Doctors leaders have warned that hospitals will have to cancel routine operations across England due to the pressure of a resurgence of COVID-19 despite new lockdown measures.
The NHS faces potentially “impossible” demands in the coming months, and hospitals everywhere will soon have to follow the example of those in the north of England and the Midlands by canceling unnecessary surgery, contrary to the wishes of the NHS Presidents and Ministers.
Doctors leaders also said the new lockdown in England was necessary and inevitable, but they warned that the tens of thousands of vacancies in the NHS across the service would make Nightingale field hospitals difficult for staff during the surge in Covid patients.
“Things will get worse in the NHS before they get better, even with the lockdown, because it takes time for affected people to get sick and come to hospital.” Dr Tom Dolphin, a consultant anesthesiologist and a member of the British Medical Association Board, said the impact on changes in transmission rates from lockdown will take some Time.
Dr Claudia Pauloni, president of the Syndicate of Hospital Consultants and Specialists, said: “It is difficult to predict whether this is the case. [lockdown] It will be enough, as it is implemented very late and misses the opportunity to close schools half the semester, especially since it has been modified rather than a complete closure, with schools, universities and industry continuing to open.
“Although this can definitely reduce the infection rate, if fully adhered to, an R can be obtained [the average number of people each case infects] Below 1 and maintaining NHS capacity at a manageable level will need close monitoring. ”
Alison Pittard, dean of the College of Intensive Care Medicine, has warned that hospitals will find it difficult to treat both Covid patients and those with other diseases unless the public strictly follows the new rules from Thursday. She said: “The National Health Service will not collapse, but patients with diseases other than Covid will suffer if we do not control transmission and more people will die.”
Intensive care units have seen a steady increase in the number of COVID cases. Staff are back with all their personal equipment, as they work in a progressive capacity, and staff assist from outside the ICU. Routine operations have been canceled to accommodate Covid patients. Everything feels like deja vu but with the added burden of trying to keep as much activity non-Covid as possible. “
NHS England and Boris Johnson want regular NHS sponsorship, especially surgery, to continue during the second wave, unlike spring, when it was mostly suspended. But Dr Sue Crossland, chair of the Acute Medicine Association, said it was unlikely to prove this, and that the needs of people in need of life or death care due to Covid should take precedence.
“The second lockdown was inevitable given the massive rise in cases. We are now at a point where we have to reduce the risks between caring for Covid patients and making sure that other patients who are also waiting for treatment are taken care of in a timely manner.” She said, “It is difficult, if not Impossible, square this circle. “
“The tough decisions advised by the scientific evidence and Sage are not easy, but we need to make sure that we protect the vulnerable and keep the NHS working for those who need it most.”
Dolphin BMA approved. “You can’t put out Covid patients with sepsis, shortness of breath, and sickness at the front door. You have to admit them. [But] Then you do not have a family that would allow people to enter under other circumstances.
Top doctors are divided over the role the Nightingale’s seven field hospitals could play this time. Its first opening, in London, was the only one to take care of patients in the spring.
Pauloni said: “The NHS has one of the lowest hospital bed bases in Europe. There are 246 beds per 100,000 inhabitants in the UK compared to 800 beds per 100,000 in Germany. [Given that] I suspect the Nightingale will have to be used, but staffing levels will restrict what it can be used for. ”The Nightingale in Manchester, Harrogate and Sunderland has been put on standby.
Dolphin warned that the NHS’s more than 100,000 vacancies are making it difficult to hire field hospital workers. “A lot of people say“ The Nightingale will save us. ”But I’m not convinced that they will necessarily be the answer to everything. They are there physically and have beds and equipment that you need, like ventilators. But who is going to hire them? There aren’t any additional doctors or nurses sitting there. And they do nothing, waiting for their Nightingale to be called. “
