Dad, 27 dies days after discharging himself from A&E over fear he’d catch covid

[OrangesAndLemons2]

metro.co.uk/2021/01/21/dad-27-dies-after-discharging-himself-from-ae-over-covid-fears-13940963/

I really think the media needs to be held accountable for this. The complete blanket reporting on covid and the constant doom stories are keeping people terrified. Yes, awareness needs to be raised so that people follow the rules and guidelines. But when it comes to something like this, somebody, a young person, too scared to get help for another potentially life threatening issue, then it becomes a big problem.

"Was he really placed in a 'Covid ward'? Or a ward of people awaiting Covid results?

We don't know."

No, but we have to go on the information we've got.

@Gwenhwyfar

"Was he really placed in a 'Covid ward'? Or a ward of people awaiting Covid results?

We don't know."

No, but we have to go on the information we've got.

It's entirely possible that the ward was mixed. If the hospital was very full it may well have had covid + patients on a ward with unknown covid status patients. The hospital would have weighed up the risk of covid vs the risk of asking the man to present at another hospital.

"t's entirely possible that the ward was mixed. If the hospital was very full it may well have had covid + patients on a ward with unknown covid status patients. The hospital would have weighed up the risk of covid vs the risk of asking the man to present at another hospital."

Yes, but there's no point speculating. In the article he says he was placed in a Covid ward. That may not be right, but if we're discussing here, the article is the closest thing to evidence that we have so we should be using that as a basis for our discussion and not other people's guesses.

You can’t just present yourself at another hospital. Chances are they are just as full.

A lot of wards have negative patients and positive and people who are awaiting results. It’s been like this for MONTHS!

The reason being patients need to be on that ACTUAL ward. So it’s not always as simple to move patients around.

It is the reality my Dsis MIL was very ill and refused hospital eventually she went contracted Covid19 after a 6 week stay, she died last week.

A lot of wards have negative patients and positive and people who are awaiting results. It’s been like this for MONTHS

Short of being in need of immediate urgent help why not test people on entry to A&E and have a room where people can wait so they are sat socially distanced from one another till they get their results. This can be done whilst they wait to see the nurse or doctor.
Tests can be done and results got within 20 minutes. Then those infected or not infected can be separated before going onto a Covid ward when they don’t have Covid

What is the point of nurses and doctors crying if their own practices lead to more infections and more deaths,

There just isn’t any thought behind this.

In hospitals they use the proper PCR tests. I’ve never know. A test result to take 20minutes to come back. They take hours to get the results. Swobs need to be collected or podded sometimes.

People cannot just wait in a room though. I think the difficult part is every patient is needing to go to VARIOUS departments... so it does seem madness to mix infection but what do you do if a patient is positive but NEEDS to be on a specific ward? There’s only so many side rooms available around 4.

Plus you have other severe things such as end of life patients needing a side room too. In reality there’s no simple solution.

A&E do test patients once they come into contact with a nurse

People cannot just wait in a room though. I think the difficult part is every patient is needing to go to VARIOUS departments

But you do wait in a room before seeing a nurse. You just don’t go into A&E and see someone immediately.

There are 20 minute tests or tests that are quick. Someone I know works in tv and they sometimes use them before they start work that day to make sure Covid hasn’t been brought on to set.

I had a family member admitted to hospital through A&E last month. She was in a holding ward until she tested negative for covid, which I suspect is what happened in this case. Once she tested negative she was moved to another ward. It's not ideal, but a better alternative than patients being admitted for other reasons unknowingly taking covid into wards full of sick people.

It's very sad that this young man discharged himself and lost his life. He shouldn't have had to feel such fear, but I don't know what the answer is.

You wait on a ward with other people like you who are in the "unknown" category. Some of which will turn out to be positive, some will turn out to be negative.

What if some of the potential unknown positive patients infect the unknown negative patients whilst they’re waiting for results? A patient’s test may come back as negative, but the patient could later end up spreading it to others in the non-COVID ward

@sofiaaaaaa

Of course that's a risk, but the only other alternative would be not to admit anyone without knowing the results of their covid test which is just not possible

@Bythemillpond

People cannot just wait in a room though. I think the difficult part is every patient is needing to go to VARIOUS departments

But you do wait in a room before seeing a nurse. You just don’t go into A&E and see someone immediately.

There are 20 minute tests or tests that are quick. Someone I know works in tv and they sometimes use them before they start work that day to make sure Covid hasn’t been brought on to set.

Sorry yes. Your right I didn’t make my point clear. People do wait in a room but not until the result comes back. I work in a hospital personally so I can definitely tell you that awaiting a Covid result often takes hours. Sometimes patients urgently need a bed so how could they wait in a room whilst poorly?? Awaiting a Covid result.

The 20 minute tests are they the lateral ones? Like the work companies are offering? Because I’ve heard if you get a positive you then have to do a PCR test too.

I work in a hospital personally so I can definitely tell you that awaiting a Covid result often takes hours. Sometimes patients urgently need a bed so how could they wait in a room whilst poorly?? Awaiting a Covid result

No idea what sort of tests they are but wouldn’t help to use these sort initially to sort the patients out quickly so those that test negative are spending as little time as possible with those that test positive and then need another test.

It might be the way the NHS works but like most practices it operates on it is deeply flawed

Obviously if you are blue lighted in then that is very different but for a lot of people waiting in A&E they are the walking ill/wounded who are ill but can wait.

The half hour tests have a level of success but certainly not accurate enough to confidently put someone with vulnerable people in a green/ non covid ward

I don’t think it’s actually reported enough. I know people working in the NHS and the situation is dire. That young father should have taken precautions and got his treatment. I’m sure that’s a rare case.

At our A/E they have green and red areas so those with covid are isolated.
Trouble is people presenting with non covid related issues are then testing positive, caught in the community. Equally patients are testing negative but presenting with overt symptoms of it so logistically it's a nightmare for bed managers ! If a patient is negative but has radiological evidence (ground glass opacities) as well as symptoms we place them in amber and staff use full ppe.
I don't agree that infection control in hospitals is woeful. Over the last few years things have really improved, particularly in our trust. Our IC nurses are pretty hot at ensuring we isolate patients with mrsa, clos diff or vre/cpe as soon as poss. Anyone with diarrhoea has to isolate promptly but that's often scuppered by lack of sidewards. One of the main issues affecting transmission of bacteria like mrsa etc is shortage of staff amd lack of protective equipment, pretty obvious if you thing about it.