We are now in disaster mode

[lovelemoncurd]

“We are now in disaster medicine mode,” it said.
“We are no longer providing high-standard critical care, because we cannot. While this is far from ideal, it’s the way things are, and the way they have to be for now.”

I see that this means rationing medical care. So those who would have previously been given a chance will now not.

This is really significant!

@RosesAndHellebores Admissions are as high as April, and also it's January, not April. There are a lot more sick people in hospital already due to the time of year.

"Do not have a serious RTA or other accident, major stroke or heart attack, or have operable cancer diagnosed in the next few weeks. When you think 'don't be silly, I can't do much about that,' turn your thought processes about what you can do. Which is to ease the pandemic pressure by following both the spirit and letter of the guidance and laws, and generally don't be a dick"

Yep. Can't help thinking that if people had been less dickish to begin with things would be better now.

Thank you to all those Mumsnetters who have not been dickish.

@RosesAndHellebores I’m no expert, I work in a SE big trust that is struggling. The reason from my POV it is so much worse at work. Is because we haven’t stopped other services, we have cancer care wards, cardiac wards, neuro wards, full with our usual patients and then on top of that we are seeing 40+ Covid patients through ED a day. We are combining specialties to make room for more Covid wards. The rate it’s going we need a new Covid ward every 2 days. Which is not sustainable.

We are now slowing elective cases but we will still have patients from previous elective emergency admissions still requiring in patient care and a lot of those are coming in with Covid because it’s so prevalent in the community.

In April, it was extraordinary people stopped coming to ED they stopped all elective in preparation for this crisis, and it came but not for every trust in the uk. This time it seems to be effecting my friends/colleagues all over the country.

I work in the NHS and don't say this lightly but I'm frightened for the coming weeks.

My Trust has ceased ALL elective procedures and outpatient appointments ( except for urgent cancers)

Our wards are full, numbers of Covid patients are through the roof, AE can't cope we have lines of ambulances outside waiting with very poor people inside waiting for admission, consultants having to triage in the ambulance on who needs care first.

Oxygen and ventilator supplies are low, now our CEO has emailed all staff over the last week asking for clinical staff to cancel leave/ do extra shifts and for NON CLINICAL staff to work on the wards feeding patients, dressing/ washing, ie performing basic patient care, because the number of nurses/clinical off sick with Covid is huge.

We have begun rolling out the vaccine but progress is slow- Please follow the government guidance and stay at home the NHS is now on its knees and the next few weeks will be hell

@RosesAndHellebores

Admissions are far higher than April, deaths are getting close.

ICU is now very full - meaning other treatments must be cancelled as those treatments can carry risk of needing ICU, and the non-ICU beds are needed anyway. Also once ICU is full, people can die simply because there is no ICU bed. And that is not a choice made by clinicians, so it impacts young and old.

That means the next 30 year old construction worker who suffers a fall could die for lack of space.

People who still believe we shouldn't lock down and we shouldn't vaccinate on a scheulde that reduces pressure on the NHS are no better than the Torries they tend to hate and blame for creating the NHS issues.

Yep cases seem higher too in some hospitals at least and this is only going to get worse in the coming weeks

@Morgan12

Why is there always a comment trying to play down how bad things are?

Do people not watch the news? Or are some people just compete pricks?

(It's the latter btw)

Well MNers often pick up that news tends to be London/SE-centric. What affects London and/or the south-east doesn't necessarily affect other areas. It's neither playing things down nor being idiots, it's realising that what they see on the news doesn't necessarily reflect the reality of where they live.

My mother had a very non-urgent non-routine small operation done yesterday. However, she lives in an area where infection rates are comparatively low.

I'm surprised this is news to you. We've seen this coming for weeks. We've been told this for weeks.

We've been told about ambulances, critical care, staff sickness etc.

We've been told we have 40% more people in hospital compared to the peak.

We've gone into another full lockdown.

The situation is dire and has been for weeks and thanks to all those who decided to ignore the rules and throw parties over Christmas and new year and meet up regardless it's going to get worse before it gets better.

