Thread by @MartinRemains

I'm an NHS doctor treating coronavirus – you have no idea how bad things could get | The Independent

Government have done nothing.

Their talk of a plan is foul, hot air.

Where is the extra capacity? Where is the preparedness?

It does not exist. independent.co.uk/voices/coronav…

‘Until now, a suspected case was not allowed to be tested unless they had an obvious link to certain countries or infected patients. I’ve seen at least three people with severe disease who weren’t allowed to be tested, and heard of dozens more.’

‘This long-overdue policy change will soon be reflected... in a big spike in case numbers.

...look to Italy. One week after it hit 320 cases, the country reported 2,036; a week later, nearly 10,000; next week that number will likely rise to 50,000 or more.’

‘There’s nothing I have seen that tells me the exact same thing isn’t coming for us in the UK. We only have around 4,000 intensive care unit (ICU) beds in England, 80% of which are already full.’

‘If we follow the same trajectory as Italy, with 10% of coronavirus patients needing ICU treatment, we will need 200 beds next week, 1,000 the week after. That’s already the entire ICU capacity. Every two days after that, we will need twice the number of beds again.’

‘it’s really the non-virus mortality we should be worried about. For every coronavirus patient in an ICU bed, one non-viral patient... may be turned away. If you need intensive care and you don’t get it, it’s unlikely you will survive.’

‘There is already a huge backlog of non-urgent surgery and cancer care, much of which will be cancelled entirely to cope with coronavirus. The knock-on effect will be felt for years to come.’

‘the accounts of Italian doctors... reads like a warzone. Hospitals diverting all clinical staff to the care of ventilated patients. This is not healthcare but “catastrophe medicine”, of the kind one usually encounters on the battlefield; save who can be saved, leave the rest.’

‘With 100,000 missing staff, 10,000 missing doctors, 40,000 missing nurses and around £3bn missing from our budget, we have neither Italy’s well-resourced healthcare system nor China’s capacity.’

‘There have been plans mooted to recall recently-retired doctors to help shore up frontline services, or to train up final-year medical students. The government proposed both with some fanfare weeks ago – and yet nothing concrete has materialised on either front.’

‘If we are going to be throwing everybody we have at this in two weeks, why aren’t we training them now? We should be throwing every single resource we have at this, immediately. Rishi Sunak promised “unlimited money” to fight the pandemic – and yet we haven’t seen anything.’

‘We should be recalling every medic we can find, rapidly training up existing staff and resourcing central hospitals with every scrap of PPE and ventilation equipment... hospital managers should be told to do whatever they have to, and don’t worry about budget constraints’

‘The government should be providing the public directly what we need to contain the epidemic: handwashing areas at transit hubs, supplies at foodbanks, mass disinfection of public transport. We are far behind where we need to be, and every second lost will cost lives.’

‘it is proportionate – to think of this as a war... Our army is poorly provisioned after years of neglect, our leaders are woefully underprepared. Now is the time the government must step up and truly deliver us the resources we need. No more delay – right now.’

But to all intents and purposes our government are doing nothing to limit the consequences of COVID-19. Where is their leadership? Absent without leave. Where are the additional resources to the NHS and other public bodies? Non-existant. What are they doing? What are they doing?

I am not the NHS Dr who wrote this article.