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 ?

Our local hospital goes into black alert every year and has done for at least 5 years. The media will be reporting it as due to covid this year, discounting the fact that it happened pre-covid.

There was also a half hour wait - or longer - before COVID. Because the NHS is no longer fit for purpose. Why can’t we concentrate on that instead of blaming one another for “not following rules?”

The NHS is supposed to protect us.

It really shouldn't have come back down to people having to be locked away in their homes, businesses collapsing, jobs being lost, kids potentially out of school again. The government have had months to prepare for the onslaught they knew was coming yet it dosent seem like a lot of investment in our healthcare system has taken place. I know the building of new hospitals (which is what is really needed - that along with extra staff) isn't something that can be achieved overnight but surely providing the funding to replace/fix the failing equipment we already have would be a start. I mean, there is clearly money down the back of the sofa for the government to dip into as and when, just look at the never ending furlough scheme.

@the80sweregreat I agree its terrible! He is currently an hour late home as he is stuck in another line and yet they go to nonsense all the time! The coming weeks will be awful and I feel for anyone trying to deal with it..

@Xenia

This happens every year. Also we have the balance wrong with the measures - we are causing more damage than good by the lockdowns.

Cone on Xenia-links to major incidents specifically relating to O2 shortages for the past twenty years. Seeing as it happens every year?

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/society/2017/jan/11/nhs-crisis-20-hospitals-declare-black-alert-as-patient-safety-no-longer-assured

Re: 2017. The public weren’t blaming each other then and there was no media hysteria about The Mutant Virus.

‘It really shouldn't have come back down to people having to be locked away in their homes, businesses collapsing, jobs being lost, kids potentially out of school again.’

No it really shouldn’t have. And if the great British public had adhered to some fairly simple, basic infection control measures then it WOULDN’T have come to this.

@Whatevergetsyouthroughthenight
for you, what a difficult time.

Those saying about privatising the NHS - I don't know if you have any experience of Virgincare....I cant begin to compare the difference in service since they took over children's services in my son's area, partly because they are incredibly efficient at discharging children from various services, partly because their communication is so appalling. They do have nice big shiny buildings...but not so many therapists to go in them.

@Goatscheesewithhoney

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/society/2017/jan/11/nhs-crisis-20-hospitals-declare-black-alert-as-patient-safety-no-longer-assured

Re: 2017. The public weren’t blaming each other then and there was no media hysteria about The Mutant Virus.

Overcrowding. Where are the annual major incidents regarding lack if oxygen supplied? Those of you declaring with such certainty that it happens every year are very shy about producing your evidence?

We do need to address the NHS. Throwing more and more money at it is not working. People DO need to take responsibility for their own health. We have a massive obesity problem in this country.

Because the NHS is free it gets abused. We need to think about charging for certain things. One thing is for certain - we cannot carry on like this.

I work in a hospital. Several times a year we call a code because we can’t guarantee the safety of patients and can’t treat them in a safe time period.
Being unable to deliver oxygen in the middle of a pandemic where the SPECIFIC TREATMENT is oxygen would be terrifying. We would call a code. But there isn’t anything else we can do. No one can fix that by calling in extra nurses or opening beds or cancelling elective surgery. And there isn’t another “tier” or code. There isn’t a code “double
Black” The fact they use the same code for it doesn’t mean it is similarly bad. It is like saying “well I called the police when someone stole my bag and all they did was call the police so it can’t be that bad when in fact their entire family was stabbed to death in front of them. Same action. Different situation”

NHS ,a stunning idea. Nobody will touch it,its political suicide.

@pennylane83

It really shouldn't have come back down to people having to be locked away in their homes, businesses collapsing, jobs being lost, kids potentially out of school again. The government have had months to prepare for the onslaught they knew was coming yet it dosent seem like a lot of investment in our healthcare system has taken place. I know the building of new hospitals (which is what is really needed - that along with extra staff) isn't something that can be achieved overnight but surely providing the funding to replace/fix the failing equipment we already have would be a start. I mean, there is clearly money down the back of the sofa for the government to dip into as and when, just look at the never ending furlough scheme.

I feel much the same as you. The Government missed so many opportunities to control this. (Looking at my friends and family enjoying a more normal existence in New Zealand...)