There's nhs staff that will carry what they've seen forever and all we are being asked to do is sacrifice our complete freedoms for another few months at most

@Icenii

People who still believe we shouldn't lock down and we shouldn't vaccinate on a scheulde that reduces pressure on the NHS are no better than the Torries they tend to hate and blame for creating the NHS issues.

I am not sure that locking down is helping. We have all these cases despite closing schools, not having full commuter trains or busy offices, not allowing mass gatherings.

Well it's stopping things being even worse I suppose, but it's definitely not the clearcut solution everyone thinks it is.

Two things for me

• yes any hospitals are in that position. It’s going to mean more people will die unnecessarily (and not all from Covid either)

• but this about around and some areas around it. It’s not the case for the whole of the uk. Where I am cases are still low enough that it’s manageable, normal surgeries/appointments are going in Incl IVF and the likes.

I think quite a lot of news on how bad things are is being suppressed to avoid panic.

@screamingfemale - you sound incredibly ignorant. No, a bit of fresh air and a good diet is not going to get us out of this mess. And if the vaccine means people do not get severe symptoms then this means they are shedding less virus. Don’t spread this damaging nonsense.

I can only imagine most people simply don't understand or don't want to think about the implications of what is going to happen if the country's entire health care system collapses. Its not just it'll have a rough couple of weeks and then it'll pick up.

@annevonkleve, I agree.

And I’m also annoyed in equal measures that people only seem to wake up when it’s about LOndon. When things are bad in other areas (eg around Bradford, they’ve had only 3 weeks with little restrictions. Compare that to the tier 2 that London was in quite recently....) it doesn’t seem to matter as much.

Screaming female
Can I have your vaccine then? I work on a Covid positive ward now. It shouldn't be Covid positive.
It's a rehab unit, that is what we are trained to do, not trained to look after acute medical/respiratory patients. We have nowhere else to send them as all the other (more appropriate) wards are full. I had Covid myself a few months ago, currently hoping my immunity holds until I am vaccinated.
How many Covid patients have you looked after?

Locking down is helping - as you say it is stopping things being worse. Itbis currently the only tool we have. We all have to try to maximise the impact of this lockdown

[quote MajesticWhine]@screamingfemale - you sound incredibly ignorant. No, a bit of fresh air and a good diet is not going to get us out of this mess. And if the vaccine means people do not get severe symptoms then this means they are shedding less virus. Don’t spread this damaging nonsense.[/quote]
Actually I personally think you need BOTH.

A god diet, exercising and looking after yourself will make a huge difference (see the effect of diabetes on the mortality rate for example).

This doesn’t mean that it should be the one and only solution to this crisis. Nowhere near and certainly not in the situation we are now.

Been aware if the impact of your life style on your health would be a good outcome from this crisis imo.

@nhsblue

It sounds horrific - thank you so much for the work that you do. Can I ask, those hospitalised with Covid, are they generally all very elderly or is there a true mixture of ages? Also, in your view, do you think the prioritisation system for the vaccine is right?

@screamingfemale bore off.
You completely undid anything rational you may have had to say with the words 'big pharma'.

and this is only going to get worse in the coming weeks

Yes - it’s about a week from catching it to needing hospital, and then about another week from admission to needing ICU (obviously individuals can vary a lot from that timeline, but it’s the broad pattern)

So ICU admissions now reflect cases transmitted around Christmas.

And in the weeks since Christmas tree has been an inexorable daily rise of new positive tests. Even if the ‘smaller’ rise (52k people) yesterday marks a move away from the peak, we are still looking at a minimum of 2 weeks of even higher admissions, then several weeks continuing high (there were about 30k positive tests a day in the run up to Christmas, when the overwhelming numbers started to happen - we’ll need to get below that for a couple of weeks to ease pressure)

That’s a lay view, btw. Anyone with relevant expertise or more experience think differently?

The situation is dire and has been for weeks and thanks to all those who decided to ignore the rules and throw parties over Christmas and new year and meet up regardless it's going to get worse before it gets better
^^ This.
The Christmas party infections haven’t begun to show yet......