HCP’s What’s it like in hospitals at the moment?

[Speckledhem]

Just ‘normal’ busy / stressful for this time of year or do you feel Covid is still putting increasing pressure on staff and services?

Some reports on twitter say they very busy but its not all covid.

Ridiculously short staffed. My ward isn't busier than usual because of the type of ward it us but just not enough staff!

Most EDs are fucking awful where I work (paramedic)
So far tonight I've waited 3 hours to offload one patient and another nearly 2 hours with a different patient. There is very little movement as there just isn't the the bed spaces available. Most hospitals are working at capacity.
It's covid, the genuinely sick and injured, mental health, elderly care and those that think A&E is some sort of drop in service.
8-9hr waits to see a doctor are becoming commonplace.

I can only imagine once peak winter hits it'll become apocalyptic.

So sorry for all those that work on health care seems total mess staff will burn out.
So many shortages at gps.

Staffing is a massive issue. Shifts are out to bank daily. People have covid, other illnesses or are just burnt out long term.
The hospital has been busy all summer, there’s been no let up really. Probably not what most think ‘overwhelmed’ is but it’s seriously not far off.

Our covid cases are creeping back up, they’ve been consistent but steady all summer. Also there are community schemes that monitor covid at home too. All need staff. Even for phone calls.

We are in the north though so cases consistently high in this area since delta hit.

But lots of other things coming though the doors and A&E has been rammed for months. Long waits to be seen and ambulances queuing some days.

Winter is always so bad, no beds, ambulance queues, cancelled surgeries but the winter planning this year is expecting much worse. Not sure how you can get much worse but it’s looking likely. I would not want to be relying on urgent care this winter to be honest.

Its sad and scary to see us struggling in October.
Freind who work in heath say its harder as so short staffed either off with covid or poorly children.
Hopefully nhs staff get their boosters fast.
The picture looks different regionally.
Assume all temp hospitals shut.

Covid patients have doubled over the last 10 days. There are bed shortages, staff shortages as staff off sick and also really struggling to fill vacancies. Surgery being cancelled left right and centre.

It's only October.

Staff shortages in our team are all from this minging cold or stress (not A&E but work as a speciality within it).
Usual amounts here. A bit of Covid (mostly elderly or younger but asymptomatic), then the usual stuff. Limbs, strokes, drunks and frailty. Plus a few ones... one lady came to ED yesterday because her pregnancy test was a bit faint.

It's massively busy at the moment. Hospitals are fearing the normal winter bugs that we haven't been exposed to for the last 18 months due to masks are going to overwhelm the system again. Covid is there in the background still but not causing any major reorganization of wards or extra ITU beds to be needed.
It was known in the spring that this would happen and planning should have been going on to cope with this.

I think that's what so frustrating we should have planned for this.
Wonder if flu vaccine be the right recipe.
I think with error in pcr testing causing massive spike some areas will lead to hospitals getting busier.

I haven't seen an increase in Covid in my work.
I work on a really busy ward and at the moment it's horrendous. Half the staff off sick ( not Covid) and unable to cover the shifts so working short staffed all the time.

Some staff have had enough and are leaving. People are burnt out and bodies are suffering with the extra load.

Gp's need to open up and see patients as A&E is getting used like a drop in centre.

“ those that think A&E is some sort of drop in service.”

My mum’s GP surgery told her to go to the hospital (for an ongoing cough / infection - not covid) because they didn’t have any appointments. It’s madness.

@PeterPomegranate We hear this a lot.
What some people seem to extrapolate from that is that they must go to A&E which then equates to some people calling 999 to get to hospital in the belief that they will get seen quicker....

Nope.

iluv our GP surgery is rammed. My clinics are full of f2f appointments for the next six weeks. Completely full. As they have been for months. We've just had three staff with over 100 years experience retire early last month.
Squeezing in extra patients from secondary care blood clinics they won't see, feet problems podiatry won't see, dressings that wound care clinics won't see, walk ins with chest pain as they don't want to go to A&E etc etc etc.

@cptartapp

iluv our GP surgery is rammed. My clinics are full of f2f appointments for the next six weeks. Completely full. As they have been for months. We've just had three staff with over 100 years experience retire early last month. Squeezing in extra patients from secondary care blood clinics they won't see, feet problems podiatry won't see, dressings that wound care clinics won't see, walk ins with chest pain as they don't want to go to A&E etc etc etc.

Different scenario here, i had a huge abscess on my face, phoned the doc and had to send over a photo. Son had tonsilitis, couldn't get seen, had to send a photo. It's not because they are jam packed, they just aren't seeing anyone f2f.

Having seen the photos, are they then organising treatment, either at the surgery or elsewhere?

Because if so, what is the problem with that? It seems very efficient to me.

Exactly. Many, not all but many things don't need seeing f2f. If everyone could book f2f appointments at will, there'd be an even longer wait to be seen, plus the increased risk of Covid (and other infections) spreading round waiting rooms and clinics to old, frail and unwell people.

Extreme Pressures in a huge amount of trusts, staff leaving to work for better money doing less stressful jobs.

People don't want the wages the NHS are offering for working in shit conditions, getting spat, screamed at, kicked, complained about by relatives and then royally shat on by executive management. But don't worry, here's one free pizza for risking your life over covid

On top of that we have staff sickness because people are at their witts end but can't actually afford to leave despite the shit pay and shit working environment and the RSV and colds going around are keeping people off with childcare issues.

[quote FrankiesKnuckle]@PeterPomegranate We hear this a lot.
What some people seem to extrapolate from that is that they must go to A&E which then equates to some people calling 999 to get to hospital in the belief that they will get seen quicker....

Nope. [/quote]
I had a situation recently where my foster child developed an allergic reaction. Mild reaction and as I am medically trained I was happy to observe but phoned 111 as it was the weekend and we needed a GP to assess and officially diagnose allergy.

111 wanted to send an ambulance! I said no, she’s fine. They said she needs to go to A&E immediately. I said no and asked for a GP out of hours appointment. They threatened me with a safeguarding referral for failing to follow medical advice. She’s a foster child so I had to do as ordered and go to A&E where the receptionist promptly diverted me to GP out of hours and they said keep an eye and give her piriton.

111 isn’t fit for purpose sometimes.

Absolutely diabolical

Not a HCP but I have friend and family who are. Our local main hospital, in fact it basically is our only hospital for quite some distance. It is reassigning beds to make COVID space. Admissions ups by 50% in a week. Work is underway to extend ICU. This is being reported by the local council who are sending out alerts.

This is the beginning of the great experiment of allowing it to spread unchecked in the SW. So we are pretty baked in until Christmas. This is mid October. Coming to a place near you soon.

I work in a large hospital on the wards. Covid numbers are not significantly up, but we are at the highest level - ‘extreme pressure’ - and have been for a number of weeks now. We are short-staffed and remaining staff are burnt-out. We are having to put extra beds onto every ward and there are still patients piling up in corridors. It’s hard and it’s stressful and it will only get worse as we move into winter.

Everyone off with burnout but no extra staff. Awful.

Twice as busy as a normal busy time. So bad.
Not covid itself but a lot of A&E who can’t see their GP. Plus genuine late presenting ill.

Not enough hospital social workers in ours too, so lots of people fit for discharge but awaiting placements or packages of care which take time. I think people are looking at how busy the hospitals but it's been bad for years, it doesn't take much to push it over the edge.