They obviously felt herd immunity was the way forward but badly miscalculated, unless the sacrifice of us mere plebs was a price worth paying for them.
I feel more and more there is one rule for them and another for the rest of us.
The people who can afford to buy , yes buy self testing kits will find a private Doctor to treat them and will continue to travel regardless.
When we come out the other side of this l hope people come together and work for a better Government than this lot.
We deserve better.

@DobbyTheHouseElk

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

Yes it happened with Watford but they weren’t shut for long before a delivery came.

@ChloeDecker

The hospital for Greenwich and what did the government do just twice weeks ago??!!

The fact Greenwich Council tried their best to stop this from happening and the government threatened legal action on the council and schools who only wanted to try to lower cases to ease the pressure on the hospital, means this government are directly responsible for this crisis.

THIS 👆🏻👆🏻👆🏻

@Goatscheesewithhoney so a few hospitals for a short period of time couldn't cope due to overcrowding. How is that really that comparable to running out of an essential resource, and not having some sort of increased provision when this is going to get worse before it gets better? It's possible a large % will be having issues for a prolonged period of time, rather than random hospitals for a short while. Also you can normally divert people to a nearby one, the article mentions the RUH, but Bristol and Swindon aren't a million miles away; but if it carries on like this chances are all of them within a reasonable distance would be able to provide fallback for those struggling. That's the difference. And we haven't hit the traditional winter peak time yet either.

There simply aren't enough beds in the system to deal with any normal Winter crisis and not enough capacity and funding in local councils to deal with the associated quick discharges from hospital.

It would be interesting to see the figures for people re-admitted during the Winter months ?

Winter is a very difficult time for the NHS, that has been the case ever since I started working in the NHS more than 20 years ago. The difference this year is that, along side the normal Winter pressures you have an additional new pressure, a novel virus that effects staff and patients.

This virus requires treatment that is normally only required for a relatively small percentage of the normal admissions. Increasing cases means you have all these people who need this treatment for Covid and all those people who normally need this as a treatment for other conditions, add in staffing issues due to infection ( 48hrs post last symptoms for norovirus and 10 days minimum for covid ) and you have the perfect storm.

Wouldn't be able to*

Ah fucking hell this is my local hospital.

This isn't the first major incident related to oxygen supply in this pandemic and I'm sure it won't be the last. From the article it seems that the problem is mostly because of the infrastructure that delivers the oxygen to the wards.

Why the FUCK didn't they sort this out in the summer when we had some breathing space?

QE is a bit of a shithole (no disrespect to the amazing staff there ) and in normal times most patients would consider being diverted to Kings or St Thomas's as an upgrade, but this is really quite scary.

@Skipsurvey

i guess when your time is up, it is up!

😨😨😨

The NHS is entirely the Governments responsibility.

Upgrading the infrastructure is a huge undertaking, and not always possible in the current buildings etc. There is also a tipping point where increased provision becomes too much of a fire risk. A fire in a hospital is pretty much worse case scenario, and combine in dangerous levels of oxygen that would just explode. They should have done something though I absolutely agree.

Ink paper stars, I've also been in a few hospitals over Christmas and not one had a crack of window open, in waiting rooms, corridors... Nothing.

Ipswich hospital staff are pleading with people to follow the rules. Suffolk cases are scarily high

@PandemicPavolova

Ink paper stars, I've also been in a few hospitals over Christmas and not one had a crack of window open, in waiting rooms, corridors... Nothing.

Depends on the hospital, many have ventilation systems.

Our government want the NHS to fail to provide evidence that it needs to be privatised. What is actually needed is increased funding through taxation, just like other European countries. Or to take a sensible view of what charges could be introduced. Not just selling off the easy and profitable parts like simple elective surgery

@LangClegsInSpace

Ah fucking hell this is my local hospital.

This isn't the first major incident related to oxygen supply in this pandemic and I'm sure it won't be the last. From the article it seems that the problem is mostly because of the infrastructure that delivers the oxygen to the wards.

Why the FUCK didn't they sort this out in the summer when we had some breathing space?

QE is a bit of a shithole (no disrespect to the amazing staff there ) and in normal times most patients would consider being diverted to Kings or St Thomas's as an upgrade, but this is really quite scary.

I question the quality of people running this Government. Boris seems to have picked a cabinet full of career politicians who have been found with their pants down in the face of a real crisis. They are not capable people. Having had to actually make decisions and Govern the Country during this crisis, we have seen the utter uselessness of this lot. I expect they all thought it would fun weekends at Chequers and Christmas’s house parties on Mustique mixing with 0.01%. Useless the lot of them.