Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Covid

Mumsnet doesn't verify the qualifications of users. If you have medical concerns, please consult a healthcare professional.

Original poster

How are things in London?

177 replies

Frozenintime · 16/01/2021 21:20

Anyone in London area?

OP posts:
ImsorryWilson · 21/01/2021 20:45

Thanks.
I am learning more on here than the news.

Cornishmaiden · 21/01/2021 20:59

My son is an army medic and has been working in a London hospital since Monday in covid wards and ICU. He seems to be doing ok but it has been 'grim' ...his words. He was working with hospital staff to clean and lay out patients after they have passed away plus doing lots of obs etc.
Nephew is a London paramedic and has a fireman driving for him. He is just 23.

RNlife · 21/01/2021 21:06

We’ve had word up in Yorkshire that regular patient transfers are going to start from London up here. A couple a day to multiple hospitals if required. Some already were transferred a couple of weeks ago. I hope things pick up soon, people need to remain vigilant. I’ve had to tell my dad to stop ‘nipping the shop for an onion’ it’s not important, it’s not essential and every time you ‘pop out’ you’re putting yourself at risk. Hmm

ImsorryWilson · 21/01/2021 21:23

Cornish - is an army medic a doctor? (Sorry for ignorance).

Is the usual ambulance driver a qualified paramedic?

SquirmOfEels · 21/01/2021 21:26

I think portering duties is a euphemism for morgue duties

ImsorryWilson · 21/01/2021 21:32

Another silly question: there are police officers and firefighters are driving ambulances.....are there more vehicles being “rebranded” as ambulances? Or is it that the ambulances are no longer parked at any time.

The logistics are quite interesting when you don’t have to fix them yourself.

ImsorryWilson · 22/01/2021 19:34

bump

Tavannach · 22/01/2021 20:11

Yesterday's Guardian. Haven't seen them myself.

MRex · 22/01/2021 20:16

@ImsorryWilson - yes, all the private ambulances for a start. Some police vans, small vans and even cars have been repurposed. They have lights fitted and transfers stating ambulance (front, back, sides) but paintwork is otherwise unchanged.

MRex · 22/01/2021 20:18

I haven't seen the buses though, looks like they're new.

ImsorryWilson · 22/01/2021 20:26

Wow,

“yes, all the private ambulances for a start”

I had no Idea there was such a thing as a private ambulance!

RoseAndRose · 22/01/2021 20:39

@ImsorryWilson

Wow,

“yes, all the private ambulances for a start”

I had no Idea there was such a thing as a private ambulance!

A private ambulance is a euphemism for a (non-hearse) vehicle for the transport of thevdead (eg from hospital morgue to undertaker's premises)
ImsorryWilson · 22/01/2021 20:49

Oh I seeeeeeeeee!

It did seem really strange that somebody wanting private healthcare would need a private ambulance – I was thinking why haven’t they sorted it out in advance?

:)

ImsorryWilson · 22/01/2021 20:53

Hang on.......If all the private ambulances are being used for live people who or what is transporting the dead? Horses and carts?

abetterlife21 · 22/01/2021 21:15

@ICUNurse

Out on the street everything is as normal, people are acting as if nothing is happening. Things are closed of course and masks in shops and on public transport, but other than that you wouldn’t know anything is happening. I work in ICU in a central London teaching hospital and the situation is absolutely dire. Not just in ICU actually but on the wards as well. It’s much, much worse than the first wave and actually beyond my worst nightmares. The fact is quite simply that if you need Intensive care now, (for covid or any other reason) you will not receive good care. You may survive, due to the exceptional efforts of NHS staff but the nurse looking after you will either be looking after multiple other critically ill patients or alternatively may have no ICU experience at all.

I’m so fearful for the coming weeks, my patients and the mental health of myself and my colleagues.

@icunurse just wanted to say thank you.
londonmummy1234 · 22/01/2021 21:27

@StillGoingToWork

If you mean is there someone with a bell shouting "Bring Out Your Dead!" in the street I think you might be disappointed. Grin
Hahaha sorry this killed me.
istherelifeafter40 · 22/01/2021 21:45

We love LTN. My partner is asthmatic and the air has become much cleaner so he has to use his inhaler less. DS can go rollerskating where previously there were always crazy drivers using our street as a rat-run to save 5 minutes and driving at crazy speeds past our children. I am also a driver and I don't mind taking a longer route if it makes children safer.

