Shows & Coronavirus?

[Mark Bolam]

2 hours ago, Gary Prentice said:

If you're pinning your hopes on getting a bed, I'd give up now.

 

Based on my own experiences bed management in my local health authority is woeful. Several times I've been stuck in A&E when there's a clear requirement to be moved into ICU, but there's no beds available.

 

What was surprising a couple of weeks ago when I was in is the percentage of beds taken up by stroke victims. I appreciate the monitoring that need due to the risk of further incidents but had always thought they were on specialised walds  to cover their monitoring and observations. Anyway, that seems unlikely to change.

 

The holdups to realise beds is blindingly obvious. Once discharged (to return home or move to another hospital or specialist unit. the pharmacy fills the consultants prescription. Until that is provided the patient sits tight, occupying a bed/single room. On average, and if you're really lucky, it'll be at least four hours, ofen 6-8hrs before medication arrives and you can. So a good percentage of beds are still taken by people who no longer need them. All staff say is "pharmacy is backed up normal!

 

I presume that a manger is earning £60+K a year but no-one seems to realise that delayed discharges due to pharmacy levels create a road block in freeing up beds!

 

Another obvious failure is inadequacies in hospital transport services. When I was in a couple of weeks back I was booked to go to a specialist renal unit. Packed and ready to go. On each occasion transport was a problem, the last time a consultant came to Oldham from Salford to oversee the move. After he arrived he was told it wasn't happening due to transport issues.

 

What's annoying is the abuse of the transport system. I've seen dozens a people arrive for outpatient treatment in an ambulances. People seem to treat that as a right. You might need hospital transport for an appointment if you must travel with medical care, but lots of the people arrive and twenty minutes family and friends arrive (presumably under there own steam) to offer support or to translate. There's something amiss when alternative transport is available; public/taxi/family, friend or neighbours for what afterall is a day to day appointments (not emergency) which creates a barrier to operating at the levels where transport needs are often pretty urgent - getting seriously ill people to the best unit available for their problems.

 

This is a bit of an aside, but I saw something monday that just highlighted some peoples ignorance of basic hygiene. 

I had an outpatients appoint for IV chemo treatment. Bare in mind that the ward and clinic is full of cancer patients with suppressed immune systems.

 

I sat in the waiting room, I fellow came in and started coughing, continuously, covering his mouth with his hand. So anything he's coughing is now coating his palms. Now that they well covered he starts picking up magazines. Then he goes to the flasks where you can make yourself - let's make sure everyone gets a chance to catch whatever I've got then!

 

I gave it a couple of minutes and then  and moved as far from him as possible. "Is there a problem?" he asked. 

 

My reply just got a blank look. 

I just said, "look I'm immunosuppressed, like most of us in here. I don't want to sit near anyone with an apparent infection showing complete disregard for anyone else. Due to your ignorance you're putting people at risk, how about coughing into a tissue rather than covering your hands and touching everything else? Then go and wash your hands and use the hand-cleansers situated all around you. Nurses got me moved into a treatment room immediately - causing trouble again 

 

This is what will really screw us up.

Not so much coronavirus as such but the sheer amount of selfish thick twats walking about.

 

The sort of people who will think it's absolutely fine for their little Johnny to still go on his school trip to northern Italy to take part in a coughing competition, then buy half of Tesco's on the way back from the airport.

[difflock]

1 hour ago, Mark Bolam said:

This is what will really screw us up.

Not so much coronavirus as such but the sheer amount of selfish thick twats walking about.

 

The sort of people who will think it's absolutely fine for their little Johnny to still go on his school trip to northern Italy to take part in a coughing competition, then buy half of Tesco's on the way back from the airport.

I really like the North Korean approach to selfish twats like that.

At least per some reports.

[Witterings]

On 06/03/2020 at 08:06, Gimlet said:

They never adopted a containment strategy as far as I can see, they just talked about it. If you wish to contain an infection surely you don't invite it in with open borders and completely unchecked and uncontrolled travel to and from other infected parts of the world. 

 

I can't remember which one it was but one of them was bleating on about it as though they had and yet did absolutely nothing hence why I was taking the piss out of it.

