Sending London patients to Yorkshire

[DeRigueurMortis]

It's been reported that due to capacity issues in London there is a proposal to send patients to Yorkshire.

London has more beds per capita than anywhere else in the country.

The nightingales have been dismantled.

In Yorkshire the rates have been high but (depending on north/south/east/west) brought into control though harsh lockdown. Those in tier 2 have been buggered by being inundated by Covid tourism and will be tier 3/4.

So Yorkshire is on the verge of it's own disaster with less beds per person than London and being overwhelmed by London cases before the local community can get a bed in their hospital.

Is it right that this should happen?

Moves via this Scheme could potentially happen within a number of months as opposed to waiting many years

So families should wait for years in awful b&bs and temporary accommodation to keep London in its footprint, while there is a large stock of social housing elsewhere?

I think the problem with moving out of London is perhaps the relative scarcity of jobs outside of London. That and people liking London I suppose.

What EVERYONE should be outraged by is the deliberate underfunding of the NHS so that nationally we are short of nurses, doctors, NHS beds, ICU beds.

Stop voting Conservative. Ten years of underfunding is why this is happening.

They will never level up anything - it is a meaningless slogan designed to distract you - they haven't improved things in the South over the last ten years. If they had, the South would be able to cope.

The reality is the whole country can't cope with this pandemic - thanks to government policies over the last decade.

Northern Englanders don't seem to identify very well with Londoners. This is an ignorant stereotyping statement.

WTF are 'Northern Englanders'????

I think Northerners are rightfully angry that they were under very restrictive measures for a long time before London was. Now that London is in crisis, I suppose they resent us exporting our problem up to them. I can see their point I suppose

Exactly. Maybe if they stopped prioritising London with jobs and investment on infrastructure, there would be less resentment in the rest of the country?

You can't complain that one area is overcrowded when the policy for decades has been to disproportionately concentrate the opportunities in that area at the expense of everywhere else.

I personally think that just a 1% increase in income tax, to be allocated solely to the NHS could be a solution. But would we trust them not to waste it?

I can’t see it happening that often. Not only would they need an ambulance wouldn’t they need an icu dr or a nurse to do the transfer? They’re overstretched enough as it is.

@inquietant

Northern Englanders don't seem to identify very well with Londoners. This is an ignorant stereotyping statement.

WTF are 'Northern Englanders'????

Well, people from Manchester were angry, Liverpudlians were angry, now people from Yorkshire. They're all in the North of England aren't they? It was just a short-hand expression. Nothing sinister.

Stop squabbling North Vs South - this is what Johnson wants you to do to distract from the fact the Conservatives have dragged this country down with austerity. We are all worse off - through government choice - than we were in 2010.

We all would benefit from greater investment at the lower end of the scale, look at what was happening pre-pandemic.

In London 4 in 10 children live in poverty. London poverty is as gruelling as Yorkshire poverty, as Lancashire poverty, as Midlands poverty.

Stop squabbling over scraps. Call for proper national investment.

Johnson is playing classic divide and conquer. You'll all lose if you fall for it.

Hospitals are filling up, ambulances queuing to book patients in. Hospitals send patients to where there is availability.
Our local hospital (Norfolk) has been receiving Covid patients from Essex, London, Basildon. Same as in April.
It's what they do.
Not perfect, but better any hospital than none??
And it will soon be a case of hospitals deciding which patients to give treatment too - as is reported in today's press. And which patients won't be given potentially life saving treatment.
And some people still think we shouldn't lockdown, or keep schools shut.
Nightingales don't have the trained staff.

@JacobReesMogadishu

I can’t see it happening that often. Not only would they need an ambulance wouldn’t they need an icu dr or a nurse to do the transfer? They’re overstretched enough as it is.

I know. I can't see how it's even feasible at all? How long would it take an ambulance to get to Yorkshire from London? 4 hours? Then the return trip of course. I think the ratio of Doctor to patient in ICU is 1:2? So 1 patient doctor covering 2 patients? Could be wrong....

I got a text message from the NHS yesterday saying that ambulances and hospitals in London were in crisis and to only call 999 in an emergency.

Jesus- it's not Game of Thrones! Northern Englanders!!

