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Original poster

To think we just need to use the nightingale hospitals?

305 replies

Mummamama · 11/12/2021 12:46

The (seven I think) nightingale hospitals that were built last year precisely for COVID have barely been used. Why can we not just set these up again and transfer COVID patients to them freeing up normal hospitals for usual things? My understanding was the army was going to he used to staff them, why can this not happen now??
I understand the importance of not overwhelming the NHS but there doesn't seem to be an end game plan anymore, we can't keep having restrictions forever. At some point surely everyone will get COVID and it seems you can get it multiple times. Is it not better then to use our resources to enable the NHS to cope with the inevitable rather than spending huge amounts on lockdowns?

OP posts:
Zilla1 · 13/12/2021 10:17

@storminateacupagain agreed about the non-existence of a magical pool of HCPs waiting in the wings and we can't recruit GPs, ANPs and PNs for the day job.

Astonished at David Davis? on Radio 4 saying the booster vaccinations would predominantly be done by retired folk and private pharmacies. As with the Summer programme, in our area, our PCN delivered the majority of vaccines far in excess of acute, masvac and pharmacies combined. I expect we will have to again for this booster initiative. Bit surprised at Boris' 'done by the end of December' announced last night as the 'done by the end of January' we were planning before would have been a reach. More broken staff by the end of the year then expect the Daily Mail to restart its constant attacks on primary care for the New Year.

gherdl · 13/12/2021 10:22

They could have shifted the bed blockers into the Nightingale hospitals

Player067 · 13/12/2021 10:27

The Potemkin hospitals could never have been used to treat COVID patients because they were never staffed.

Nevertime · 13/12/2021 10:28

I think "hospital" was a misnomer. They were intended to be places to send the most unwell, heavily sedated people to wait for them to die. That's why staffing could have been done, because they wouldn't have been staffed by medics.

Treatment has moved on a very long way since.

AndreaC74 · 13/12/2021 10:32

@gherdl

They could have shifted the bed blockers into the Nightingale hospitals
...putting people 100s of miles away from their family contacts and who exactly would look after them?

Lovely idea.

Bedblockers are real people, let down by the healthservice and Govt who have failed to fund social care correctly.

ChequerBoard · 13/12/2021 10:33

@Nevertime

I think "hospital" was a misnomer. They were intended to be places to send the most unwell, heavily sedated people to wait for them to die. That's why staffing could have been done, because they wouldn't have been staffed by medics.

Treatment has moved on a very long way since.

Exactly this. They were a pretty front on some large dying rooms with the additional morgue capacity attached.

Thank your lucky stars they were not (quite) needed.

jgw1 · 13/12/2021 10:46

Bedblockers are real people, let down by the healthservice and Govt who have failed to fund social care correctly.

Well I don't know why these bedblockers do not have the same common sense as Jacob Rees Mogg to have enriched themsevles at others expense so that nanny can look after them when they are a bit poorly.

Tinysnickers · 13/12/2021 11:01

The Bristol one is currently full of the army, who are apparently going to be busy vaccinating a million people per day.

ancientgran · 13/12/2021 11:10

@jgw1

The armed forces have lots of medically qualified staff including doctors, nurses, etc.

And they are just sat around doing their knitting.

No I made that mistake earlier, apparently they are doing crochet. Think of all the blankets.............
jgw1 · 13/12/2021 11:11

No I made that mistake earlier, apparently they are doing crochet. Think of all the blankets.............

That's good because the Nightingale hospitals looked like quite drafty places.

EIIa · 13/12/2021 11:47

I always thought they were for bodies😂

Clearly they were for desperate situations not standard hospital care

Warhertisuff · 13/12/2021 12:27

@BluebellsGreenbells

UK has had 11,000,000 known cases out of 66,700,000 people

It has a way to go to ‘infect’ everybody.

Let’s assume with the new variant that 1,000,000 people a week catch it. Of those some will require extra care, some hospital, some are young and need parents at home.

Let’s assume 1,500,000 in isolation.

How’s that going to work? We would need 55 weeks at 1,000,000 a week for this to end. Or cripple the hospitals or businesses.

11 million confirmed cases...

