How are things in London?

[Frozenintime]

Anyone in London area?

@RememberSelfCompassion

Im not i london but theyve closed a load of roads here for the low traffic neighbourboods. The m/c in those roads love it. Everyone else ... not so much.

Communities within the LTNs are pitted against each other, and those enduring the displaced traffic suspect a m/c plot. Totally divisive,

Sorry, I thought it was London Mayor thing, under the influence of the cycling lobby.

My normal quiet local woods were packed today. Went a different route as some of the oaths I normally take the dogs up are too narrow to distance. Coffee shop area rammed.

RainingBatsAndFrogs definitely the cycling lobby. I saw them at a street fair calling for closures and they got aggressive when I gently said I didn’t think closing local roads was the answer, as it pushes traffic elsewhere - therefore not environmental.

Their agenda (which I do sympathise with) seems to be trumping all else - including pushing illegal limits of bad air on main roads for everyone else to breathe, especially bad for the people who live there. It’s a very complicated problem.

Anyway, I digress!

@RainingBatsAndFrogs @AcornAutumn @RememberSelfCompassion

We have put in a formal complaint against the LTN in our area. I can’t drive or walk very far due to significant disabilities and they have made it really difficult for me to get out of my home.

I live on a main road where due to the LTN they have blocked off all the entrances from the main road to the side roads. As this pushes all the traffic going anywhere along the main roads they then had to change the 20 minute drop off in front off my home to no stopping at anytime in order to preserve the cycle superhighway and bus lane. This means that there is now nowhere legal to stop a car to pick me up.

But I am sure it is a great for the rich people in the big houses in the side roads!

The situation in London hospitals can be seen in the second chart here:

www.covidmessenger.com/hospital-cases-v1/

Covid cases in hospital are so much higher than first lockdown. It took me by surprise. I will be really happy when these numbers start falling. Roll on the vaccine.

Some London trusts like my own have started to fall a little. Hopefully that is the start of admissions dropping. Now cases are falling it should follow.

When the sun is out, its like pre-lockdown. When its cloudy and rainy, tumbleweeds.

I’m not in the south, but we’ve had an email from work to say we’re getting patients from the south because we’ve got icu capacity 🙃🙃

I walked through Oxford St in Saturday and there were a lot of walkers. Oxford St is now a haven for endless American candy stores and shops selling suitcases and tat, which are allowed to open. A Polish corner shop with a makeshift plastic sign outside has also popped up. Can’t see Oxford St returning to its former days of a world-leading shopping street. It’s truly grim. Zero social distancing on Edgware road - lots of non-food shops open and middle-aged men congregate. Tube is quite busy - much busier than first lockdown.

Any efforts being made to improve ventilation in commuter trains?
Tube ventilation always seems better than on trains to me.

Army now in my local hospital. Bern told it’s impossible to park anywhere close as everyone’s coming for vaccines.

what are the army doing? turning patients over?

@ImsorryWilson

what are the army doing? turning patients over?

Driving ambulances mainly I think

@Bubblemonkey

I’m not in the south, but we’ve had an email from work to say we’re getting patients from the south because we’ve got icu capacity 🙃🙃

Yes we are in the Midlands and hospital colleagues say they are taking London patients. I live close to a main road and all I can hear all day is ambulance sirens.

That makes sense for army to drive ambulances but does that mean there is only one qualified paramedic per ambulance?

(I think they usually work in twos?)

Yes only one paramedic but possibly they are army medics or something

@ImsorryWilson - same as with firefighters, they are all first aid trained to assist in an emergency. Otherwise fully trained to effectively man the radio and drive, which doesn't need any medical skill. It isn't ideal, but it's the obvious way to double the paramedic workforce.

@Truelymadlydeeplysomeonesmum - if army medics aren't vaccinating, you'd think they're more likely to be useful assisting in hospitals than driving around?

They are assisting in London hospitals when the hospitals want them - eg St George's Tooting has a team (not sure whether they are HCPs, logisticians, or what)

They are generally getting firefighters and police to drive ambulances - because their qualified and London-based staff will be safe to drive through London on blue lights.

The defence medical services (tri-service) has paramedics - not necessarily as highly trained as civilian counterparts, but a safe enough pair of hands

If the firefighters and police are driving the ambulances then who is putting out fires and stopping murders?

[quote MRex]@Truelymadlydeeplysomeonesmum - if army medics aren't vaccinating, you'd think they're more likely to be useful assisting in hospitals than driving around?[/quote]
Good point. You are more than likely right.

I am on the border with Essex and we definitely have had army driving ambulances near here.

Sadly the local area is like a sunday everyday, mass queues outside gails, very little social distancing, parks are packed, fed up with it. My DH had to wait 8hrs for an ambulance two weeks ago, ambulances are over stretched, hospitals packed with covid patients who require alot of care when admitted. NHS is over stretched and I keep hearing about folks excusing why they got together on christmas day etc and then being upset when many family members are ill with covid.Central London is quiet but once you step into zone 2 , 3, 4 etc it has got very busy

I'm in zone 1 and the roads are busy. There are people out and about but mostly with a purpose - i.e. travelling to work, taking dc to school/nursery. About 30% of people are wearing masks on the streets. Some parks and playgrounds are very busy (esp. at weekends), although we tend to go early and often they are empty then. It is still easy enough to maintain a 2m distance though. I don't see any queues for shops. Public transport is quiet (I only travel off-peak) and mask compliance is high.

I'm reading a lot about the situation in hospitals, but I don't have any first hand knowledge so if it wasn't being reported I'd have no idea. It's not affecting me or my family at all. We're on a busy main road and there have always been regular sirens, I don't see any more ambulances than usual.

We're on a council estate so definitely not rich people in big houses, but the LTNs have made our lives more pleasant. I can't drive and it used to be annoying as a pedestrian when I had to wait for ages at the kerb for a stream of cars using the local roads as a rat run. I always prefer using the tube to buses as it's much quicker, and bus journeys have got much worse in recent years due to traffic congestion, and reducing the number of hourly buses.

My sister is a police officer and she is driving an ambulance now.
She has been for weeks.
All the emergency services are pushed to the limit.

@ImsorryWilson

what are the army doing? turning patients over?

Portering duties, moving supplies around and assisting on ICU I think.