Corona Virus Treatment

In what way @Freddy? No sweary words in there, just questioning/querying things?

 

Whilst other sources say otherwise - NHS data suggests hospitals in England are STILL less full than last December | Daily Mail Online

 

Well, I guess that, in a way, it sounds like an indirect attack, with your line of thinking, on the NHS Hospital Staff.
What "planned" ICU beds there were in most Hospitals have, in number, gone out of the window.
Hospitals have had to expand their ICU wards to include restricted, controlled areas for the COVID 19 patients while still having to keep a number of ICU Beds for other cases needing intensive care. So, using normal figures is not useful as these are not normal times.
Surgery and most other things are either being cancelled or postponed so that the Staff supposed to be doing that can be seconded to Covid 19 wards, should they wish to do so. Hospitals with Private Practice have been with us a long time and most of the Staff do not belong to the NHS. Some NHS Hospitals have Private Hospitals within their grounds while others have leased out Wings for Private Practice but their Staff are mostly Agency or Consultants using their own time,due to past Governments policies of reducing beds. I think, at the moment we are 11000 beds short of what we had a decade ago due to "efficiency" programs
Wards within NHS Hospitals that have been converted to COVID 19 ICu have to have less beds for obvious reasons than they normally would plus you also have to find the Staff trained and qualified to man those COVID 19 Wards and, don't forget, those Staff are volunteers as they cannot be ordered to carry out COVID 19 ICU care.
I doubt very much if the rest of the Hospitals where Wards not devoted to Emergency, ICU, COVID 19 ICU expanded Wards, and those patients receiving Ward care, are Ghost Towns as there are other departments that keep the Hospital that are manned. I don't think if you were to ask any NHS Hospitals if all the hundreds of beds within their buildings are COVID 19 occupied that they would say Yes, and I don't think that has been inferred by them or the Government.

 

That is relative, I guess. I think you know my opinions of such rags as the Daily Mail and even you are very cynical of the Media in all forms, and yet you're giving the very same Media some credibility.
All Hospitals have had, in normal times, to try to maintain a safety net of spare beds where possible and it would be impossible for any Hospital to run at full capacity for any real length of time, but these are not normal times.
So comparing In Patient rates from last December to the present and saying they are less seems to imply that the Hospitals themselves are either not admitting enough patients or putting out false figures.
Hospitals are just like any other organisations with the problems that they face but the effect of those problems are much more critical. Most Hospitals are substantially down on Staff due to them proving COVID positive or one of their family proving positive, or normal sickness. They've also had to turn areas and Wards in COVID 19 care units that were not meant for that purpose as COVID 19 Units were not just waiting for it to happen, whilst also, at the beginning, being extremely short on the hardware needed plus the PPE.

 

I agree completely, Freddy. Everyone has the right to question situations and actions but in this very negative time of COVID we need, while not sticking our heads in the sand, some more positivity and backing for the NHS rather than disbelieving this or that set of figures because of the lack of trust of statements by Hospitals or the NHS itself.

 

Sadly, some of my recent experiences have led me to question more and appreciate less. Were it not for the incompetence and arrogance of NHS staff, I would not have gone through what I have and be where I am now.

Without question, the vast majority of them are utterly exceptional and without them I would not be here - but, had I asked more questions, had I been a bit less willing just to accept that what was being said was correct, my future would be wholly different.

 

I am very cynical of media, because most of what they spout is their own opinion, biased through omission or just plain lies. However, I posted that link in response to Freddy's link to show that two media outlets can have a different slant on the same thing. The BBC are no more a paragon of virtue than the Daily Mail nowadays sadly.