Guess what folks- we're all in this shit together! There's no North/ South divide now. Corona virus doesn't have a preference. It takes hold in any human it can.

This happens when places get busy. I’m not minimising but sometimes this is needed on a smaller scale. Patients go where there are beds.

This happens frequently in a normal winter in paediatrics for example where there is usually one ward in a general hospital. They fill up quickly and patients are often transferred ‘out of area’ this could be 10/20 miles away or much further.

Oh and to whoever said it I’m 41 and I say Nope... work with children under ten so maybe It’s ‘allowed’. Seriously bigger things going on than the words and phrases people use

This isn't levelling up the North is it?

The areas are irrelevant. If the situation were reversed and hospitals in Yorkshire were full, those patients would be sent elsewhere. This isn’t a “Londoners getting special treatment” story

Stop squabbling over scraps.
Johnson is playing classic divide and conquer. You'll all lose if you fall for it

It's the people in the North on this thread who are 'squabbling'. Londoners are a bit We're not solely responsible for national policy in London. There are plenty of elected MPs outside of London.

@ObviouslyIgnorant

The thing that was ignorant and stereotyping was your sweeping statement that as a single clump 'Northern Englanders' don't identify with Londoners.

Not all people from an area (especially an area you have labelled yourself in that way) think the same way. Suggesting they do shows obvious ignorance

Ultimately, saving lives is what counts.

I suppose what grates a bit is that, up north, we've been under strict restrictions for most of the year, whereas London was in Tier 2 for ages (even when their cases were higher than ours). That's not the Londoners' fault, it's the government's fault. Johnson has gone all out to protect the economy in London while the north has been left to rot. Now London is suffering with high case rates - hospitals in the north will have the new strain brought into them - we are angry and Londoners should be angry too.

It's the people in the North on this thread who are 'squabbling'.

'He started it, Miss!'

Everyone needs to stop squabbling. The North/South divide does not apply to covid. Legitimate questions about relative living standards/opportunities between regions are valid in normal times - but not right now when looking at a death rate like we are currently.

The government has swapped blaming Europe and switched to stoking regional divisions.

I'm not going to squabble with you Inquietant.

I've seen it plenty of times on here. People in Cornwall not wanting people to visit from London. Manchester going apeshit over being put in Tier 3 before London. Now this thread where people in Yorkshire don't want dying patients from London. It's hardly a unified approach now is it? It has always been the same. Every time a thread is started about something happening in London you'll have a few posters sticking their beak in with "well, there's more than just London ya'know!" If you haven't seen the 'divide' before today, then you must not be reading MN for long.

Take a long hard look at yourself will you? Are you suggesting people should be left to die without the treatment they need because they are from a different part of the country, while some hospitals have beds lying empty? Wtf has happened to people? I know there is a north-south divide in this country but I didn't realise that some northerners actually wanted those of us down south to die. Where is your humanity?

Moving people to where the resources are has always happened. Ten years before the pandemic my bestie was shipped to a hospital miles away because she was about to deliver prem twins and that was the nearest hospital with two free nicu cots.

@SantasBritchesSpelleas Agree we should all be angry about the delay in addressing London's rising cases - we will all suffer this month as a result. The national death toll is going to be much higher as a direct consequence of government choices.

I'm not angry about a regional portion of what's happened - I'm angry about all of it.

And as far as I know, London voted for Labour in the most part in the last election. It was those outside of London who swung massively Conservative. Now, my memory isn't the best, so please correct me if I'm wrong there.

Hmm. Im concerned that within a week or two this will mainky be academic. If there arent enough beds people are going to die.

Remember back in first lockdown when the nhs was producing "who to treat" criteria 😔

If you haven't seen the 'divide' before today, then you must not be reading MN for long.

Have been here for years (I name change very regularly) and I'm well aware of the North/South squabbling both on here and in RL.

I just don't agree with it and I don't join in. I think it is being deliberately stoked now by the government as a replacement for blaming Europe.

The NHS is a national service. End of.

The fact we don't have enough national health capacity should be a political scandal, given it was a deliberate political choice made by the Conservatives.

nobody wants to have to take patients so far away, but there is a bed available, there is transport to take people. it is a sensible life saving reaction.