hopsalong · 22/01/2021 22:04

I've had Covid and so has pretty much everyone else I know. Not that I see them. But when I go for my daily walk the pavements are very crowded. More so than usual. Normal traffic though less at rush hour. Lots of ambulances shrieking part. The worst part, for me, is the growing epidemic of poverty and mental illness. I darted across the road today (this was near Holland Park tube of all places) because a crazy-looking man who was shouting at everyone suddenly picked on me, asking for money, and something about the way he was moving unnerved me. I haven't done that in years and I don't think ever in day-time. Also lots of homeless people, no one helping. Human shit on the street by Shepherd's Bush tube. Dog shit absolutely everywhere. The other day my husband called 999 because he found a homeless woman who seemed to be unconscious (not dead) in the place where we've seen her before. Actually he thinks now that maybe she was dead, but he obviously didn't want to get close enough to check. Lots of kids selling weed. And lots of hipster coffee. I saw a man today spend £25 on cherries at a greengrocer's on a flash side street. Pretty chaotic, really.

Singinginshower · 23/01/2021 00:16

£25 on cherries???
hopsalong
Your words catch the madness of the world we're in, and the contrast in the lives of the haves and the have nots.

Titsywoo · 23/01/2021 00:21

@hopsalong

I've had Covid and so has pretty much everyone else I know. Not that I see them. But when I go for my daily walk the pavements are very crowded. More so than usual. Normal traffic though less at rush hour. Lots of ambulances shrieking part. The worst part, for me, is the growing epidemic of poverty and mental illness. I darted across the road today (this was near Holland Park tube of all places) because a crazy-looking man who was shouting at everyone suddenly picked on me, asking for money, and something about the way he was moving unnerved me. I haven't done that in years and I don't think ever in day-time. Also lots of homeless people, no one helping. Human shit on the street by Shepherd's Bush tube. Dog shit absolutely everywhere. The other day my husband called 999 because he found a homeless woman who seemed to be unconscious (not dead) in the place where we've seen her before. Actually he thinks now that maybe she was dead, but he obviously didn't want to get close enough to check. Lots of kids selling weed. And lots of hipster coffee. I saw a man today spend £25 on cherries at a greengrocer's on a flash side street. Pretty chaotic, really.
I noticed this when I was in London last August - so much homelessness although I couldn't tell if that was just that people had moved to areas they might have been moved on from before? Also lots of people shouting and trying to start fights in the day and night. Again that may have been more homeless people with MH issues being in areas where I hadn't seen them before?
Titsywoo · 23/01/2021 00:23

@ImsorryWilson

Wow,

“yes, all the private ambulances for a start”

I had no Idea there was such a thing as a private ambulance!

Have you never seen a black van that says private ambulance on the side? It's for transporting dead bodies.
TheFlis12345 · 23/01/2021 00:25

Where are you @hopsalong ?!? It sounds like I live very close by and in my experience the streets have been very quiet the last couple of weeks. My main frustration is the playgrounds (Hyde Park / Holland Park / Brook Green) which have been more packed than a busy summer day!!! I also don’t know anyone nearby who has had Covid in the last 6 months.

Tavannach · 23/01/2021 03:31

I'm not recognising hopsalong's London either and I'm not that far from Holland Park. Most places are fairly quiet except for the parks which are full to bursting with people walking, walking, walking. And lately I've noticed elderly people who sem to have emerged blinking and smiling into the daylight. Presumably they've had their vaccinations.

Fizzgigg · 23/01/2021 09:10

@Tavannach

I'm not recognising hopsalong's London either and I'm not that far from Holland Park. Most places are fairly quiet except for the parks which are full to bursting with people walking, walking, walking. And lately I've noticed elderly people who sem to have emerged blinking and smiling into the daylight. Presumably they've had their vaccinations.
I don't recognise it either. I'm closer to Victoria/Westminster. Parks are busy with people walking but streets are quiet. Homelessness is high - really high - but that's been a steady increase over the last 10 years.
Sunplanetearth8 · 23/01/2021 13:21

I don’t recognise hopsalong’s london either. Homelessness isn’t a new problem, I’m sure it has gotten worse during the pandemic but it isn’t visually worse (in my part of london) than it was a year ago (thanks to the Tories, a year ago I thought it was the saddest I’d seen it).

I haven’t had Covid myself - that I know of. While I do know a few people who have, all seem to have had it in March, not now.

I do see a lot of online anger on local Facebook groups about literally anything though! Casual racism, etc etc. I think people everywhere are going through tough times and it’s leaking out.