Boris..intensive care..

I pray he gets well soon - he is in good hands.

I agree with Jane10 and others that sticking with the leadership we have is the best option. They are a team of highly intelligent and competent people taking advice from the best sources. A government of national unity would be anything but, too many cooks and all that...……………..

I'd just like to add that I personally wish Boris Johnson a speedy and full recovery. It is my opinion that he's the best man for the job.

I too wish Boris well and hope he recovers quickly.

I am appalled that the Harry Paterson thread has been deleted, surely we are intelligent enough to discuss alternative view points. Apparently we have to be protected from such things.

tickingbird thank you for that interesting information. Why I wonder does it not surprise me?

GrannyIggle what a lovely post, thank you.

notanan2 thank you for all your level headed and factual posts re the allocation of intensive care beds. You are of course completely correct. Patients are assessed as to their need, not who they are, when intensive care or ventilation is required. Some patients are assessed as unlikely to do well or survive despite intensive care. It was forever thus.

We must stick with the government we have, pulling in people who been out of government for years would simply muddy the waters. Plus far too many big egos. No, we should go forward with what we have.

Difficult to know how to respond here, with so many people jumping down each other's throats. I just want to make two points.

On the news last night, it was said that Boris was not currently on a ventilator "but there is one waiting if he needs it". I don't doubt it. I would like to be sure that there was one each waiting for others who need them, and for those who will need that help in the coming weeks.

I also differ from those who are worrying that we need his leadership. The delays and ineptitude of this government's response has surely cost many more lives. I doubt whether it would be any better or worse without him at the helm.

That doesn't mean I don't care about his condition. It goes without saying that I wish him a speedy recovery. I dislike him as a politician but I have nothing but sympathy for him as a man. My thoughts are with him and all those who are suffering from this dreadful disease.

Get well soon Boris.

sirchen I think you should find that I started to deconstruct it.

GNHQ appear to have lost their critical ability.

The piece of prose by a journalist deserved critical debate, just as so much literature and poetry does paddyanne as the messenger did not.

The PM is critically ill. Our country is going through a crises.

But we will survive.

We wish him well, as well as all those others who are critically ill.

Many of us now will know of someone who has died, each of us will react in a different way, with anger or bewilderment, with shock or total distress, or a mixture of all.

Grief does that. It is bloody. It is final. I hate it.

I am always suspicious of someone who says they 'know' something because of contacts in the NHS. Do people really think that ITU and other staff are going to go around disclosing the limits of their hospital? They could finish up in serious trouble. And rumours and stories always spread in organisations and are passed on as truth.

Boris has got to get well because when I think of the politicians in high office the only one who can lead us through this and finalise Brexit is Boris Johnson.

Oh my. Yesterday the best reckoning about the numbers of people with coronavirus exceeded 1,288,000. This is almost certainly an underestimate and once it take hold in Africa we will probably never be able to count the numbers lost.

If you aren't interested in that, the outcome when it is finally under control is that it's quite possible that the whole world economy will have changed and it will certainly have a much, much bigger impact than the World Financial Crisis did. And you are worried about Brexit, Irish Lady.

Anything I say about that would almost certainly have my post deleted but perhaps I could suggest you get a sense of proportion about this.

For Jane 10 and others. A government of national unity has nothing to do with experts. It means that the Prime Minister forms a cabinet with members from all political parties rather than solely from his or her own party. Party politics are seen to be a distraction and are put aside in a time which is considered to be a national emergency such as war. It happened during the Second World War.
Whatever one may think of Boris Johnson as a person or as a politician, and I am not a fan, the Prime Minister is a key worker if anyone is, and like other key workers at this time has put his own health at risk to do his job. For which he and all the other key workers deserve gratitude and credit. My blessings on him and his family and on everyone who is struggling in hospital today and on those who love them.

