Breathtaking: facts and lies re COVID in the NHS

I was struck by the extent to which NHS England is run like an army - detailed, often micro-managing, rules handed down from top to toe. No room to manoeuvre. Separate regions was preferable but people dislike postcode lottery. This too needs to be tackled.

During a Downing Street press conference on 15 May, 2020, Hancock said: “Right from the start, it’s been clear that this horrible virus affects older people most. So right from the start, we’ve tried to throw a protective ring around our care homes.” How is that consistent with decanting untested hospital patients into care homes given there was evidence from, e.g., Italy that the virus was highly transmissible?

spabbygirl

I'm disgusted by this gov't attitude to all state things, but especially the NHS, I'm voting Labour, they set up the NHS so will fix it, the Tories had no mandate to interfere with the NHS & tricked us into voting for them & I can't wait to get rid of them for a more compassionate gov't

If you voted for them, surely you understood their 'small-state', market-driven economy ethic? There was no trickery involved!

I would not expect too much, certainly initially, from Labour in terms of 'fixing' the NHS. It has taken a long time for it to reach the parlous state it's in and will take just as long to address all the problems. I believe it will be a mammoth task and that it will be some time before the public sees any real material changes.

Starmer has to run with both hare and hounds if he is to keep faith with the electorate which is, as you realise, hugely divided.

I hope people aren't expecting too much from the party - assuming of course, they win the next election.

I'm simply hoping for a little integrity and honesty - and competence.

Unfortunately from what Rachel Reeves has said about the economy I doubt there will be any change from the Tories but more of the same, and Streeting seems keen to privatise the NHS.

maddyone

I was admitted to hospital with Covid on 1st January 2021. When that date flashed up I was taken back to that day. Although very ill I didn’t require ICU. I found the whole programme very moving and at times difficult to watch.

I remember you telling us of this, you catching covid19 from your DH who visited your Mother when she was discharged from hospital I think? 3 years! I hope you have made a complete recovery.

I don't think anyone has claimed that hospitals 'wanted to kill people' that's an outrageous suggestion. I don't think the government did either, but they clearly failed to listen to expert advice.

I agree, Versavisa.

Extremely moving. And to think what those poor doctors and nurses went through.

It should be watched by everyone as it’s seen and acted out as in real time.

The actors themselves said how draining it was to portray.

Whilst watching this, I could hardly believe that this all happened so recently. And it was real, not fiction.

HousePlantQueen

I don't think anyone has claimed that hospitals 'wanted to kill people' that's an outrageous suggestion. I don't think the government did either, but they clearly failed to listen to expert advice.

Agreed. And I don't think the drama suggested that anyone wanted to kill people either. What it showed was the despair of the staff who were forced to make decisions that they knew would result in the death of patients, because of the lack of care and investment from the very people who partied throughout the pandemic whilst claiming that we were all in it together and should clap the NHS in solidarity.

I don't think that even they wanted to kill people, but many died as a result of their policies.

HousePlantQueen
Thank you for your very kind post. Yes, you’re completely correct, my husband, myself, and my mother were in a bubble, which worked for us for the first few months after bubbles were introduced. She was 93 and it had been extremely worrying for us to leave her alone in her Sheltered Apartment. We got her shopping and cleaned it (I know that was unnecessary now but we didn’t at the time) and my husband delivered it to her front door but didn’t go in. It was to protect her although we were at little risk as we had our, and her, shopping delivered. When she was discharged from hospital after her fall, we were assured by the hospital that two tests had been negative and so she was safe to go home. I don’t blame the hospital for this. My husband visited because she needed furniture moved to accommodate her new walker. He moved the furniture and was in the flat only about forty minutes. He caught Covid from mum and passed it to me. Neither mum nor my husband were very ill but as you know, I was admitted to hospital. I’m very grateful to all the staff who looked after me and made me well. They were wonderful.

The hospital certainly didn’t want to kill me, they made me well, managed to keep me out of ITU and I could never thank them enough. I think it’s a terrible suggestion that hospitals wanted to kill people.

Oh I forgot to say HousePlantQueen (I always kill my house plants so I leave them to DH) anyway I am fully recovered, thank you for asking, although I feel my asthma symptoms have been more noticeable since I had Covid. I’ve had more courses of steroids since then. But I haven’t got long Covid and for that I’m eternally grateful.

Please, do watch. It's harrowing viewing and had me in tears.. but it is 100% accurate.
I'm a GP who came out of retirement when Boris asked....sticking my head in the lion's mouth, if you like.
It was gruelling enough ,trying to cope with what was happening in GP land but the reality of what was happening in hospital was horrendous.
It's not too soon to watch.
We must never forget!

