If you want to see what the NHS "coping" looks like, please do watch this piece from me, @jasmin_dyer & @LondonLuke in Northwick Park Hospital.

It shows a remarkable staff and service that is nonetheless on the very edge.

@LNWH_NHS

bbc.co.uk/programmes/p09…
So much fear of the NHS being "overwhelmed"- as so many members of staff made clear to me, this is a misunderstanding. The service already is overwhelmed- it copes by transforming itself to devote much of its activity to Covid, for which there is and will be a very real cost.
That's the price we're paying, as one consultant says, for "losing control of the virus this winter"- as a result he says, people have lost, are losing and will lose their lives.

For anyone doubting that, or the idea that our health service is not at its limit-watch the film.
At a time when there’s a lot of satisfaction the UK appears to be doing well on the vaccine front and (good) we really can’t afford to look away from the crisis in our midst right now, our very high fatality rate and scrutinise how we got here. That includes decisions...
...made about the NHS years ago (say about its resources) and decisions made about restrictions and Covid policy months and weeks ago too.
We are so grateful to the fantastic team @LNWH_NHS for opening their doors and letting us spend so much time with them. They’re the best of the best.
For those who’d prefer, you can also watch it on YouTube here:
If you can please do share the piece on your social media platforms. There are still too many people under the impression there is no crisis in our hospitals, or who are suggesting they’re not already overwhelmed. For the reasons I explain, they are.

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More from @lewis_goodall

15 Jan
PM said today that the NHS in London has "coped magnificently". He also said "ICU capacity has not yet been overwhelmed in the way some of us feared it might be."

Yday in Northwick Park hospital, northwest London, their head of ICU told me they're managing "1 or 2 beds ahead"
Northwick's infectious disease lead told me roughly 75% of the hospital is taken up with covid patients. He says people have died (and are dying) because "we've lost control of this disease." Says if numbers rise further: "We will run out of beds. We will not be able to cope."
Few would doubt the sentiment that the NHS staff have been magnificent but the idea of coping is deeply contested

As one of their top bowel surgeons told me they are “overwhelmed” and are only “coping” because the hospital has stopped doing almost anything else but Covid and...
Read 12 tweets
14 Jan
Big news in Scottish politics ahead of Holyrood elections. Means that Scottish Labour will be on its ninth Leader or Acting Leader since the independence referendum in 2014.
Has been discontent in London about Leonard's performance but Leonard survived a putsch last year.

But Lab's years' long anaemia north of the border is structural, not merely contingent on poor leadership. Were that the only issue one of the eight would have had more success.
Best way of illustrating Labour's structural problems are these maps of 2019 voting patterns in the youngest and eldest groups. In 18-24s Lab dominates everywhere but not Scotland. There, for these voters (as for others), they've lost their place as the party of the centre-left.
Read 6 tweets
13 Jan
NEW: The House of Representatives has reached the necessary 217 votes to impeach Donald Trump. He becomes the only President in the history of the United States to be impeached twice.

In this case for incitement of insurrection.
All votes are in- it’s official.

YEA: 232
NAY: 197

Democratic YEA: 221
Democratic NAY: 0
Democratic Non Voting: 0

Republican YEA: 10
Republican NAY: 197
Republican Non Voting: 4

So unlike his first impeachment it is not a strictly party line vote- 10 GOP reps vote for it.
Now to the Senate for a trial. That won’t happen til Biden takes office. Trump can be convicted after he leaves the presidency.

It would require 67 senators to convict. 50 Dems plus 17 Republicans. It’s a tall order-if it is possible, it’s in McConnell’s hands.
Read 5 tweets
12 Jan
Filming at a school in Wandsworth. They have over 100 kids in today. In the first lockdown they only had around 30 in through the doors.

In some year groups they have classes of 20+ in school. Overall they’ve got about a third of their total roll coming in every day. Image
Point is, if schools are having more and more kids sent in, it raises question of utility of closure. Risk is we end up in worst of both worlds which is unfair (some kids missing out) and yet doesn’t suppress the disease efficiently or quickly. They remain “vectors of infection”
Playground as I type is full of parents and kids. You’d barely know the school is meant to be largely closed.
Read 8 tweets
11 Jan
Hancock: "It's your actions now which can make a difference."

Plays down prospect of immediate introduction of new restrictions.
Few doubt the public must play its part. But legitimate questions about whether the govt has made/is making public's task harder in two key respects:

1) For some there's still a major economic disincentive apropos self isolation. Sick pay still poor. Savings for many exhausted.
Imminent prospect of Universal Credit cut would make this worse. Some people have fallen through the gaps of government support throughout. Though government support for (effectively) laid off people, a full economic bargain to universally support self isolation still...
Read 9 tweets
10 Jan
More post-Brexit discontent at the border(s). Stephen Phipson, CEO @MakeUK_: “There are customs experts with 30 yrs’ experience who are baffled by what the new regulations mean, let alone small/medium sized biz who have never had to deal with the kind of paperwork required.”
Continued: “the greater fear is that for many it will proved too much and they will simply choose not to export to the EU.”

It’s in Northern Ireland where some of the effects are being felt most acutely, with some UK businesses even suspending sending goods to NI (and the EU).
Stephen Kelly, Chief Exec of Manufacturing NI: “The reason why the UK&EU originally agreed that there would be an implementation period of 11 months was so that people could get their heads around what was needed and assure their biz was compliant. But we didn’t even have that.”
Read 13 tweets

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