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Families asked to take in Covid-positive loved ones as NHS faces 'perfect storm'
Trusts declare critical incidents as heavy demand, staff shortages and Covid cases overwhelm health service
On Wednesday evening, the crisis became so acute in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight that its chief medical officer urged relatives of patients well enough to be discharged to collect them immediately – even if they were still testing positive for coronavirus.
Dr Derek Sandeman, of the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care System, revealed that almost every hospital in the two counties was full, and said the number of people with Covid-19 being cared for in hospitals across the area was 650 – more than 2.5 times higher than in early January. He added that 2,800 staff working for local NHS organisations were off sick, half of which absences were due to Covid-19.
...
Earlier on Wednesday, a major ambulance trust, South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS), which covers 7 million people across Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hampshire, Oxfordshire, Sussex and Surrey, declared a critical incident after “extreme pressures” forced it to prioritise patients with life-threatening illnesses.
At the same time, six hospitals across Yorkshire issued a joint warning for people to stay away from emergency departments except for in “genuine, life-threatening situations” after a surge in numbers left some patients waiting for up to 12 hours.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/06/nhs-enormous-strain-england-trusts-declare-critical-incidents
On Wednesday evening, the crisis became so acute in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight that its chief medical officer urged relatives of patients well enough to be discharged to collect them immediately – even if they were still testing positive for coronavirus.
Dr Derek Sandeman, of the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care System, revealed that almost every hospital in the two counties was full, and said the number of people with Covid-19 being cared for in hospitals across the area was 650 – more than 2.5 times higher than in early January. He added that 2,800 staff working for local NHS organisations were off sick, half of which absences were due to Covid-19.
...
Earlier on Wednesday, a major ambulance trust, South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS), which covers 7 million people across Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hampshire, Oxfordshire, Sussex and Surrey, declared a critical incident after “extreme pressures” forced it to prioritise patients with life-threatening illnesses.
At the same time, six hospitals across Yorkshire issued a joint warning for people to stay away from emergency departments except for in “genuine, life-threatening situations” after a surge in numbers left some patients waiting for up to 12 hours.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/06/nhs-enormous-strain-england-trusts-declare-critical-incidents
https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/coronavirus-data-explorer?zoomToSelection=true&time=2020-03-01..latest&uniformYAxis=0&pickerSort=desc&pickerMetric=new_cases_per_million&Metric=Cases%2C+tests%2C+positive+and+reproduction+rate&Interval=7-day+rolling+average&Relative+to+Population=true&Color+by+test+positivity=false&country=~GBR
Nationwide, the number of detected new cases is now going down, though it's still above what it was at the start of 2021, when the highest number of patients in hospital with Covid occurred. But our testing is now down to the level it was before March 2021 (which was when the lateral flow tests became widely available). The number in hospital is now higher than it has been since mid-February 2021. But back then, we had plenty of restrictions - the NHS was struggling, but something was being done to help it out. Johnson said scrapping restrictions was a "moment of pride". Reckless fucker.