I have always supported Boris, and believe he and his strong cabinet are following carefully the advice from the chief medical officer and virologists. The government does not need Labour. Let us not forget when we had the economic crisis in 2008 the Labour government at the time bailed out the banks but let ordinary people go under. I can remember how many people had their houses repossessed. This Conservative government led by Boris has gone to extraordinary lengths to try to protect and help ordinary employees as well as the self employed and urged banks to give mortgage holidays where people have been affected by this terrible virus. Boris has led this effort and worked tirelessly to try to minimise loss of life. He has probably put this work before his own health. Boris is male and overweight. We know 71% of those that died are male and 70% are overweight or have another underlying health issue. On the plus side Boris does not smoke, has lost some weight since he has been with Carrie, he runs, rides a bike and plays occasional tennis. Above all Boris is a fighter and will be trying as hatd as he can to fight off this dreadful virus. The country needs Boris back in no 10, recuperating. He will be getting the best care from the NHS and many are calling for a clap for Boris tonight at 8pm. I hope he makes a full recovery asap and knows how much this country supports him and appreciates all he has done for ordinary people in this Corona Virus pandemic.

I must have missed your post WWMk2 - I just know that the vast, vast majority of posts didn’t critically deconstruct it and went instead to personally attack paddy for sharing something that’s in the public domain, simply because it called Boris into question and they didn’t like it (although the author made it clear he does not wish Johnson or supporters any ill).

I don’t think anyone on here has said they want him dead or that they wish him a long battle against this, or at least I sincerely hope they haven’t - but people have long memories. We’ve watched him vote against a pay rise for public sector workers, his colleagues cheering when it was blocked, the creeping privatisation of the NHS in England, the derogatory comments made about staff who work for it - and there’s a huge amount of disquiet that I don’t think can be ignored.

GracesGranMK3 this flipping virus will have devastating consequences for the poorer nations, Africa, India (I know that not all Indians are poor but millions of them are), Pakistan, Bangladesh, the villages in Thailand. I fear whole families and communities will be wiped out.

Like you say when the medical/scientific communities have got Covid-19 under control and the world emerges from its current nightmare I think it will be a different place for most of us.

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I really like Boris he has a positive attitude which the country needs unlike the negative opinions of the likes of Laura kinsburg or whatever her name is and Robert Peston they are told that we haven't reached the peak of infection yet and they are saying that we the public want to know when the lockdown will be lifted no I don't I understand we need to wait until the peak has flatten out. Sorry about the rant but they really get my back up I hope Boris a speedy recovery

Nobody as yet has been declined a ventillator because there are none.

We're not there yet. We may be next week, the week after, but it hasnt reached that stage yet. ITU beds are nationalised. If there us none at your hospital and you need one you or someone else will be moved further out.

Not everyone is offered ventillation because it is an enormous trauma on the body and the mind and not everyone will come out the other side of it with any quality of life. This is what decisions are being based on up to the present moment. Not "no ventillators"

BJ is now on oxygen support.

notanan2 ditto

Gagajo which comes in various forms, tubes, masks or CPAP totally different to being on a ventilator.

I don't have any doubt GrannyGravy. The economic system, as we know it could be changed out of all recognition.

Patriotism too. A virus is not another country we can fight with armies and sharing with countries may be the only way we move forward on this. Nativism will seem very out of place. We will - I so sincerely hope - have to have a compact with nurses, carers, doctors, cleaners, etc., etc., and pay them appropriately and care for them properly. Paying huge sums for "goods" may come to seem very strange.

Major shocks have been seen to lead to political change - that could be interesting and I am not going to guess what those changes might be. To be in a situation where this could be the future and think Brexit matters - will there be an EU to leave?; will we form another and different cohort of countries? - seems to have missed the breadth of what is happening.

However, I can sympathise with those who do want to bury their heads. I really don't want to think about what will happen in countries with a third world population.

Although CV19 is a respiratory disease, it isnt necessarily the lungs that need to most ITU support. Other organs can fail during this illness such as the kidneys and heart and ventillation isnt the only tool in the ITU box.

Not being on a ventillator doesnt mean no or less organ failure. Its just ONE of their tools

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Hawelka you have just re posted the OP on a thread that was deleted this morning?

I can only assume this Harry Patterson is beside himself with grief for his brother and angry there were not enough ventilators in Nottingham for his brother to be given one. The government put the extra resourcescto Nightingdale hospital in London as virus was more prevalent there. They are currenly working on next Nightingdale hospital in Birmingham, as virus high in this area. The government is currently trying to get hold of more ventilators but as global pandemic all countries are seeking them too. We are lucky the UK has a lot of inovators like GTec, Dyson, Rolls Royce, etc who have designed new fentilators for us and some will be ready by weekend. We cannot get parts for old ventilators so needed new design.

Boris stable overnight and still not on ventilator. Good news. He needs to rest to fight virus.