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[CLKD]

Why are they not being used?

[Sparrow]

Not enough staff.

Well there's a surprise 

[CLKD]

Surely the Army should be manning them so that NHS Hospitals can return to the public who require other services?

[Pennyfarthing]

What do people want?  More people to contract the virus to fill the hospital? 

[Sparrow]

That would make sense.

[CLKD]

What was the point otherwise  - 'they' are too slow in calling in the Army who built these hospitals; then had 2 weeks holiday because they weren't called upon  . 

It's almost as if 'they' have forgotten that they have been built ..........

[Pennyfarthing]

The Financial Times explains the current situation as of yesterday but you have to subscribe.

These hospitals were up and running in just a few days and were designed to be safety nets for when the usual hospitals couldn't cope. But they ARE coping thank goodness.   The military are ready to move in if needed.

The govt are damned if they do and damned if they don't.  Imagine if they hadn't opened these Nightingale hospitals.  There would have been outcry.    Now they?re there IF needed and some people want them full.   What the hell is all that about?

I think we should be grateful, very grateful that they are NOT full.  Some countries have had people with CV19 laying in corridors ..... thank god our hospitals are coping and we have extra space IF needed. 

[Pennyfarthing]

Surely this is good news?
If the hospital was being used it means the London NHS was being totally swamped. I for one am grateful that this is not happening.
Hopefully we are starting to peak now and the hospital won't be needed. Yes it's cost a lot of money but the government have been slated for not being prepared. Well in this instance they really were.

Hear Hear Diane.

[Pennyfarthing]

This report about the Nightingale Hospital in Birmingham which has not been used at all says it is a tribute to the NHS that it hasn't been used. 

https://www.expressandstar.com/news/Features/2020/04/25/empty-expanse-of-nightingale-hospital-at-nec-is-tribute-to-nhs/

This will probably disappoint those who want to have a good moan and make something out of nothing but it does explain very well that these hospitals were set up to deal IF the current NHS hospitals couldn't cope.

[getting_old]

Totally agree with the suggestion that the armed forces should be staffing them, and whilst I don't want to see anyone suffer, I'd prefer that they were treating as many as possible of the covid-19 patients there and the regular hospitals were treating other illnesses.

[Salad]

I agree- I'm so relieved the Nightingale hospitals haven't been filled. Better to have been built and underused than full.
I'm sure there are plans being worked on to try and start seeing non covid patients get their treatments. It must be near enough impossible judging the right time though, when Covid infections are still so high and unpredictable.

[CLKD]

So it's OK to side-line at this stage those patients who could be treated in Hospitals for cancer, diagnostics, mammograms: of course the main equipment is in the NHS Hospitals which makes movement of machines impossible - which is why Covid-19 suffers should be where the ventilators etc. have been situated, in the Nightingale Hospitals. 

People have been told to stay at home and are dying of stroke, heart attacks - because they don't want to burden A&E.  That was never foreseen?

Some NHS Hospitals are really quiet ............ so could be brought back into service for the patients who require the usual consults and advice.

[CLKD]

 

As an aside - my sister has a friend who does social care staff check-ups, home to home .......... because carers who travel between clients have been taken ill, run scared, have had to isolate - this friend is finding people dead in flats for various reasons usually alerted by neighbours.  Because the various agencies employing carers haven't checked that each client has had their regular visit.  !!! happened in Spain too at the start of their virus journey  . The needy are being neglected due to lack of continuity.  These incidents aren't happening in the 3rd World  .....

I think the whole system needs a shake up.

[Pennyfarthing]

As an aside - my sister has a friend who does social care staff check-ups, home to home .......... because carers who travel between clients have been taken ill, run scared, have had to isolate - this friend is finding people dead in flats for various reasons usually alerted by neighbours.  Because the various agencies employing carers haven't checked that each client has had their regular visit.  !!! happened in Spain too at the start of their virus journey  . The needy are being neglected due to lack of continuity.  These incidents aren't happening in the 3rd World  .....

I think the whole system needs a shake up.

why don't you offer your services and sort it all out then CLKD. You seem to have all the answers.

It has already been explained with links that these hospitals are purely for back up IF the main hospitals can't cope.  However much you wish things were different, these are the facts.

We all know that hospitals are much quieter because patients are not coming forward as they do not want to be a burden on the NHS.  This is understandable because most people feel the NHS are doing a brilliant job and have enough to do. 

What irritates me about this site is people post threads  like this, then when it doesn't go the way they want it to go they say 'this is getting very political and will get closed if we are not careful.?   

[Sparrow]

NO ONE has said they wished the Nightingales were full for goodness sake 

I'll repeat  - and concur with CLKD  - it just seems common sense to me to treat COVID patients in the Nightingales which are set up specifically with ventilators etc and free up at least some, if not all, of the regular hospitals to treat all other urgent cases (and give patients a better chance of not contracting the virus whilst they're in there).

The NHS is itself admitting they're worried about the lack of emergency admissions. Heart attacks, strokes and other emergencies aren't just going to stop are they? Life saving ops need to be carried out and urgent treatments resumed. An elderly woman failed to dial 999 when she fell because she didn't want to trouble them - and was found to have had a broken hip for 7 days!

https://drmalcolmkendrick.org/2020/04/17/care-homes-and-covid19/

https://drmalcolmkendrick.org/2020/04/21/the-anti-lockdown-strategy/

These two links show, from a GPs point of view, how the systems is not working as it should.  It seems to me that more Care Home patients should be being dealt with by the Nightingales, as they have this excess capacity.