Most of the millions of cases in the first wave were never tested. Not everyone gets PCR tests (don't want T&T on their back or aren't up to organising it if they have it) and millions of asymptomatic cases mean that number is a massive underestimate. Cambridge Uni estimates the figure is more like 23 million.

www.mrc-bsu.cam.ac.uk/now-casting/nowcasting-and-forecasting-9th-december-2021/

Warhertisuff · 13/12/2021 12:30

@VaccineSticker

They would be better off throwing extra funding to open up GP surgeries on weekends so sort out the backlog of work and vaccinations etc. I know our doctors are working round the clock and seeing patients face to face but they can’t keep up. This could free up A & E ease the pressure. Assuming there’s enough GPs willing to do it. 😕😞
Who would staff these open surgeries? Magic Covid fairies?
Warhertisuff · 13/12/2021 12:43

@milly74

no its not, some GP surgeries are functioning relatively normally a lot simply are not even still locking their doors. Abandoning their patients, its appalling and defending them is beyond anything

Apart from unhelpfully lashing out at the NHS, what exactly would you do? I'm fed up with the childish "they should do something" attitude...

Your posts remind me of some of the absurd posts I've seen on the Daily Mail comments section on this topic... like "cut GPs salaries in half unless they operate exactly like they did before the pandemic" kind of nonsense. People who spout this kind of shit tend to have zero knowledge of how society actually works.

Warhertisuff · 13/12/2021 12:45

@gherdl

They could have shifted the bed blockers into the Nightingale hospitals
There are plenty of "beds" for them in care homes... We don't need "beds"! We have plenty of beds ffs! We need more carers...
CoffeeRunner · 13/12/2021 15:45

And largely it's community carers we need to enable "bed blockers" to return to their own homes.

jgw1 · 13/12/2021 15:49

There are plenty of "beds" for them in care homes... We don't need "beds"! We have plenty of beds ffs! We need more carers...

What if we paid more for carers?
Or hadn't told 1000s of EU carers we didn't like them?

DottyHarmer · 13/12/2021 16:24

You could pay carers the earth and still there would be a shortage. Mil was in a home in an area of deprivation and high unemployment. The home offered quite high rates of pay, good contracts and benefits. They could not get staff - only very mature women seemed to work there, and the kitchen was staffed with prison-leavers. Yet this town has masses of young women milling round the town pushing prams and pushchairs. The choice is between having dcs and being housed, and feeding and cleaning old people. I think I know what most people would choose.

Panacotta · 13/12/2021 17:59

@milly74

no staff waste of money GPs actually seeing patients would take huge pressure off hospitals We locked down to protect the NHS, our reward was the NHS has abandoned us
Yup
Panacotta · 13/12/2021 18:00

Perhaps we could un-Brexit & invite everyone back?

MissyB1 · 13/12/2021 18:11

@Panacotta

Perhaps we could un-Brexit & invite everyone back?
God I really wish we could!!
Aliwali77 · 13/12/2021 18:49

My friend, an army nurse, was due to be deployed to a Nightingale hospital last year. She never did because they never found enough staff to open it.

Warhertisuff · 13/12/2021 19:21

@Panacotta

Perhaps we could un-Brexit & invite everyone back?
Yes, Brexit has had more of an impact of this "crisis" than is generally recognised.

If the care sector wasn't acutely understaffed due to carers returning to Europe, they'd be far fewer bed blockers, and the NHS - who in turn have lost many staff to Brexit - would be in far less of a crisis...

Staffy1 · 13/12/2021 19:56

@Hellocatshome

I think in reality the Nightingale Hospitals were going to be used as holding areas for the dead and dying in a worst case scenario situation. I cant see how they were ever going to be used as actual hospitals with the intention of treating/curing people.
This is what I think too. They were going to be used for what would be classified as hopeless cases so it wouldn’t matter if their were poorly trained or untrained people running them.
RedToothBrush · 13/12/2021 20:14

@Mummamama

The (seven I think) nightingale hospitals that were built last year precisely for COVID have barely been used. Why can we not just set these up again and transfer COVID patients to them freeing up normal hospitals for usual things? My understanding was the army was going to he used to staff them, why can this not happen now?? I understand the importance of not overwhelming the NHS but there doesn't seem to be an end game plan anymore, we can't keep having restrictions forever. At some point surely everyone will get COVID and it seems you can get it multiple times. Is it not better then to use our resources to enable the NHS to cope with the inevitable rather than spending huge amounts on lockdowns?
Is this post a wind up or have you been living in a cave?
  1. they were decommissioned ages ago
  2. they were decommissioned because they hadn't got enough staff