Will the NHS cope

[Mortblanc]

We were in our local A&E 2 weeks ago for the night after t'other half smashed his face up. The staff were brilliant but were having to play shuffle the beds to find a cubicle to allow him to lie down as he was phasing in and out of consciousness. There were other patients in the corridor on trolleys due to lack of cubicles and an ambulance queue as well.
Then add in the overheard battles to find beds on the wards for the ones needing admission and the hunts for basics like extra blankets.
We ware advised that there were two known covid patients in at the time. I hate to think how hard it will be when the 2 become 20 - or more.

So all of this was the problems faced on a "normal shift" and had nothing to do with coping with a Covid overflow?

[GillyBee]

Exactly my point. This was the wee hours in a large city A&E on a Sunday morning and the section we were in was not full of drunks and night out accidents.

In order to cope with another big wave, there will need to be an expansion of social care beds/cottage hospitals so that people can leave hospital as soon as they are ready.

[dizzydays]

It's already a struggle - I think it could get a lot worse if there are even a few more patients admitted to each hospital. I had emergency surgery in March to remove half my colon. The system worked well enough, testing /isolating first then going on a covid free ward prior to surgery. Since then I've had no follow up. On the other hand my oncologist (different reason) has been doing phone appts and now actual appts - I've got one on Weds.
Last week I went to a craft fair and one of the ladies collapsed with what looked to me like a TIA (small warning stroke type thing) - I called an ambulance. After an hour and a half we took the decision to take her home as she was much improved and it was literally a few hundred yards away and we got a car. Called 111 once she was home to explain and ask that she be seen asap. Paramedics arrived 2am - so a total of 11 hours since the event happened, and no follow up so far. Will have a look on Weds and see if the reported 'lines of ambulances full of patients' is actually occuring at the A&E.

[Vitamin c]

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