My local hospital is overwhelmed

[WeirdWomble]

Local hospital has tonight said that is struggling with the number of covid 19 patients and is asking people to think carefully whether they actually need to go to hospital.

I'm so worried. Surely the Christmas mixing when we're already in trouble is going to be an absolute disaster?

The vaccine has been such good news yet it still feels like we've got so much further to go.

Not sure why I'm posting, just needed to vent

Yes Aneurin Bevan is awful in winter anyway but I've never heard of 19 ambulances queueing outside with critical care patients before.

Im all out thanks for answers I'm out the loop on Wales only know what family tell me.

My nephew is 3 and my sister drove him to the Grange at their request he come in ASAP then proceed make them wait for hours.

In the south west where I live now all children's centralised to hospitals within city centre so good transport links for those without cars.
Unless its very minor injury we have take the kids to children's a and e not the minor injuries or full a and e and the other city hospital.
But they 2 separate trusts so lot smaller than ab board which is huge.

t would seem he was right to take the situation very seriously back in October, though

I read something yesterday which suggested that his main problem was the firebreak was too short in places it was actually needed

As long as we’re sensible I imagine we will be fine.

In keep finding it so strange that we’re having to change up Christmas so much but these are trying times!

I imagine those who are planning to see lots of people at Christmas will do so anyway. Due to work commitments, my sister and I are both bubbled with my mum so we will be getting together and we are also seeing MIL. That will be it for our Yuletide gatherings!

@CherryPavlova

Usual admission rates are down.

Hospitals are struggling for multifactorial reasons;

Admission rates lag community rises by out a fortnight.
There are too few places to discharge frail elderly people to.
Staff absences are high due to Covid19
Hospitals have to keep Covid19 patients and non Covid19 patients apart. Many don’t have the staff or accommodation to do so.
People are turning up to emergency departments rather than waiting to see GPs.

I’d agree with this.

I don’t think a busy hospital signifies Covid is out of control, any more than massive queues outside the supermarket don’t mean the stores are any busier than a normal Christmas.

Leflic do you know the case rates for the counties this health board serves? 5 counties with case rates of about 700 per 100k and also an area with some of the worst general health in the UK.

My friend is a nurse - in Essex - and said the same thing yesterday. ICU is full. Having people mix at Christmas is insane.

ImAllOut I’d agree that figure is high but what’s the percentage of those needing hospital treatment? If most of them are young, it’s likely they will get over it like any other seasonal illness and not go to hospital. Is it actually busier in hospital this year or is it that patients need a whole separate bit of the building in the way pneumonia doesn’t.

Hasn’t Wales been lockdown longer than England anyway? What’s gone wrong there? The restrictions aren’t telling you you must mix 3 households. People have a choice to keep it simple.

DD works in a huge northern hospital, they are massively over stretched this week, COVID and usual winter issues are a huge strain. Scraping by to meet their minimum numbers.

Sorry just reread your comment about general health being poor too. So the hospital would expect to be capacity most of the time.

Our lockdown was two weeks and cases shot up about two weeks after it finished. In my opinion, the problem is a mix of poor education (sorry if that's offensive to someone, I have loved in the valleys all my life and my family are all from here), grandparents doing childcare, extended families living on the same street, working in more at risk sectors and honestly just a complete inability to follow the rules. I have close friends and families who have tested positive or been close contacts, who just haven't isolated, or "half" isolated where they still go shopping but stay away from the pub for a bit. It's a nightmare and no amount of restrictions will change peoples' minds unfortunately.

The issue seems be speaking to parents is all if Wales is in a hybrid mix of England tier 1 and 2 restriction.

My area of England was tier 1 pre English 4 week lockdown and came out in tier 3 so still feels like lockdown but slightly more shops open.

In Wales 3house holds can meet up
Pubs are open but can't sell alcohol and has shut at 6 wheres the science behind covid booze and curfews?

