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Original poster

Sending London patients to Yorkshire

483 replies

DeRigueurMortis · 30/12/2020 01:44

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?

OP posts:
Flaxmeadow · 30/12/2020 08:36

I don’t think people in the north are coming out the situation London is now in. I think the worry is that we’re heading there! And in a couple of weeks we will be in the same position with no icu beds Available. The new variant hasn’t really taken off here yet

Both, coming out of it and probably returning to it. The numbers can change so fast, within days, not just weeks. It's frightening now, wherever we live.

I'm a northerner but I wouldnt want people to think they weren't welcome here from London. It's not who we are.

We dont know the reason yet for the request, it could be a good one, like the big Harrogate Nightingale is suitable for something, or even if it will happen at all

ThelmaNotLouise · 30/12/2020 08:37

@LadyCatStark

Fuck that. People were claiming only weeks ago that the reason the north was in tier 3 even with low numbers of cases was because of hospital capacity and now they’re saying that we have extra capacity so can take Londoners. Where was the offer to send northerners to London???
If your hospitals had reached 113% capacity as ours had, patients would've been sent elsewhere. Normally London patients would be sent to the SE, but they're in the same boat.

But thanks for your understanding of our situation. Everyone seems to forget as well that London was clobbered in the first wave with the highest number of deaths. But because we came out of it quicker, somehow the message has been that we've been unscathed. We haven't. We've lost thousands of loved ones and our deaths are still higher than the places that went into Tier 3 in the north.

But fuck London, eh.

lurker101 · 30/12/2020 08:37

This happens a lot with the NHS - I know of two people who had operations in the Republic of Ireland as the waiting lists were too long in NI, so their consultants advised they may be operated on in GB or Ireland based on capacity and agreements in place. They had their ops in Ireland paid for by NHS and accommodation for their OHs paid for although they chose to have family drive them home at the end, but based on this experience I doubt they would be stranded in Yorkshire looking for a bus home to London.

Pumpertrumper · 30/12/2020 08:37

Also, all the scandal surrounding nightingale hospitals is a bit pointless. The NHS barely have the staff to keep the hospital ICU running Hmm

jillypill · 30/12/2020 08:38

They can keep their own patients. I’m fairly certain if we wanted to send ours there, they wouldn’t allow

Yeah all those specialist hospitals that ban Northerners.

MrsGrindah · 30/12/2020 08:39

This thread has quite upset me. I thought we were better than that. So much for clapping for the NHS eh? I didn’t realise I was only supposed to clap for the hospitals in my own area!

SimonJT · 30/12/2020 08:40

@LadyCatStark

Fuck that. People were claiming only weeks ago that the reason the north was in tier 3 even with low numbers of cases was because of hospital capacity and now they’re saying that we have extra capacity so can take Londoners. Where was the offer to send northerners to London???
You do realise people outside of London (including the north) are fairly regularly sent to hospitals in London for treatment.

I you were ill, or a member of your family I’m fairly certain you could want them to be transferred to a suitable care facility if your nearest hospital couldn’t provide care.

ThelmaNotLouise · 30/12/2020 08:42

MrsGrindah It's really upset me too. It's horrible to see Londoners condemned to death like this. The big specialist cancer hospitals in London take patients from the north all the time when their local hospitals can't effectively treat them – imagine the uproar if we started a thread saying they can all fuck off and die?

inquietant · 30/12/2020 08:42

@MrsGrindah

This thread has quite upset me. I thought we were better than that. So much for clapping for the NHS eh? I didn’t realise I was only supposed to clap for the hospitals in my own area!
Most people are better than this. Don't fall for it. A minority are racist, a minority are arseholes, a minority of people in x county want to have regional resources.

Most people are not like that. Most people are decent. In every part of the country.

Remember most people are decent.

Burpeesshmurpees · 30/12/2020 08:43

This reply has been withdrawn

Message from MNHQ: This post has been withdrawn

OpheliasCrayon · 30/12/2020 08:43

I think some of you are missing the key word in the NHS.

