Women arrested for public order offence for filming empty outpatient department

[bathsh3ba]

www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk/news/gloucester-news/woman-arrested-connection-video-filmed-4841311

I don't understand why it is a criminal offence for a member of the public to post a video of an empty outpatient department. It doesn't even tell you anything useful - the outpatient department being empty doesn't mean the wards aren't full. In fact it might even mean it's more likely the wards are full.

Granted I haven't seen the post so maybe she was inciting a riot or something, but on the face of it, this seems like a pretty heavy handed policing approach.

She is a stupid idiot. With visitors largely not allowed and at a time when no outpatients appointments are running even the busiest hospital on black alert can look and feel empty from the corridors and public areas. Its something that always struck me when walking around at night, it feels even more eerily quiet as we are used to it being so busy and frenetic.

Thankfully these idiots are a very small minority in the UK. Unfortunately in the US they still have a President hosting super spreader events and dangerous bilge that are a million times worse than her in impact. Hopefully, as soon as he ceases to be President twitter will shut the sewer pipe down. I suppose this is the price of living in a free society.

She is an attention seeking idiot. Same as the maskless protest clowns outside St Thomas hospital, London.

Round them up, bring them in front of the courts. Heavy fine payable immediately and if they won't pay, give them 28 days in jail.

We need to get strict. Like they do on the continent. I have friends who live in Greece and people are subject to heavy policing and courts ATM. You need a permit to be outside and they have a curfew. Their numbers are under control

Something tells me it’s not the video but the bullshit that probably accompanied the post. Impossible to say without further details though.

I saw that video. The woman is batshit and clearly has anger issues.

She wasn’t arrested for filming an empty dept. She was arrested for filing patients in a&e without their consent and sticking it on the internet.

Plus the not wearing a mask in the hospitals, refusing to do so, lying about being exempt, being narky with staff, refusing to leave when told to do so. And if she’s in tier 4 (?) she shouldn’t have been outside her house without a decent reason, this isn’t a decent reason.

I hope they throw the book out of her. Maybe if she gets a prison sentence she might catch covid while in prison and then think it’s less of a hoax!

Further details abound.

Google Stroud Freedom Group.

She's one of them!!

Stroud Red Shed was her creation too.

She's an absolute fucking disgrace

That policeman deserves a medal.

If she wouldn't be in the way I'd happily handcuff her to a pipe on a Covid ward as she thinks it's all a hoax. Stupid cow.

You can’t allow people to go round filming inside hospitals and posting it on social media. I would also assume she is doing it as some sort of silly proof that hospitals are “empty” so a political act too. Hospitals have enough to do without fielding people trying to film undercover for whatever reason. I am not sure it should be illegal but she should 100% get a fine.

there's another idiot posting all over Twitter at the moment that she has taken a walk around UCL hospital and there is no queue of ambulances at the moment and none arriving, so clearly no problem. She actually appears to think she is clever and some sort of Sherlock Holmes. I have a friend just discharged from there, got a HDU bed just in time last week, may not be so lucky now. I can't face a public spat on Twitter as she is clearly just an attention seeker but if there are no ambulances arriving to UCL hospital right now it is surely for the very sad reason that ambulances are on divert due to lack of capacity :-(

I'm struggling to understand this.
It's not a conspiracy theory to suggest that many many depts are not running to full capacity. Are empty. It's a fact. How this can be denied puzzles me.

Our GP surgery didn't do any face-to-face appointments got many months.

My father hadn't been seen for over a year post his prostate cancer operation. He was supposed to be seen in Feb 20. He's been told they hope to he able to phone him, in Feb 21. They aren't even doing zoom or even phone appointments. I can't accept that this is ok.

So I can't see that filming this is anything other than showing the truth.

"Fake news will cost lives if people don't adhere to guidance or get vaccinated."

Some nhs depts have not operated as best they might in the last year. Fact.

That's not the same as saying covid doesn't exist, don't follow the rules, don't get vaccinated.

How can you compare these completely different things?

