London Hospital declares Major Incident.

[RubyViolet]

This is frightening, and it’s not the hospital that l have heard about earlier today. This is in South London and l am hearing about a hospital in North London.
www.independent.co.uk/news/health/coronavirus-london-queen-elizabeth-hospital-oxygen-b1779468.html

What happens next ?

Essex too

Did this happen last year with the noro-virus?

Our local South East /London hospital has also asked people not to go to a and unless life threatening as they are swamped

This happened in April. I think. Watford and the Royal Free. Very scary.

Probably someone coming along saying it's not that bad...

Or someone saying their local hospital has lots of spaces so not something they should do anything about.

@Jobseeker19

Did this happen last year with the noro-virus?

Norovirus doesn't result in an oxygen shortage. They're saying the architecture doesn't support the volume of oxygen needed, as more patients are treated using CPAP and other oxygen techniques.

...posted too soon.

NHS will do best to cope as best as possible until they can't then government might think about doing something.

Surely the Government planned for Oxygen supply. I mean this is a basic need during this Pandemic.

This happened to some hospitals in March as well.

Ironically, it seems to be saying that the better treatment means less patients on ventilators but more on machines (I assume CPAP?) which use more oxygen.

People need to hear this, they need to understand what we are dealing with.
Enough about people on holiday in Barbados or skiing!! The people need to see this.

But my kids need to socialise. So nothing to see here, schools must be open as normal. Never seen a Covid case, blah, blah, blah/

Seriously though, this is frightening especially now we are in winter and Asthma, etc, etc. For people that don’t want to think about Covid, this impacts anyone who would need treatment in hospital. You never know when you’ll need oxygen.

@RubyViolet

Surely the Government planned for Oxygen supply. I mean this is a basic need during this Pandemic.

I don't think there is a shortage of oxygen. The architecture and piping within the hospital was not designed to carry as much of it about, and short of redesigning a hospital that's that. There are more tanks of oxygen there, but it can't be transported to the patients easily.

Maybe The Nightingale Hospital nearby that they decommissioned could have helped out if they had kept it in operational order.

@RubyViolet

Maybe The Nightingale Hospital nearby that they decommissioned could have helped out if they had kept it in operational order.

That's all set up for vented patients, no? Same problem there - Excel doesn't have the piping either.

I knew this was going to be the QE as soon as I saw this thread. They have been seeing a rise in cases for a few weeks now and it was only a matter of time.

Barbie222 Excel is empty, they stripped out the hospital completely.

I wish people could understand this when they say symptoms are mild in younger people etc etc!!!! We all may need the NHS at any time and need oxygen support or emergency care for a non Covid issue and it will not be available!!!!!

This is correct: The architecture and piping within the hospital was not designed to carry as much of it about, and short of redesigning a hospital that's that and one of the reasons, alongside staffing, that the Nightingales were not / are not quite the right solution.

Major incidents happen every year. In some hospitals it happens multiple times, during the winter aka respiratory season. The memory holing of this is one of the most ridiculous aspects of this whole covid hysteria.

@RubyViolet

Surely the Government planned for Oxygen supply. I mean this is a basic need during this Pandemic.

Difficult to do anything to increase it within existing infrastructure. It's a bit like your plumbing at home - if I run the dishwasher, then pressure in the shower drops off. If I turned on every tap and flushed the loo, then the pressure out of all of them would be really low.

Hospitals have a giant storage tank of oxygen somewhere out at the back of the car park. But the pipes out of it can only supply the stuff so fast. There's normally plenty of slack in the system, but the system isn't designed for every bed full of patients with the same illness, all of them needing vast amounts of oxygen. Plus CPAP is much more wasteful of oxygen than ventilating someone.

It's a known problem, but short of ripping out all the plumbing and starting from scratch, then what can you do? And that's exactly as disruptive to the running of any hospital as ripping out every waterpipe in your house would be.

www.thesun.co.uk/news/13553463/nightingale-hospitals-sit-empty-despite-mutant-covid/

So if the hospitals can’t treat any or all the Covid patients we have to Lockdown.
I can’t see any other option.

@BlackeyedSusan

Probably someone coming along saying it's not that bad...

Or someone saying their local hospital has lots of spaces so not something they should do anything about.

'Someone' coming along here....

I have no doubt that it is bad. But we also need some perspective. In a normal winter when the NHS becomes overwhelmed with the flu plus other non-winter pressures it's not generally pasted all over the newspapers and bulletins all day everyday making people paranoid and frightened. If you hadn't read that headline you would have carried on as normal being careful.

The ambulance service in my area have messaged to say not to call an ambulance unless there is a real risk to life. I don't think I have seen that before. Not looking good.

The nightingale is no more. Gone. No idea where but it isn’t there anymore.