She can meet up with freinds outside of her bubble household so cafe with a freind or local garden centre seems busy.
I can't do any that tier 3.
Even in tier 2 I can only meet up with people in pub or cafe from my own household and then only with substantial meal.
I agree Wales was tougher initially.
We never had 5mile travel limit.
But since Wales ended fire break lack of tier system or localised lockdown as they called there mean Wales restrictions are incredibly weak and ineffective.
Hes destroying local businesses especially hospitality.
The decision keep school open is totally wrong especially as they decided gcses cancelled.

Hospital admissions are here if you click on the relevant tab:
public.tableau.com/profile/public.health.wales.health.protection#!/vizhome/RapidCOVID-19virology-Public/Headlinesummary
There doesn't seem to be normal winter pressures as the people going in with non covid related conditions are a small percentage. The health board is overwhelmed mostly from covid.

Because Boris doesn't have the guts to do what the right thing is.

Too worried about his own political reputation to actually cancel Christmas.

I am in Bristol and tier 3 and our rates have fallen a lot. My DS’ high School had 1 case over the last fortnight. I think it would be mad to close schools again in new year. It proves cases can fall with schools open. However at Xmas I really want to visit my mum in wales. She is in an area with low cases and is just a bit fed up by not being able to be visited by family in England

3 households can't meet up in Wales, you can only bubble with one other household. Over the summer up to 30 could meet outdoors but inside it was still only two households, and we pretty much went straight back into a tier 2 type lockdown in September. This is another issue - noone actually knows the rules!

Same here op our hospital is getting that way.

It appears it's so much worse this time.
Even our community hospitals are full with covid patients.
Also so many staff has got it this time too, stay safe everyone.

Over the summer, Wales' rules were quite a bit stricter than most of England. It's possible that's led to more lockdown fatigue.

I think having schools out and pubs closed is the only thing that registers with people in our south Wales community, that there might be a pandemic. Other than that it’s situation normal just with masks. Our covid rate in school has rocketed in the last three weeks. People have been slack.

In all out clearly my mams confused. Shes bubbled up with my sister family and my aunt is having 2 separate household visit for Christmas.
In England we only get snippets of the Welsh news .
I haven't visited Wales since August drakeford keeps making out England the problem.
I'm not visiting family .
My dad's worried about economy and I can see why.
I used to love Cardiff and when I think of all the retail jobs that be lost not to mention hospitality.
Debenham be big loss to Newport.
High job losses lead to poverty therefore decreasing health sadly.
So much is said about the North South divide levelling up but some areas of Wales have always been quite deprived.
House prices increasing with bridge toll going maybe not helped.
Theres so few jobs avaliable full time pre pandemic without travelling to Cardiff or Bristol.

@londongirl12

Playing devil's advocate, aren't hospitals usually extremely busy this time of year anyway? I remember ever winter our local one in kent has ambulances queuing

Yes. I’m a GP and every single year all the hospitals in our area send letters asking us to not send patients in as they have no beds.

my local hospital is also struggling

it is Very worrying for January/February

On my school run to my daughter's primary school in the valleys, I would say about 40% wear masks and maybe about 20% of people are social distancing. Still loads gathering in groups outside the classroom door and school gates. The school send out pretty much daily texts and messages about adhering to the rules but they don't pay attention. Just bang on about conspiracy theories and "experimental vaccines" on Facebook.

OP, I am worried too, not worried for myself (I am young and healthy) but worried about how fast things will go down hill, we are a couple weeks behind Wales which takes us to Christmas yet everyone’s being told it’s ok to mix with people for 5 days over the festive period, January is going to be worse than what we have seen so far, it’s pretty easy to predict that numbers are going to be much higher, that hospitals are going to struggle and that many vulnerable people may die.

People need to be sensible, the vaccine is slowly being rolled out, we can soon safely see our relatives but not yet, I don’t understand why people can’t wait a few months?

I feel sorry for those dealing with this on the frontline whilst others eat Christmas dinner with their family and friends with no consideration of what it could cause in the coming weeks.

We will be staying at home alone, I will only meet people if it’s outside. I can see my family in a few months when the vulnerable have been vaccinated.