@Oblomov20

I'm struggling to understand this. It's not a conspiracy theory to suggest that many many depts are not running to full capacity. Are empty. It's a fact. How this can be denied puzzles me.

Our GP surgery didn't do any face-to-face appointments got many months.

My father hadn't been seen for over a year post his prostate cancer operation. He was supposed to be seen in Feb 20. He's been told they hope to he able to phone him, in Feb 21. They aren't even doing zoom or even phone appointments. I can't accept that this is ok.

So I can't see that filming this is anything other than showing the truth.

Have you seen her videos or heard her commentary? She is trying to use film of outpatient waiting areas and closed shops on the Sunday after Christmas to prove that the hospital isn't overwhelmed with covid patients. Patients who would of course never be being treated in outpatient waiting areas, but would be in beds on wards. She also claims that the A&E waiting room being not jam packed full is proof that A&E itself (which she doesn't film) is empty of covid patients.

She isn't trying to show that outpatient appointments aren't happening or that elective surgery has been cancelled, or that some departments aren't running at full capacity. She is trying to prove that hospital covid wards aren't busy and that the news about them being overwhelmed is a lie.

@doublehalo

If main stream media won't do their job then it's no surprise that citizen journalists will step up.

Anyone who kids themselves that posting something on social media makes them a "citizen journalist" might just as well wear a large sign on their foreheads saying "Wanker".

She has also posted a video where she films through the windows in the doors of a few wards, and claims that the lack of hustle and bustle in the corridor of the wards is evidence that the ward isn't full of patients. She seemingly is unaware that patients won't be in the entrance corridor to the ward, they will be in their beds in bays, and that staff will either be in the bays with the patients, or at the nurses' station doing paperwork or in the doctors' room requesting tests, checking results, writing discharge summaries and all manner of other things. Ward staff don't randomly stand in or wander around the corridors of wards so tend not to be visible if you are just peering in the door.

morningstaronline.co.uk/article/campaigning-if-change-mattered

I'd forgotten about that!

She sometimes manages to sound plausible!

Anyone who kids themselves that posting something on social media makes them a "citizen journalist" might just as well wear a large sign on their foreheads saying "Wanker".

Even in normal times, we don't let people film in clinical environments without prior permission and very good reason. People are in a state of undress, vulnerable, drugged, been given life-changing news.... All very good reasons why you don't want some muppet with a camera putting stuff on youtube. There are good reasons - I have parents film the environment so they can show it to their kid prior to their appointment, or patients facing complex decisions record the discussion to replay later. But this is not that.

If she were asked to stop, and didn't, and told to stop, and didn't, then it would be escalated to security and eventually the police. Who would, I suspect, have tried to talk some sense in her before arresting her.

So lots of opportunities for her to drop the camera and walk away. Which she chose not to take. Muppet.

I have zero tolerance for people promoting idiotic conspiracy theories, so I have no problem with a woman like this having to face the consequences of her actions. What she did sounds dangerous and shows no respect for those who have died or are ill and their families. Stupid woman.

Don’t solicitors have some sort of overseeing body which can strike them off if they get found guilty of criminal offences?

@WitchesBritchesPumpkinPants

She's an absolute fucking disgrace

That policeman deserves a medal.

If she wouldn't be in the way I'd happily handcuff her to a pipe on a Covid ward as she thinks it's all a hoax. Stupid cow.

Great post. Couldn't agree more.

There are many notices up in our hospital asking you not to film because of patient privacy (dating from long before lockdown).

Visiting is also restricted and at my hospital (as I know personally) is currently restricted to those on end of life care.

In many cases patients have to go in alone for their appointments and appointment times have to be strictly adhered to, so even busy areas look much quieter than normal, because everything is taking place behind closed doors.

If she had no medical reason to be in the hospital it would be perfectly reasonable to remove her.

@Ohdoleavemealone

I heard on the radio that they are trying to make spreadin misinformation around the virus a criminal act.

Maybe this is why.

I hope they do.