National

It treats the whole nation.

If you're visiting your family in the north and have an accident, they don't take you back to the south and then treat you there do they?

National. So... You treat people from our country where they can be treated.

It's not unethical to send someone from the south to the north to be treated. It's unethical to consider that you would base whether someone can be treated at all on if there space in their local hospital or not.

Burpeesshmurpees · 30/12/2020 08:44

This reply has been withdrawn

Message from MNHQ: This post has been withdrawn

inquietant · 30/12/2020 08:44

It's horrible to see Londoners condemned to death like this.

The people who say that are arseholes.

But most people are decent.

Don't get sucked in by a small-minded minority.

jillypill · 30/12/2020 08:45

Why do so many people hate Londoners?

Lots of stupid & narrow minded people about unfortunately.

Lifeispassingby · 30/12/2020 08:45

Kent hospitals are now sending patients to Plymouth for treatment as they are at capacity. COVID is an issue for the whole country not just the areas with high infection rates

ObliviouslyIgnorant · 30/12/2020 08:46

Not even possible death can soften some peoples' attitudes towards Londoners it appears! Oh well.

jillypill · 30/12/2020 08:47

But most people are decent.

I always thought that but I've genuinely been surprised by some of the selfishness, stupidly & sanctimonious attitudes displayed in 2020.

CarlottaValdez · 30/12/2020 08:47

People don’t really want other people to die while “their” beds are empty, there are just a few thick posters who haven’t really thought things through before posting. Particular points to the poster who thinks it should be done more logically as if patients are just being randomly driven up the country with no thought behind it.

frumpety · 30/12/2020 08:47

Some London hospitals at 113 and 114% capacity!!

Shit ! Those are beyond scary numbers. Safe bed occupancy levels are 85% . A rubbish NHS Winter will see them hovering around the 95% level with a few horrendous days nearer the high 90's.

Judashascomeintosomemoney · 30/12/2020 08:48

@MrsGrindah

This thread has quite upset me. I thought we were better than that. So much for clapping for the NHS eh? I didn’t realise I was only supposed to clap for the hospitals in my own area!
Indeed. I think this thread is quite possibly the most awful display of human nature I’ve seen on MN, and it’s a crowded field.
inquietant · 30/12/2020 08:48

@Burpeesshmurpees

Why do so many people hate Londoners? Honestly I really don't understand? We don't all live in Buckingham palace you know. I honestly cannot imagine wanting a bed in my local hospital to be left empty rather than save the life of someone from another area. It really is an abhorrent attitude. You should be ashamed of yourselves.
Because they hate others?

Stop trying to understand the incomprehensible!

You have lots in common with most people who live in the North, and most people who live in the North don't identify with that attitude.

If someone lives next door to a racist does it make me them a racist too? No.

Thesearmsofmine · 30/12/2020 08:48

Some of the posts on here are awful. I’m in West Yorkshire and if we have the beds then use them.

I do find it concerning that after months and months of restrictions here, our numbers finally started to reduce and now they are creeping back up again. I do worry what will happen then but the main scandal of this for me is that there aren’t enough beds and staff to treat people, people should be questioning this instead of squabbling.

Flaxmeadow · 30/12/2020 08:50

I don't think you ever went to 114% capacity

It probably did. About mid October. Leeds was 98% capacity and Bradford was higher than that in the same week

ObliviouslyIgnorant · 30/12/2020 08:53

I'm a little worried too that we don't have the EU to fall back on now either, though the cooperation in Ireland is heartening. I'm not sure how or why we've ended up in such an appalling situation. I think we've the highest death rate in Europe? Maybe Italy highest now that I think of it.

ObliviouslyIgnorant · 30/12/2020 08:54

@Flaxmeadow

I don't think you ever went to 114% capacity

It probably did. About mid October. Leeds was 98% capacity and Bradford was higher than that in the same week

Did the overflow go anywhere else, or were people just sent home to die? Nothing would surprise me to be honest! Genuine question.
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