Kent cases SPIKING - 0.6% infected!

[Dongdingdong]

646 out of every 100,000 people in Kent are infected with Covid apparently - massive numbers. Should we ban Christmas in Kent?

@ForBlueSkies

I don’t understand how Slough can be cut from Berkshire and placed into T3 while the same can’t be done for Swale and Thanet can’t be in Kent.

This in spades. We're in a area with a low rate and yet we've been lumped in with everyone else. I'm so fed up with this now.

It’s partly about how the system can cope. High rates in most of North Kent. System under huge strain with 50% of critical care beds Covid19 positive patients. William Harvey only hospital with any capacity in terms of beds but they can’t staff them. Ambulance delays and transferring patients to London but still struggling. Medway really struggling with staffing.
Add in highest rates in U.K. with Thanet about to overtake Swale and it’s a perfect storm. They have to get it under control.

Slough has very high rate but local healthcare system less pressured. Busy but coping. They need to reduce rates in Slough but Berkshire is much better off as they have Oxford as a major surge centre. Plus Royal Berks and Frimley are holding their own in terms of capacity.

It’s about more than the numbers.

@Dongdingdong

646 out of every 100,000 people in Kent are infected with Covid apparently - massive numbers. Should we ban Christmas in Kent?

That's misleading. The rate you quote is for Swale, size of 373.5 km² with a population of 148,519.

For me the only surprise was that Medway/Kent (or at least parts of it) didn't get hit harder in the first wave.
Medway and Thanet/Margate have areas of significant deprivation, and therefore the insecure employment issues and poor housing that can be a big factor in spreading C19.

As an aside, don't know how well the tracing app is working. It cheerfully bleeped on Friday night to tell me that my isolation would finish that evening....the fact that it had not told me to isolate previous to this, and (for a variety of reasons) I've barely been out the front door and in no position to catch it/be near someone else with the app, is neither here nor there

@CherryPavlova certainly from Sevenoaks i would have thought there also significant patient flows into the SE London healthcare system which would affect how critical care capacity is used...maybe it just reflects where me and my husband live right on the border, but we always would seem to get sent or referred into London and our local ED is the PRUH (Kings) rather than the Kent and Medway system. Not sure how the SE London hospitals are faring but presumably capacity must be ok or London wouldn't have been granted the tier 2 reprieve.

No Sevenoaks is in Kent ICS still. Patients will go to Kent hospitals- recently opened critical care beds at Pembury. Every escalation plan is now in ICS rather than to neighbouring but possibly nearer hospitals. Ambulances would take people direct to Pembury in first instance. If Pembury is overflowing they escalate via the CCG to other Kent hospitals with space.
If Kent is full they’ll go to a regional mutual aid plan before touching London. So other SE hospitals rather than London. London has taken a couple of patients by exception but it is now actively discouraged. It’s very doctors elective referrals.

London is busy but holding its own.

@CherryPavlova

It’s partly about how the system can cope. High rates in most of North Kent. System under huge strain with 50% of critical care beds Covid19 positive patients. William Harvey only hospital with any capacity in terms of beds but they can’t staff them. Ambulance delays and transferring patients to London but still struggling. Medway really struggling with staffing. Add in highest rates in U.K. with Thanet about to overtake Swale and it’s a perfect storm. They have to get it under control.

Slough has very high rate but local healthcare system less pressured. Busy but coping. They need to reduce rates in Slough but Berkshire is much better off as they have Oxford as a major surge centre. Plus Royal Berks and Frimley are holding their own in terms of capacity.

It’s about more than the numbers.

Fair enough. Thank you again for the info.

DC's just finishing isolation and coronavirus.

Numbers higher than ever

Due to go back next week

Why?

Schools are spreading it imo

@CherryPavlova

No Sevenoaks is in Kent ICS still. Patients will go to Kent hospitals- recently opened critical care beds at Pembury. Every escalation plan is now in ICS rather than to neighbouring but possibly nearer hospitals. Ambulances would take people direct to Pembury in first instance. If Pembury is overflowing they escalate via the CCG to other Kent hospitals with space. If Kent is full they’ll go to a regional mutual aid plan before touching London. So other SE hospitals rather than London. London has taken a couple of patients by exception but it is now actively discouraged. It’s very doctors elective referrals.

London is busy but holding its own.

Not all! I am also Sevenoaks and would fall under PRUH .

I don’t understand how Slough can be cut from Berkshire and placed into T3 while the same can’t be done for Swale and Thanet can’t be in Kent.

Kent is 3 times the size of Berkshire and twice the population, yet somehow the Government couldn't carve it up like they did for the smaller county. But then London with 10 million people couldn't be demarcated either. Typical botched job from Boris and his fellow clowns.

LJC1234 In what way fall under? The ambulance trust aren’t taking you there anytime soon. They can only divert if agreed across regional control centre for NHSE.

You could arrive as a walk in but in terms of service planning it’s about the capacity of critical care to cope with need.

@CherryPavlova interesting, think it reflects the difference between self presenting patients and blue light pathways - certainly the perception here would be that the PRUH is the nearest hospital if you need to go to ED (although nobody should be randomly walking into ED if they think they have covid) and many GP practices would refer into Kings. Hopefully will never need a blue light anywhere as would definitely be frustrated to end up in the hospital 22 miles away rather than the one 2 miles away!

It seems silly on a case by case basis it it’s about ensure there are results deal with seriously ill. You’re unlikely to walk in if you need a critical care bed and that is where the majority of planning is focused - along with ambulance capacity.
From December 1st trust’s will have to provide their own staff to care for patient transfers as ambulances will have wheels and a driver - no clinicians. Clearly that’s a big ask for trusts and needs accuracy in predictions around numbers and staff availability. There has to be very tight control of where patients go to ensure everyone gets the care they need when seriously unwell.

Resources not results.

GPs will be referring within ICS and ambulances won’t be able to work outside of region without funding agreement and region to region agreement.

Apologies @CherryPavlova when I said fall I meant all my current hospital , Drs etc all comes under London not kent even thou I live in Sevenoaks. We have always been refered to kings for anything . Recently needed a walk in appointment via 111 and even they said me to Pruh

Thankfully I haven't needed an ambulance but agree with @ferretface it would be frustrating as it's so much closer to PRUH than anywhere else

LJC1234 Absolutely no need to apologise to me. Borders are not entirely clear and usual ways of working are rather complicated by the virus.