Mirren my daughter's friend was in much the same position. She had come back to work as a GP for two days a week (after a very complicated legal fight with the NHS) then Covid struck and she became a doctor on a Covid ward for months. We heard a great deal about what was happening, none of it good.

I think some people have mis understood the point I was making. Some people on this thread have said that they think Boris and his govt was deliberately trying to harm/kill people because they just didn’t care and we’re far more interested in partying.

Hospitals followed the advice and guidance that the govt issued - therefore by saying that the govt killed people implies that hospitals also were killing people by following this advice.

A named consultant is responsible for the care and discharge of all patients ( it is them that ends up in a coroners court not the govt)

If consultants thought there was a better way of dealing with things like discharging patients to nursing homes and deciding who had an ICU bed then they would have done it.

All the hospitals I know provided the very very best care they could for all patients curing Covid under very difficult situations. Many people are alive today because of that care.

Hospitals followed the advice and guidance that the govt issued - therefore by saying that the govt killed people implies that hospitals also were killing people by following this advice.
I think you may have misread the posts of others - perhaps from justifiable feelings of defensiveness. The drama highlighted the awful situation in which medics found themselves, and showed how the policies that they had no choice but to follow led to the deaths of people who would otherwise have had a chance of survival. That was the point of it, really. There was no suggestion that the doctors and nurses were in any way to blame.

Doodledog, you have summed it up perfectly.

I understood exactly why decisions were made about not admitting me to ICU. There were not enough beds and people with a fighting chance were given a bed, unlike those like myself, who had little chance of surviving before vaccines were brought in.
They were clinical decisions. I feel for those clinicians, who had to make the most difficult of choices. I have great admiration for them.

Thanks Doodledog I agree.

The decision makers at the top i.e. the government decided on the policy of sending people who were incubating covid to places where they would mingle with others who were covid'free, and subsequently infect them.

You don't need to be a scientist or even a first year nurse to understand the principle of quarantine. Of course the ladies and gentlemen in the government understood what they were doing!

HousePlantQueen

I don't think anyone has claimed that hospitals 'wanted to kill people' that's an outrageous suggestion. I don't think the government did either, but they clearly failed to listen to expert advice.

I agree: no-one on this GN thread has suggested hospitals set out to kill people.

I had a catch up with friends this morning and they were raving about Breathtaking and urging me to watch it. I explained my reasons for not wishing to watch it: DNR note on my file, lack of treatment and people dying to give others a fighting chance.
You must watch, it is so interesting!. They bave no conception what it feels like to be dispensible.

Marydoll

That’s awful Marydoll.
Where is their compassion and empathy?

Marydoll

I had a catch up with friends this morning and they were raving about Breathtaking and urging me to watch it. I explained my reasons for not wishing to watch it: DNR note on my file, lack of treatment and people dying to give others a fighting chance.
You must watch, it is so interesting!. They bave no conception what it feels like to be dispensible.

They have no conception what it feels like to be dispensible.

Harrowing.

You always come across as being incredibly 'chirpy' and upbeat, and I admire your resilience, truly.

Have some more - it's all I can give except for a 👍to your fighting spirit!

Keep on keeping on Marydoll

maddyone

Oh I forgot to say HousePlantQueen (I always kill my house plants so I leave them to DH) anyway I am fully recovered, thank you for asking, although I feel my asthma symptoms have been more noticeable since I had Covid. I’ve had more courses of steroids since then. But I haven’t got long Covid and for that I’m eternally grateful.

For you (or maybe your husband!).

Thank you all for your kindness.
I was probably feeling a bit oversensitive today and part of the problem is I never look ill and am very good at covering up. People keep telling me how well I look. I'm sure they think I am a fraud! 😁
It's amazing what a bit of make up can do.

Slightly off piste, while I was with my friends today, I was waiting for a call from the surgery, because I had once again been selected for Jury Service, despite being previously exempted on medical grounds. On top of that I knew that I had both a COPD and RA flare up.

Much to my surprise I received a call from my own GP, from whom I had never heard since the beginning of the pandemic. I got the feeling he had suffered some kind of breakdown during it, because he disappeared for a while.
He was amazing and went out of his way to support me in a number of ways.
He is writing a strong letter to the court to say I will never be well enough to do jury duty and is organising a hospital referal for my chest, as well as prescribing stronger antibiotics.
So life is looking up.

He was shocked at how I was not my usual resilient self, but this talk of letting people die has just reminded me of what an awful time it was. I had blocked it out.

I will reiterate, any clinicians I did encounter were going above and beyond what anyone should be asked to do. I wouldn't be here now (although not as well as I could have been) if it weren't for them. I have nothing for admiration for them.