dpedin wrote:The focus on the Covid19 figures and in particular the number of deaths is important and urgent but a bit misleading. The (other) thing that worries me is the impact of this on the numbers of other patients who will not have access to the best healthcare they should receive. As ICU/Critical care/High Dependancy beds become full of Covid19 patients and large swathes of beds in hospitals are sectioned off for Covid19 patients then both important elective and emergency patients will have care delayed or changed. For many they will have to wait longer for important surgery or have surgery changed to something less optimal but will mean they don't need ICU post op. This will be a big issue for cancer, cardiac, renal patients for example. Others will be affected as the workforce become ill or self isolate. For example as radiographers fall ill then radiotherapy capacity will reduce and more patients will have to wait longer for time critical treatment. Ditto chemotherapy.
Hospitals should run at 75-80% capacity for efficiency reasons, they have been running at 95%+ capacity due to lack of funding, etc (Not the place to get into that debate). Its been a bit like driving from Edinburgh to London at 120mph non stop for the whole journey and then wondering why your car breaks down. ICU beds are the top of the care pyramid and have been working at well above recommended capacity for a number of years. Numbers of beds and a workforce have seen a criminal lack of investment in the last 10 years. The reality is that finding extra ICU capacity for dealing with Covid19 will impact upon all other services and some very difficult decisions will have to be made about who does and does not get access to care or get sub optimal care.
I suspect that when all this is over and we look back and take a wider view of the impact of Covd19 it will not just be those deaths directly related to the virus we are shocked by but also those deaths which will result from these difficult decisions. I feel so sorry for those patients who know their treatment is not the best it should be but also for those doctors and nurses who have to make these incredibly hard decisions.
That's exactly what all the fuss is about. Not the deaths from Covid, but from overwhelming the health service and the impact that has on everything from Covid to car crashes. All the flatten the curve, and now suppression talk, hasn't been to stop covid deaths, it's been to stop the health service being overrun.