on admission what happens? Do hospitals have separate facilities for treating patients like this?

In my hospital, they would go to the covid ward regardless of why they are in hospital. It means generally suboptimal care - in the nicest possible way. If you've had a stroke, a stroke unit is what you need not a generic medical ward treating covid....but there's nothing else you can do!

The difficulty is if you are already on a stroke ward for example and then test positive, you've exposed everyone around you....then wards close down, staff self isolate etc (depending on the circs)

We've been told to treat every inch of the hospital as a potential covid risk now. There's too much circulating and too many people coming in.

[saraclara]

@PiccalilliChilli

Friend of DH, an A&E doctor, works in a south London hospital. Reports he's never had so much time on his hands.

People are avoiding A&E for obvious reasons.

During lockdown #1 the hospital where my daughter works was relatively quiet apart from Covid, because they played safe and cancelled lots of appointments and elective stuff.

This time round they've learned how to manage and run more elective and non-urgent stuff alongside it, so it's very busy. And yes there are Covid+ bays in most medical and surgical wards. But they are kept very separate. Nurses in those bays don't go anywhere near the rest of the ward, etc.

[oo0Tinkerbell0oo]

Only a very few Covid free wards in my place. Generally more people seem to be recovering this time around, but sadly we lost 2 staff members to Covid in one week and one in Intensive care. Staffing levels are falling every day due to positive results or contact.

[Pootle40]

Also remember that 'admissions' is used loosely as it includes say a day surgery patient who is tested pre-op etc but doesn't ever take up a bed.

[alreadytaken]

there are "people" who always pop up on threads about the NHS to spout rubbish. There's one up thread.

The position varies from hospital to hospital. The place I know most about has an a&e a bit quieter than normal because the pubs are shut. It's still busy but not so bad that all training has to stop. The impact of the pandemic on training new staff rarely gets a mention but is still important. At the height of the first wave training in anything apart from how to handle covid more or less went out the window.

Staff are being redeployed into covid work in most places. Staff sickness is up and the remaining staff therefore under greater pressure.

The NHS is used to winter pressures but they normally come mid November/December from flu. Covid is currently taking up 4 times the number of beds flu takes out and as of yesterday (havent seen todays figures) still rising. Lockdown lite is probably only helping much with reduced a&e pressures.

Vitamin D levels are better at this time of year than in February/March. That may have as much to do with the better survival rates as improved treatment. Hopefully the government finally sending supplements to care homes will mean fewer serious cases taking up a lot of beds and then maybe vaccination helping out. I dont know how many places are currently using vitamin D as a treatment, probably not many.

[Tyzz]

I live near Hull. Currently the highest rate of infections in England at well over 700 per 100000.
188 covid patients and 14 in ICU according to local press.
Far worse that at the peak of first wave. The local hospital boss has asked for schools to close in Hull.
All routine surgery cancelled. Someone I know in his 20s had an operation cancelled hours before. He has waited a year in extreme pain and has no new date.

[donttouchmyhair]

Really picked up suddenly in the last 2 weeks in my hospital. Several covid wards open now. I'm in ITU and both our units are at max capacity. Not only are we admitting more covid patients but we're continuing with our elective surgery too unlike with the last surge.

[CherryPavlova]

In south occupancy is very high overall with an escalation strategy for trusts to support neighbouring trusts. Kent is particularly struggling with very long ambulance handover times and limited capacity to divert. South Hampshire also challenged in ED and CCU. Peak is anticipated at 27 November.

[joystir59]

My close friend is a nurse in West Yorkshire and in his hospital.theu have two icu's full to capacity and other areas of hdus have become icu's. They have 7 wards given over to CV19 and the staff are burnt out, scared and increasingly thin on the ground. The staff working in Muslim cemeteries say they are struggling to keep up with demand for burial plots.

[Madhairday]

I talked to my friend earlier who is an A and E nurse in our local hospital (west midlands.) She says it's dire, they're struggling for beds and have repurposed several general and surgical wards to covid wards. Patients are waiting in ambulances as no room in a and e and when they get to a and e they are there hours longer than usual waiting for beds which are at capacity. They're all really worried about the winter. She does say more are recovering which is good but ICU is full of both covid and non covid. Lots of staff are really struggling with it all. It's not good.

[GreatBigBeautifulTommorow]

East Yorkshire situation is dire here.
Surgery and outpatients cancelled.
So many wards flipping into covid wards.
For the first time in my twenty year career I’m scared that capacity will be exceeded

[dustyknickers]

I'm currently in hospital in the SE with covid. There are wards given completely over to covid patients, there are definitely a lot of us about.

[missmeg3leg]

@dustyknickers...hope you’re on the mend!

Very busy at my hospital (North West) 3 full covid wards, full covid ITU & non-covid patients in recovery, worked last wave in ITU (redeployed from theatres) worked full pelt theatres from July & this week we are re-deployed back again with non-urgent surgery cancelled & working extra to clear our cancer back-log...staffing v hard hit, trauma from last wave, exhaustion, many off sick/isolating etc....Really don’t know how long this can last 😢 turned down an extra shift tomorrow as I’m 😴 yet feel guilty 😢

[JacobReesMogadishu]

Terrible.

150 covid positive patients in a mid size rural hospital which has a bed capacity of 370. ICU is full. We’ve run out of space in the mortuary and are moving bodies to other hospitals. No visitors, no elective stuff. Annual leave has been cancelled. Hundreds of staff off sick or isolating. Office staff are been put in scrubs and put on the wards to help with stuff like cleaning, moving patients, answering phones and buzzers.

[dustyknickers]

@missmeg3leg unfortunately I'm still pretty much in the thick of it. Hoping to turn the corner soon though.

[mrsanflowerpot]

DH is in a London hospital, he said there was a gradual uptick across October and the last two weeks are back to very difficult to manage levels with outbreaks in wards, large admissions through A&E and a full mortuary.

[Fouroclockonamarblemorning]

A friend who works in our main major trauma centre hospital in the north has said they have more Covid patients currently than they had in the peak of the crisis earlier in the year.

[tigerbread20]

I work full time bank shifts in a large hospital in the South East. Last week I was in ICU, it was full, they had to refuse very poorly post surgical patients because there simy wasn't room. I came home and cried, I think most people forget there's other really poorly people who don't have covid, let alone the ones that do.
Out of the 80 beds on the respiratory wards there were 3 available.
People who think it's all a lie or media hype make me feel sick.

[stairway]

I work in a hospital in the south west. We have 130 positive patient in 4 covid wards and 3 wards are shut due to outbreaks. There are beds available surprisingly. I think they’ve stopped elective surgery. Staff shortages are a problem though.

[Carrotcakeforbreakfast]

Acute trust west Midlands.
Things very, very bad.

[VikingsandDragons]

This blog is really interesting to follow

www.nomoresurgeons.com/

It's written by an ICU consultant working in a hospital in the North East, it's very honest, funny at times, but it's shocking to be honest. In that one local hospital there are currently 123 people on the covid wards, 16 in ICU (and at least another 14 who usually would be, but there isn't an ICU bed for them). That is just so many beds devoted to one illness and we're not even into the usual winter flu season yet where that pressure will be added in too, his post today talks about all the retired colleagues who are coming back to work this week to try to help them deal with the winter. Even if you're not based in the North East it's a really eye opening read.

[WhoWants2Know]

This thread has been quiet for a few days. Has anything changed or improved as the restrictions take effect?

[PrayingandHoping]

It won't be quite yet when this lockdown to have effect with hospitals. It will start effecting positive cases now and hospitals in next week or so and the deaths after that