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NHS: Winter Crisis

Cleoriff
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It's been a long time since I posted anything medical or nursing related but the NHS is in the grip of the worst Winter crisis ever.

 

There are ambulances stacking up waiting to get into A/E departments.

A Midlands news item has just shown our local NHS Trust with 5 ambulances outside Accident and Emergency

Once they manage to get their patients into the department, the ambulance drivers and paramedics are waiting up to 50 minutes to find a trolley for those people. An overstretched and underfunded service.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jan/18/nhs-crisis-wait-30-minutes-ambulance-winter

 

None of this is helped by the country experiencing the worst influenza crisis for 7 years

All parts of the UK have seen rises in suspected flu cases since the turn of the year with Wales seeing the sharpest - close to a four-fold increase in GP visits to 64.9 cases per 100,000

Hospitals are also seeing very high rates of admissions, which of course is putting pressure on other essentia;l services

This link includes a graph showing the rise in flu cases this year

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-42725152

 

 

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Glory1
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Thank you @Cleoriff grim news indeed. I've read about this on the BBC news website and it's scary. I'm keeping my fingers crossed I don't catch this flu doing the rounds. Had a nasty bout about 4 years ago that kept me between my bed and the toilet. This flu sounds a lot worse, with a number of deaths, and with the NHS stretched to capacity, even before this flu outbreak, it's a very worrying time indeed.

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Cleoriff
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About 150 reported deaths to date @Glory1. (According to the news tonight)

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jonsie
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I saw first hand how overstretched wards were and it was heartbreaking. Everyone who could breathe,limp,hop or not fall over were being discharged to make room for new patients. Just terrible and my son has had to wait with patients outside in ambulances. Every doctor, nurse, support worker, in fact all departments  were stressed out with the workload. Not forgetting that nurses themselves were coming in to work full of a cold and coughing. Awful....

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Anonymous
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Very unsettling to hear this from you @Cleoriff having a career in nursing ... I've seen / heard it on the news ... I get upset, didn't quite realise the high number of deaths from this particular strain of flu to date ... I'm very aware that flu can be a killer, to vulnerable people, but ... ... ... 

I get angry ... thinking about the nurses / paramedics struggling at the sharp end of things

I and my family have many reasons to be eternally grateful to the NHS in general and specific nurses / doctors / paramedics / ancillary staff in particular

Have a flu jab each year in Autumn ... 

I then get on my soapbox about give the NHS more funding at 'grass root' level

@Cleoriff Would more money for more nurses / paramedics (for example) be a good idea ... & ... more people taking the annual flu jab ... ... ... extra beds? ... where are they going to come from? ... ... ... slight_frown

 

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Anonymous
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NHS many things but this 😕 Kinda scary 

 

quote-no-society-can-legitimately-call-itself-civilized-if-a-sick-person-is-denied-medical-aneurin-bevan-**Personal info**.jpg

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Anonymous
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Yes, The Late Great Aneurin Bevan ... founder of our NHS, post WWII ... A Hero of mine, on my Facebook page early

My dear mum said many years ago ... the NHS is the envy of the world 

Obamacare ... = ... never stood a chance for the ordinary man in the street USA ... & ... it was they who voted him in as President of USA ... What does the most powerful country in the world have now? ... my apologies to @Glory1 & @Bambino 

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Glory1
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No need to apologise to me @Anonymous I totally agree with you. 'Obamacare' as it is known was a good thing for the millions of Americans without healthcare insurance. Many Americans are lucky enough to be covered through their job - I was when I lived there. But not every American has a job that includes health care, particularly those in low paying jobs. And these are the people President Obama was reaching out to. Now, God help them, they have Trump who couldn't care less about the ordinary working man whatever he says to the contrary. His trying to rescind the healthcare provisions President Obama worked so hard to put in place proves that.

Visiting a hospital just for tests can be expensive depending on the amount and type of tests involved. And if you require hospitalisation, the cost steadily rises.

When I lived in the States, 48 years ago, many hospitals would refuse to admit you if you didn't have medical insurance or could show that you had some means to pay the hospital bill. I don't know if that's still the case but I would like to think not.

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Cleoriff
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To answer some of your questions @Anonymous. Of course the NHS needs more money...but and a big but.....the money needs to be used properly, We can't just keep throwing money at the NHS as if it's a bottomless pit. More services are developing and they all need cash for this. We are leading the field in some areas with pioneering surgery and medical treatment, all of which requires specialist equipment and training.

I could go on and on but won't.

There are far too many tiers of management in every hospital. Having said that, these Trusts do need managing properly. These managers will always want the best (and more money) for their own department.

Currently there are more nurses leaving the profession than are joining. This is due to their stress, disillusion and the feeling whatever they do, it is never enough.

The elderly are living longer and social care is inadequate. Not enough provision made for this situation.

 

As for the flu jab? I can't have it for medical reasons but I was always wary anyway.

It will help many many people, there is no doubt of that. However, they work on developing the vaccine from the virus strains of the previous years flu. If it's a new virus (as it is this year)  then it wont be very helpful. Of my 'gang' of 8 close friends, 4 have had the flu jab. Those same 4 have experienced flu this year. There are two strains of virus combined in this particular outbreak

 

The state of the NHS is far too big a subject to be discussed here. Bottom line, we need more money which needs to be managed properly. It's no good providing more NHS staff to care for patients if we have no beds to put those patients in.

This is the reason operations are cancelled. A winter crisis means more patients being admitted, therefore routine admissions have to go to the back of the queue.

Getting down from soapbox now...:smileywink:

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