Running Out Of Beds Again

[fruitsalad]

They are saying on the news, so what happened to the Nightingale Hospital?

[Zacs-Master]

Nightingales won't be used until hospitals are 90/100% full of Covid patients.

[Atheist]

I imagine it is staff in short supply, not beds. We lost a lot of nurses after Brexit, and we have failed to train more of our own.

[Sqad]

Its in the wrong place, but if London and the S.E don't behave over Christmas, then it will be needed.

[anneasquith]

I’d say if there is abuse of the restrictions on covid over Xmas period , the NHS will suffer .

[andres]

I daresay that it will be quite some feat to put the Nightingale Hospital into action. The hospitals keep saying that they are short staffed now so who will man the Nightingale not to mention the catering, cleaning, porters and all the other necessary things associated with a hospital. Don't forget either that the NHS workers are not immune to the virus ,several nurses and some of the doctors in our area have covid.

[anneasquith]

Covid vaccine has been administered to some of our NHS staff thankfully Andres.

[youngmafbog]

Where are you getting this from?

I ask because in the past the rhetoric from the MSM and some ministers does not match the fact or is very wooly to say the least.

And I cant find any reference to it in the news at the moment.

[fruitsalad]

So a hospital is built even though they can't staff it, makes sense......not.... although nothing surprises me anymore.

[youngmafbog]

It is not as simple as that.

[naomi24]

//I imagine it is staff in short supply, not beds. We lost a lot of nurses after Brexit, and we have failed to train more of our own. //

///The number of nurses in the NHS in England increased by 13,718 compared with last year, and the number of doctors has risen by 7,810, figures to the end of July show./// October 2020.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/over-13700-more-nurses-working-in-the-nhs

[youngmafbog]

Oh stop using facts Naomi, its so annoying for some!

[jim360]

Quite a few links about it:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/17/nhs-hospitals-running-out-of-beds-as-covid-cases-continue-to-surge

https://www.thenational.scot/news/18954104.covid-19-nhs-running-hospital-beds-england-cases-keep-climbing/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-55361081

https://metro.co.uk/2020/12/17/welsh-hospitals-on-the-brink-with-only-10-critical-care-beds-left-13770273/

We aren't yet at full capacity, and there are still Nightingales to be activated if needed, but the sad fact is that exiting lockdown at the start of the month was clearly premature, and most key indicators suggest that there's plenty worse to come in the month or so in terms of Covid fatalities.

[Mamyalynne]

Most of the Nightingale Hospitals are on standby.

[youngmafbog]

So its a very few hospitals they are talking about and no actual numbers for back it up.

It's winter hospital beds always run close to the wire.

[youngmafbog]

Yes on standby because they are not, nor likely to be, needed.

[ichkeria]

N Ireland will go into a mega-lockdown on Dec 26 for 6 weeks after ambulances were queuing outside at least one hospital.
No shops, including garden centres, no click and collect, night curfews, no sporting fixtures for the first week at least

[TrevorThePug]

"The number of nurses in the NHS in England increased by 13,718 compared with last year"

Oh, not the 50,000 we were promised then.

[Atheist]

Naomi, the increase is said to be compared with last year, but I thought that Brexit has been frightening off foreign health workers for some time. I'll try to find some figures from 2016 onwards to confirm what I thought I had read about it.

[youngmafbog]

"at least one hospital"

So how many actually and how long queuing?

[Zacs-Master]

I think Naomi may have been taken in by Govt propaganda. This is 'from the horses mouth'
'Nursing is a safety critical industry and while staff have been redeployed or stepped forward from studies or retirement, the staffing situation is untenable with the profession facing severe shortages – with an estimated 50,000 nursing vacancies in the NHS in the UK alone.' SEPT 2020
https://www.rcn.org.uk/news-and-events/news/uk-staff-safety-at-risk-unless-nursing-shortages-are-addressed-170920