What's the real situation in hospitals and GP surgeries?

[CornishGem1975]

I keep reading mixed reports in the press. Some doctors and nurses saying they are overwhelmed, it's busier than last year, heaving ICUs. Then GPs saying they can't see people.

Then there are medical staff saying the total opposite - the NHS is not struggling to cope, they're not seeing tons of cases in hospitals, they're not overwhelmed.

It's hard to get a grasp on what the actual situation is? Would be interested to hear from anyone currently working in those environments right now!

I don’t work there but I can tell you they’re cancelling surgery left right and centre.

I work in a hospital in women's health and gynaecology. Not in London. We've had to cancel many surgeries and investigations because the ICU doesn't have enough beds for if a surgical patient because critically unwell. 1 person with covid who needs ICU will often be there for a week or more, whereas someone needing critical care after surgery may only be in ICU for a day or so. So for every covid patient admitted to ICU, that's denying several surgical patients a bed if they were to require it, so we have to cancel surgeries.

I have done some cover shifts elsewhere. Things are getting pretty bad again. It's hard because so many staff are off this week with covid.

It’s business as usual here, and in the hospital my sil works at

Our GP surgery only has GP appointments on certain days as he only work 2 days a week - the words of the receptionist. Guess he is earning a top up elsewhere doing COVID jabs?

I’m sitting in a hospital right now where I’ve been waiting for a bed since Tuesday. They’ve put on the wrong ward for now; but it means I keep being forgotten. There are too few beds; and they’re four staff members down on the ward I need, which combined means can’t cope.

I have no idea if the staff are off with Covid, but I can well believe that this isn’t just the case here in this specific hospital.

Then there are medical staff saying the total opposite - the NHS is not struggling to cope, they're not seeing tons of cases in hospitals, they're not overwhelmed.

Who (with any authority) is saying this?

I work in a GP surgery and have done for 11 years. I have never been so busy. We have been seeing patients f2f all the way through and continue to do so, including Covid suspect patients in a hot hub with a paper mask and plastic apron for protection. My clinics are full for the next month, there'll be a reasonable proportion of people don't turn up though, as always. Frustrating. As are those that do turn up with several problems and make digs that we were closed last year. We weren't.
We've lost three staff with over 100 years experience within the last month to early retirement. The remaining GP's are all pt and aren't topping up doing anything. More misconceptions. FT is just too much for just this reason.
Four of the six practice nurses (of which i am one) will be retiring in the next 2-5 years, if not sooner.
Don't enjoy the job ATM.

We don't have alot of covid in our hospital, but alot of staff are isolating with it atm! Which is causing problems!

I'm an outpatient and have been for years.

During COVID I haven't seen my consultants but they have sent up an email triage address and are really quick to respond. I have also had a medical examination which involved a test and isolation before the procedure. Although it's annoying you just want to speak to someone they have been helpful and I've had the treatment I've needed and 1 hospital admission, although this was put off for as long as possible.

I haven't had any issues accessing the GP either for me or my children.

Area might be relevant as some eg London have different rates atm

I work in different GP surgeries across the UK as a specialist. Mainly 3 counties but my company covers the UK so MH colleagues keep me updated on other areas in the UK. It is fair to say that almost every practice I've been in is still offering F2F for patients that need it. But also I have never seen practices so busy. They are now dealing with patients that have not had treatment / are sicker than they might have been. Also patients that have not sought help when they should. They have had to work on skeleton staff as there is usually someone off with covid - either admin or clinical. And even prior to covid, there wasn't enough staff, nurses, GPs. Now they are having to make decisions to stop certain services in order to continue seeing patients that really need to be seen. From a financial point of view, a lot of practices have massively suffered also. Top up payments that some got for additional services don't happen any more, because they don't have capacity to offer the additional services. And the QoF contract that most incomes are based on has been incredibly difficult to achieve this year because of reduced capacity (it was halted in 2020-2021 but not for this financial year).

@CorrBlimeyGG Other NHS workers - some GPs most recently.

I am a Dr in A&E, worked through the pandemic. Covid is putting pressure on the system but in a very different way to the 2nd wave. 2nd wave lots of critically ill patients overwhelming the whole system.

Now we are massively busy in A&E with a huge number of patients. Not a huge amount of critically ill Covid patients, a few but not in the numbers we had this time last year. A few requiring oxygen support on the ward. But right now a lot of incidental positive Covid tests on asymptomatic patients who are been admitted for something different. Say appendicitis. Also a lot of patients attending but not requiring admission. The increase in workload with Covid is immense, the extra testing, the deep cleaning of all the cubicles, when you have so many Covid patients coming in, even if they are not clinically unwell, you have to put them in a side room often leaving unwell elderly patients in the waiting room as our trolley spaces are full of Covid patients! Then you have the dilemma of discharging then home when they have no one in their household who can collect them... so there is now Covid secure transport! This translates into ward care and in operating theatres. It's just mind boggling the impact it is having even with mild cases! Lots of extra interventions and a huge amount of time and resources are needed, even for very mild cases.

The other problem we have now here in London is a huge amount of staff off sick with Covid, I worked a shift when we were down 50% Drs and nurses!

Very busy in my midlands based trust. A&E full every day. ICU is full. A lot of staff off with omicron.