How much longer are we meant to do this?

[Creamteaincornwall]

I have so many friends who are at the end of their tether. Some suicidal, many almost.
I attend a zoom support group for my mental health and emotional well being as I have BPD and ASD. The last few weeks have been horrendous, every person is at the lowest they’ve been since the beginning of all this.
The amount of posts I’ve read on various Facebook groups of people saying they don’t want to get up in the morning anymore, they just stay in bed. Surely this isn’t doing anyone any good physically or mentally?
Surely this will put most in a weaker position if they were to catch covid?

How much more are we all suppose to take of this? With no end in sight?

DF caught Covid in hospital. PP are right. If hospitals cannot separate Covid/non Covid people what is the point?

But stick a few adverts on billboards telling the public to look a bus driver in the eye and say your journey is essential. That will make all the difference to the spread of The Virus

If hospitals cannot separate Covid/non Covid people what is the point

The point of what.

What is the point of this post?

Are hospitals supposed to have magical powers? Obviously you must be safer in a hospital because they have medicine? Is that it? Viruses observe the yellow lines between cubicles? Has it also escaped your notice that doctors are not immune despite PPE?

GPs are doing everything they can to keep elderly patients out of hospitals in the safety of their own homes if possible because they have more space there. Less chance for the virus to hop around between people.

If hospitals cannot separate Covid/non Covid people what is the point

The point of what.

What is the point of this post?

If you are covid positive you are not allowed to leave your house for 10 days so you dont spread the virus so it seems a reasonable assumption that a hospital would not mix covid and non covid patients in the same area

People in hospital are being put on mixed wards and covid is spreading. I am not knocking the NHS , but when people hear this is happening it will make them ponder the rules outside hospitals. I don't know why this is happening or why it's not being reported, but it's a fact and even if it's lack of beds or capacity it is happening and does make a bit of a mockery of the rules that are in place outside. It's spreading in our hospitals despite everyone's best efforts.
It is sad and I don't have the answers here but if patients are being exposed this way then something is going wrong somewhere and separating them isn't being done.

The 'cases' reported every day are predominantly hospital cases / care home cases. Community cases are very low. Even if you think your community cases are high.....ask yourself this - is there a care home or hospital in your district......

@BonnieDundee

DF caught Covid in hospital. PP are right. If hospitals cannot separate Covid/non Covid people what is the point?

But stick a few adverts on billboards telling the public to look a bus driver in the eye and say your journey is essential. That will make all the difference to the spread of The Virus

And yet all the Covid hospitals that were built are sitting empty.

Hospitals are mixing covid patients with non covid patients I've heard today

Can confirm this is the case, both via discussions with my neighbour, who is a hospital consultant, and because DP’s colleague was diagnosed with covid yesterday, having caught it from the patient in the next bed after a minor op last week. Luckily he’s asymptomatic - but the one person I know who has died from covid caught it in hospital in similar circumstances.

A big part of this was that hospitals where we are (London) were so overwhelmed back in December/January that they reverted to crisis mode and normal infection control went out the window. But it does make the lengths the rest of us are expected to go to seem a bit ridiculous.

@EberhardtSmallcock

Anyway, the later lockdowns have been a lot weaker than the first one

Not in my wrecked universe, they haven't.

Don't assume it's the same for everyone. Each subsequent lockdown makes life even worse for me.

Not on a personal level. But a lot more shops are open, building sites are open, tradesmen are working in peoples' homes, factories are open. A lot more people on the roads, in buses, in trains. So, yes, this lockdown is a lot weaker than the first.

@Pootle40

The 'cases' reported every day are predominantly hospital cases / care home cases. Community cases are very low. Even if you think your community cases are high.....ask yourself this - is there a care home or hospital in your district......

Literally everyone I know who has caught covid has caught it in a care setting or hospital. It's something that needs addressing and isn't being reported. The latest is my brother, He and SIL have been isolating since last March (both have ECV conditions), so having food and medicines delivered etc. A couple of weeks ago they went to the hospital for an essential scan for her - they said they felt vulnerable as there were so many people (mostly staff) walking around, some not wearing masks, mostly not social distancing, not to mention having to sit in a cramped waiting area for ages for the scan. A few days ago, they both tested positive and are now in hospital themselves. If they can't do proper infection control in hospitals, we're doomed.

This is my concern. If there is going to be vaccine escape this is where it will happen too.

I had to see the nurse in our GP practice at the end of 2019 about my ears and we were chatting about infection control in hospitals. She said that years ago one cleaner would be responsible for one ward and how throughly it was done and taken so seriously. Standards dropped over the years ( cost cutting) cleaning was out sourced and generally it became quite lax at times : as a nurse she saw how dangerous the situation was becoming and how standards had dropped considerably since she first started out.
I often think of this conversation and although I'm sure they are all doing their best , it must be impossible now to keep the virus from spreading between all the wards :(

Most hospitals are having Covid negative and positive wards. But also a query ward for anyone where they're waiting for the pcr results to come back which takes 24 hours.