 

They should have closed down all the transport links weeks ago but they didn't because they didn't want the impact on the economy and not doing so will now have 5 times greater ampact on the economy .... f**&&-g idiots they are!

[Witterings]

On 06/03/2020 at 08:06, Gimlet said:

They never adopted a containment strategy as far as I can see, they just talked about it.

 

See below

 

UK still 'in containment phase' of virus response

WWW.BBC.CO.UK

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A health chief says measures to slow the spread must be proportionate and warns against panic-buying.

 

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

All quiet on the Green Party / XR / climate change camps wrt C19. 
 

You’d think they’d be embracing a scenario with the potential for a mass cull of humankind since that is the only timely and realistic means of making meaningful progress towards their stated aims. 
 

Just seems somewhat counterintuitive / hypocritical that they aren’t out celebrating.... ?

[Guest Gimlet]

3 hours ago, kevinjohnsonmbe said:

All quiet on the Green Party / XR / climate change camps wrt C19. 
 

You’d think they’d be embracing a scenario with the potential for a mass cull of humankind since that is the only timely and realistic means of making meaningful progress towards their stated aims. 
 

Just seems somewhat counterintuitive / hypocritical that they aren’t out celebrating.... ?

 

There would have to be a rapid and massive death toll - ie. billions dead within months - to make a positive and lasting impact on human over-population and arrest man-made damage to the planet. A few million will make no difference whatever and tens of millions, even hundreds, would make things worse because that would still leave more people than the planet can naturally sustain but living in a state of deep economic depression and in many parts of the world complete economic collapse which would severely restrict or disable the political and technological infrastructure and the supply lines that today's heavily populated societies need to function.   

Failed states are rarely environmentally sustainable. A failed planet would be catastrophic for the environment.

Edited March 7, 2020 by Gimlet

[Gray git]

They have just cancelled a big schools science fair at the NEC that my daughter was off too thankfully

[Matthew Storrs]

China seem to be doing a pretty good job of containing it there now- by locking down- stopping incoming flights, obviously the horse has bolted now, but the amount of new cases in China is very low. If its as serious as they make out (I’m slightly struggling to appreciate the severity of it that the media is referring to) then think we could be locking down a lot more than we are whilst we are at this low stage of infection- surely prevention is better than cure?

 

perhaps viruses actually need to run their course to prevent them from manifesting into other strains.... no idea really

Edited March 7, 2020 by Matthew Storrs

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

4 hours ago, Gimlet said:

 

There would have to be a rapid and massive death toll - ie. billions dead within months - to make a positive and lasting impact on human over-population and arrest man-made damage to the planet. A few million will make no difference whatever and tens of millions, even hundreds, would make things worse because that would still leave more people than the planet can naturally sustain but living in a state of deep economic depression and in many parts of the world complete economic collapse which would severely restrict or disable the political and technological infrastructure and the supply lines that today's heavily populated societies need to function.   

Failed states are rarely environmentally sustainable. A failed planet would be catastrophic for the environment.

That's a first class reply Gimlet.  Made me look at it differently.

 

You're absolutely right, the countries with the best ability to defend against this potential pandemic are actually those that are the worst offenders in terms of needless consumerism which, in turn, fuels the fire of carbon emission by manufacturing nations.

 

Those least able to ride the storm are likely to be at the lower developed stage and naturally with a lower carbon footprint per person.

 

So even if there are 20 million (Spanish flu figures) fatalities, it will most likely be the least offending individuals that perish rather than the worst....

 

Bugger, that's my head well and truly done in.....

 

 

[Witterings]

On 07/03/2020 at 20:23, kevinjohnsonmbe said:

 

A demosntration of how well our government are handling "The ontainment" phase

 

Coronavirus farce as dozens of planes fly to UK from Italy's quarantine zones with no checks

WWW.TELEGRAPH.CO.UK

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A decision by Italian authorities to place 16 million people into coronavirus quarantine descended into chaos on Sunday night as dozens of flights from affected areas were permitted to...

 

 

Edited March 9, 2020 by Witterings