The PM embarked on ‘freedom day’ without making provision to treat the inevitable increase in severely unwell cases. Just pause for a moment and consider that…
The UK has less inpatient capacity than before the pandemic. Freedom day has led to so much Covid Pneumonia it has TRIPLED the healthcare burden from 'normal' pneumonia - one of the highest burden diseases in the UK - and still the capacity of the NHS is less.
You simply cannot have it both ways. You cannot shrink the NHS and allow the UK’s most destructive infection to spread freely. You cannot allow people to get infected knowing around 2% will need hospital care and simply not provide that care.
Well you can, because this government has.
But the account will need settled. The data isn't going anywhere.
And there is no way of hiding from the fact that Johnson has pursued a mass infection policy and failed to provide the care for those infected.
The Johnson Legacy:
"Pursuing a mass infection policy while refusing to provide the treatment needed for those infected."
The fact this is happening is irrefutable.
But why refuse to strengthen the NHS during a pandemic?
And is there time for the PM to change this legacy?
Things are a bit hazy just now. We are all reeling from a difficult 20 months. Most are fed-up with Covid-19. And many have realised the damaging secondary impacts of the measures implemented to control it. Popular sentiment bastes in this recent trauma.
Popular sentiment will change. Indeed, for PMs in office during major historical events their legacy takes on a different quality. And I think few will argue the Covid pandemic is the most historical event since WW2. It is certainly killing more civilians.
Thanks for all the support raising awareness for the NHS and Covid-19 🙏🏼
I hope you will now permit me to share my academic side with you. I promise it won't be (too) boring.
It tells the story of the pandemic response from a certain perspective. It starts in April 2020..
Early Intervention
Witnessing the 'hands-off' approach being taken by the UK (and US) to patients with Covid-19, we wrote this opinion article to remind our colleagues that we don't need a 'magic bullet' to save lives. Best Supportive Care matters!
This line became quite useful:
"The battle for lives will likely be won in the community. It is the community doctors, the paramedics and the emergency department staff who will shift the balance and save most lives..."
The public should exercise the same judgement for who and when to contact if they are concerned as they did prior to the pandemic. Waiting until severely unwell neither helps patient or health service.
The majority of Covid-19 resolves without event. Typical symptoms are similar to the cold or flu and tend to start improving after two or three days.
The first part of any pandemic response is to identify those who have the infection. It sounds obvious, I know. And I can't believe it actually has to be said. But such are the times we are in!
Isolation prevents the spread of infection and thus death and disability.
Treatment directly prevents death and disability - the actual threat posed by the virus. It is this 'threat' we are concerned with. Fail to identify and treat cases, more people die and the threat grows.
How complicit has NHS Leadership been in Johnson’s pandemic calamities? And have lessons been learned?
There is a long list of failures:
▪️Ageist policies
▪️Blanket Do Not Resuscitate orders
▪️Inadequate PPE
▪️Ethnic disparities on the frontline
▪️No Triage
▪️No clinical follow-up
▪️The ‘Stay Home’ messaging
▪️Ineffectual Contact and Trace
▪️Circumventing primary care
▪️Rationing of access to healthcare via ‘111’.
▪️Oxygen rationing
▪️Shrinking the NHS during a pandemic
And these failures, while still remediable, continue to place HCWs in unsafe and traumatic working conditions, and are still leading to unsafe care provision for the British public.