Thread by @T4Recovery

👇#NHSVoices

"I'm a paramedic. The lockdown backlog has risen to impossible levels.

I honestly think it will come to the point where there is simply no treatment available + patients suffer at home or die: not the v. elderly but the younger + fitter who are just told ‘no’…

🧵

2/ "I’ve been a paramedic for seven years and have worked on ambulances as well as in walk-in centres and out-of-hours services.

The Covid restrictions have meant that there is an enormous backlog of patients who still need to be seen.

3/ "Last summer this was bad enough but after the second lockdown over winter it has risen to impossible levels.

The local A&E has sensibly stopped seeing minor problems and instead sends them down into the main part of town to the walk-in centre.

4/ "This is something that should’ve been done before Covid but wasn’t done due to excessive caution.

Covid has forced a lot of managers’ hands and they are now implementing things that should’ve been done years ago.

5/ "The problem is that the walk-in is now inundated and twice in the last week it has closed its doors to new arrivals: the first time at 1200hrs and the second at 1500hrs.

To put this in to context it opens at around 0800hrs and shuts at 2200hrs.

6/ "Patients have now gone all the way to A&E, been turned away, gone back to town and been turned away again.

They then ring their GP in the (very) faint hope of booking an urgent same-day appointment.

7/ "As these vanish within the first thirty minutes of opening they are turned away by the GP too.

Having now tried three different places they end up ringing 111 again and booking in with the out-of-hours.

8/ "We are doing alright at the moment but we don’t have much slack and on a normal evening we have three GPs and a paramedic/nurse for a city of around 200,000.

This is manageable in part because people can usually get to the walk-in during the day.

9/ "All this needs to be seen in the context of Covid now being at insignificant levels in terms of deaths and hospitalisations and before the inevitable wave of lay-offs come September when furlough ends.

10/ "Furlough ending will I feel almost certainly lead to more drinking, drug-taking + mental ill-health.

The city in which I work is not a particularly happy one + obesity, drug + alcohol abuse and homelessness are serious problems + probably worse than when I lived in London.

11/ "I cannot see how any service in the area will cope come winter.

I honestly think it will come to the point where there is simply no treatment available and patients suffer quietly at home whilst waiting or simply die...

12/ "...this won’t be the very elderly who would likely die fairly soon anyway but the younger and fitter who are just told ‘no’.

I am not, of course, dismissing the elderly but this group frequently die whilst waiting for treatment in a normal year simply because...

13/ "...they are old and suffer a heart attack or stroke whilst waiting for a hip replacement.

I am worried about the middle-aged with families whose cancer is missed or the workman who needs surgery to work and is self-employed."

#NHSVoices is Recovery's new outlet for NHS staff to bring to light concerns about how Covid policies are affecting patients.

We have to do this anonymously because we know many are frightened to speak out.

NHS staff can submit their stories here: timeforrecovery.org/nhs/

Intimidating NHS staff into silence is very dangerous.

Without urgent action to fix the NHS crisis now, patients will suffer. Many will die needlessly.

There will be calls for more lockdowns - only making things worse.

@ mention your MP in the comments - make sure they KNOW

👇NHS staff can submit their stories here: timeforrecovery.org/nhs/

👇And you can read more #NHSVoices here: timeforrecovery.org/nhs-voices/

#NHS #Lockdown #TimeForRecovery