After 24 hrs they'll be moved to the appropriate ward.

The lateral flow tests aren't accurate enough to be used for this but my hospital are using them on the query ward until the pcr results come back and separating the query ward into positive lateral flow and negative lateral flow bays.

Not sure what else can be done

@Covidcorvid

Most hospitals are having Covid negative and positive wards. But also a query ward for anyone where they're waiting for the pcr results to come back which takes 24 hours.

After 24 hrs they'll be moved to the appropriate ward.

The lateral flow tests aren't accurate enough to be used for this but my hospital are using them on the query ward until the pcr results come back and separating the query ward into positive lateral flow and negative lateral flow bays.

Not sure what else can be done

They can stop staff moving between covid/non covid wards for a start. Obviously "some" staff need to, such as doctors who have patients in both, but they should fully change their clothes, wash, etc between them. What I can't understand is why it's deemed acceptable for the likes of cleaners, food delivery staff, etc to have free run of the hospital and do superficial things like change their gloves, but keep the same clothing etc - just put on PPE when entering the covid areas. I also find it strange that hospitals have covid wards literally next to, or across the corridor from non covid wards - if covid is airborne, then it can easily spread through air ducting etc so putting covid/non covid wards next door to eachother has the potential to spread it via the air. Our hospital has 3 distinct buildings - that layout would be ideal to have a whole building for covid wards and a whole building for non covid wards, but no, they have covid/non covid wards mixed throughout all three buildings. My OH goes to the cancer day treatment unit which is on the 2nd floor in one of the buildings. We were horrified to find out that there are covid wards on the first and third floors, literally above and below the room where extremely clinically vulnerable people are having their chemo, so there'll be staff on the stairs and in the lifts who've been exposed to covid, freely mingling with staff giving chemo treatment (not to mention staff toilets/canteens etc which are common to the whole building).

They could operate Covid Hospitals and non-Covid Hospitals. They could run the empty Covid Hospitals that they built. They could cease all non-essential medical care, reassign staff and repurpose facilities.

But than that would require co-ordination, management, and leadership, all of which have been absent in the NHS for more than 20 years.

@ElliFAntspoo

They could operate Covid Hospitals and non-Covid Hospitals. They could run the empty Covid Hospitals that they built. They could cease all non-essential medical care, reassign staff and repurpose facilities.

But than that would require co-ordination, management, and leadership, all of which have been absent in the NHS for more than 20 years.

Sad but true.

I will never understand this.

I can’t do this much longer . People seem to be meeting up with friends and family indoors a lot more

@the80sweregreat

I had to see the nurse in our GP practice at the end of 2019 about my ears and we were chatting about infection control in hospitals. She said that years ago one cleaner would be responsible for one ward and how throughly it was done and taken so seriously. Standards dropped over the years ( cost cutting) cleaning was out sourced and generally it became quite lax at times : as a nurse she saw how dangerous the situation was becoming and how standards had dropped considerably since she first started out. I often think of this conversation and although I'm sure they are all doing their best , it must be impossible now to keep the virus from spreading between all the wards :(

I was on a high dependency unit with my baby and the amount of parents/visitors in and out who did not wash their hands was shocking. This was obviously pre Covid but there was no one checking and these were critically ill babies and children. What hope do we have.

DF was negative on admittance and on discharge tested positive. They had to readmit him....

@the80sweregreat

I had to see the nurse in our GP practice at the end of 2019 about my ears and we were chatting about infection control in hospitals. She said that years ago one cleaner would be responsible for one ward and how throughly it was done and taken so seriously. Standards dropped over the years ( cost cutting) cleaning was out sourced and generally it became quite lax at times : as a nurse she saw how dangerous the situation was becoming and how standards had dropped considerably since she first started out. I often think of this conversation and although I'm sure they are all doing their best , it must be impossible now to keep the virus from spreading between all the wards :(

Trouble is (as told by my SIL who is a nurse), that in training a couple of decades ago, they were paranoid about cross infection re blood, from the days of Aids etc., so if it's not "red", they're not that interested, as they can't see it. So clear liquids, aerosol, etc., is pretty much ignored. Hence why surfaces such as chair sides, table tops, door handles, etc are often sticky - they're just not prioritised by the cleaners.

In answer to the OP @Creamteaincornwall as long as they can keep raking it in.

Here we go again. If this is as successful as test and trace expect to keep locking down so they can profit.
bylinetimes.com/2021/02/10/friend-of-matt-hancock-wins-14-4-million-ppe-contract/