Thread by @rupert_pearse

COVID sitrep: Have been off this week so something slightly different. News stories like this one suggest the number of new infections may be beginning to stabilise. Experience tells us it is far too early to know. 1/10
bbc.co.uk/news/health-57…

When cases passed 60,000 a few days ago we were starting to worry, so it’s good news if this was a one-day spike. If we look back, we can see these are spikes common. It’s too early to know whether this is a genuine fall. The numbers jump up and down for lots of reasons. 2/10

Hospital admission rates are around a quarter of what they were in the winter. We have vaccination to thank for this. But the link is only weakened, not broken. More than 5000 people were admitted to hospital with COVID last week. 3/10

I really want to talk about the people we see in hospital. Appalling commentary in the press this week. One public figure dismissed COVID saying patients were dying from other diseases and not from COVID. The implication is that some lives don’t matter so much. @BBCr4today 4/10

I have seen many patients die from COVID. It disgusts me that a lawyer with no experience of treating these patients would say that they died ‘with COVID not from COVID’. Complete nonsense. Arrogant and heartless insult to the families of 150,000 people who died. @BBCr4today 5/10

During 2020, COVID was often falsely dismissed as a disease of the old and sick. Now we hear it dismissed because patients are younger and not vaccinated. Which is it? How can we presume to dismiss the lives of people we will never know? 6/10

The wonderful success of our National Health Service is that huge numbers of people live good lives despite diseases which used to kill so many. High blood pressure, stroke, cancer, HIV, kidney failure, the list is endless. These are the diseases people die ‘with’. 7/10

The greatest NHS value is that we don’t judge patients for why they come to hospital. We care for people with diseases caused by smoking, drinking and obesity. We care for people who rode their motorbikes way too fast, and who harm themselves through poor mental health. 8/10

In my time I have cared for armed robbers, murderers and terrorists. So yes, at times it is hard not to let judgements shape patient care. But nevertheless this is still the greatest value of the NHS. Healthcare for all, free at the point of care. Without judgement. 9/10

So when people ask whether our COVID patients are frail, elderly or have long-term disease, it makes me angry. Because the question is so often loaded with the judgement that these lives somehow matter less. They don’t and they never will. Not in our NHS. 💙10/10