Hospitals critical incidents

[Spottyphonecase24]

I have seen a number of hospital trusts have declared this today. What does this actually mean and how does it affect us? Boris didn’t seem to be bothered by this should we be?

@curlymom

It’s really grim. My husband is at a critical stage in his cancer battle. He was due to see a consultant tomorrow but has been told to stay home for a phone call. Which we are grateful for but these difficult things were always face to face. No way could my husband risk entering a hospital where covid may be rife. The ignorant posters who think staff should go to hospital with mild covid need to think of patients with cancer, heart problems, diabetes….it’s not going to cause mild illness for everyone!

I despair for the undiagnosed

This is what people need to read.

And you're so very right about the undiagnosed. Doubly vulnerable. Not diagnosed - so not taking additional precautions (and not eligible for the currently limited supply of new Covid treatments). And now, thanks to overwhelmed struggling hospitals and staff sickness, facing a long wait to actually get a diagnosis.

Wishing your husband all the best in his battle @curlymom

@Youarefakenews

This is something we all should be playing our part in. We now expect the state to care for our elderly Parents. In Years gone by that role was covered by the family. Perhaps we need to return to that.

Well also in years gone by higher smoking rates meant fewer very elderly.

Who cares for childless elderly btw? And younger disabled people?

Modern medicine has been the biggest gamechanger in life expectancy. To answer your question, if those of us that do have elderly parents to some of the burden off the state, there would be far more provision for the childless or disabled.

The thing is though how do people look after elderly parents when they're working? In the past it was typical to have single income families. That's no longer possible for many due to successive governments inflating the housing market and creating the public health housing emergency.

We can't deny the smoking issue. People were told to stop smoking because it often shortens lives. So they quit, lived longer....and now get seen as a 'burden'. The loss of the significant sum gained from smoking tax (money that helped pay for care) also adds to the issue.

@Youarefakenews

This is something we all should be playing our part in. We now expect the state to care for our elderly Parents. In Years gone by that role was covered by the family. Perhaps we need to return to that.

How far do you want to go back in that return? People dying a few years after reaching pension age? Women with very little control over their fertility and a cultural block to them being in the workplace, so they have large families and are expected to do all the "caring"?

My parents encouraged me to work hard, be the first one in my family to go to Uni and were very proud of my professional career. Both DM and MIL would be outraged if either of us gave up our jobs to care for them full-time. It's up to all of us to plan for our own old-ages and to live with the consequences of our choices when younger.

The obvious solution is for those old folks to tap into the equity (wealth) that now resides in their homes.

Equity Release Mortgage (ERM) should absolutely be a requirement for those folks to fund their care. The only stage at which we (the taxpayers) should step in is when there is no housing wealth to use, and when the ERM has been used up completely.

The gerontocracy that we have in the UK is slowly suffocating it, socio-economically speaking.

My trust announced a critical incident mid December. OPEL 4 has become commonplace in winter in my experience .

My exh has been in hospital in Sheffield over Christmas, they gave him the option of either going home or being moved out of South Yorkshire to another hospital as they were desperate for beds. He is now at home with no rehab.

It means it’s the same as previous years.

Watch the BBC series Hospital, the very first episode of the very first series, no idea when it was filmed but was obviously pre-2019. Shows what happens when they run out of ICU beds and near the end of the episode someone talks about how it's been happening for years and getting worse every year as the population ages

I find it sad the amount of people commenting about how this is what happens every year. Covid or no Covid, surely the fact that it happens every year is something everyone should be up in arms about? Why does it happen every year? Why has our NHS got to the point of being overwhelmed every winter when we know what's coming? Omicron may be generally mild but they won't be admitting people with mild symptoms will they? This is on top of the many other winter bugs that hammer the NHS yearly.

it is not just covid, staff vacancies, staff stress

My meagre contribution is that NHS is always in sodding crisis, every winter. I can't make the most recent news useful.

It means it’s the same as previous years.

Comments like this are false.

Never before have we had a press conference where the PM stood there and said they were putting up tents in car parks.

You're lying to yourself if you think covid has changed nothing.

And the idea that covid-positive staff should be treating the vulnerable is so stupid. You only do that if you want in-hospital infections and deaths to rise.

@lljkk

"Hospitals at ‘breaking point’ as winter NHS crisis deepens" - December 2019.

NHS winter crisis: hospital 'felt like something out of a war zone' - January 2018

"OPEL figures revealed a third of hospitals in December 2016 issued serious alerts about their ability to meet patient pressures."

"At least 15 hospitals are telling patients to stay away as evidence mounts that A&E departments are struggling to cope" - January 2015

Sorry, I shouldn't say this, but I'm having a true 'Boy who Cried Wolf' feeling about news today.

Work in healthcare for 26 years and I echo this….every year there are critical incidents / hospitals on level 4. Every single year. Younger staff saying it’s never been like this do not remember the mid 90’s when 8 hour waits in A&E were common.

@rrhuth

And the idea that covid-positive staff should be treating the vulnerable is so stupid. You only do that if you want in-hospital infections and deaths to rise.

That’s what they’re doing in America now. Seems bonkers.

To me the fact that heart attack victims in the NE are being asked to make their own way to hospital says it all. Instead of trained paramedics blue-lighting their way to you in minutes you've got to ring up and wait for a sodding taxi to make its way through rush hour traffic - assuming you can pay for one of course. Then when you finally make it to A&E they're overwhelmed. How can anyone think this is OK?

and covid patients need isolating which has a knock on effect.

and Australia

Britwife. Which isnt a good thing at all. And if you hear what people on the ground are saying its awful lack of care, and particulalry so with added covid.

If we had a properky funded healthcare system that usually managed winter, maybe adding covid wouldn't have been as disasterous.

Christs sake youare. How are people meant to care for their parents while working, living a distance away or with a tiny house? Honestly.

@Youarefakenews

This is something we all should be playing our part in. We now expect the state to care for our elderly Parents. In Years gone by that role was covered by the family. Perhaps we need to return to that.

How?

Families can barely afford childcare, many can barely afford to have homes big enough for children, let alone elderly relatives. And you’d need one parent at home to provide around the clock care for an elderly relative - not many families can afford a SAHM nowadays.

People move away from relatives to be able to afford a place to live. This is encouraged by society “live where you can afford” etc. as a result, people cannot easily support their relatives physically.

Our previous governments have encouraged a selfish “there’s no such thing as society” model, so it’s a bit rich to call for it now.

@NotJustACigar

To me the fact that heart attack victims in the NE are being asked to make their own way to hospital says it all. Instead of trained paramedics blue-lighting their way to you in minutes you've got to ring up and wait for a sodding taxi to make its way through rush hour traffic - assuming you can pay for one of course. Then when you finally make it to A&E they're overwhelmed. How can anyone think this is OK?

Boris and his little snivelling nasty cabinet think it’s ok.

Because they’ve got all the money and resources in the world, they can’t imagine that these troubles would touch them.

It’s probably why they want to privatise the nhs, to provide a better service for the likes of them I.e those who can afford to buy £90 blue tooth coffee cups.

Is it normally this bad though? People waiting over 12 hours for an ambulance, waiting 4 hours in an ambulance outside the hospital when you get there, etc? As someone who's had a heart attlack in the past, it's very scary to think an ambulance wouldn't come if I called one. I can't imagine any taxi driver wanting the responsibility of taking me to hospital mid heart attack.

currently a 15% absence compared to a usual january 5% absence rate