I think we could have (a) been better prepared based on risk analysis conducted in the after math of SARS (b) reacted quicker when we saw what was happening in Italy (c) used what was being learned in countries suffering beforehand earlier I don't dispute that this is a (hopefully) unusual occurrence, our response was poor in my opinion.
It's not just equipment though. It's whole care units, bed capacity, spare doctors, nurses, training on what to do and what precautions need to be taken, admin staff, ambulances etc. And tests - tests for what cos you don't know what you're testing for at first. Comparing that to stockpiling weapons (I presume you mean nuclear weapons, cos I suspect we're short on other less devastating armoury anyway) doesn't bear comparison. Although if the Argies had another go I suppose there probably could be a parallel to be drawn - should we be stockpiling just in case?
That may be true. But the USA Italy, Spain and France seem to be doing no better than us. Probably worse. We are bound to have a natural difficulty by virtue of our international connections - our multi-cultural existence and the density of our population. Germany and South korea seem to be better at dealing with things. China's figures are not to be believed.
Before I go to bed... Just read of one copper... that’s one single policeman, called to 15 deaths at home in a single 24 hr period. None of those deaths will appear on the official stats, but no ones pretending they should. I’m sure some people will try to pretend that’s not significant, that it’s not unusual, that those people won’t get a funeral for weeks, it’s not important. but one copper in 24hrs
The nhs is way more flexible then people imagine, in my opinion it’s world class, . lets not bring do it down. Germany has a massive testing structure. We don’t.
It was written by the welfare officer (or similar job title) from the police federation. She wouldn't name the officer and it was only written on her blog. She also claims that 1 in 4 members of the emergency services have considered suicide.
Why let the truth get in the way of a good story... the only way an individual officer would see/deal with so many deaths in one day would be a terrorist attack. The logistics of how long it takes dealing with 1 sudden death (driving there, speaking to family/ambulance, arranging body carriers, paperwork etc) means you be hard pressed to get 3-4 in a shift never mind 15.
But we're not in usual times. Plus if they went to a nursing home there could be multiple deaths there..
Ive got a few thoughts on that. 1) What a difficult and horrible job that is, particularly given all the dealing with grieving families. Think we should probably spread our appreciation wider than just the NHS, and to everyone who has such a tough job to do in these horrible circumstances. 2) It estimates 700 deaths so far outside of hospitals - just goes to show that if we’re going to make decisions based on stats these are material to the numbers and we need to find a way to count them (as well as discarding the ‘died with’ deaths) 3) Ignore me, I’ve munged up the calculation.
Point 3 assumes single deaths at spread out places. The likelihood is that they will be in clusters. Point 2 a nurse on another forum im on said that they're not doing the clap in their country sof I said next Thursday I'd clap for her as well.I'm also thinking about all frontline services
1in 20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 eh? So it is probable that NHS staff catch the virus away from work then.
The estimate of 700 would be way off ONS reports that due to the lag in reporting home deaths the daily totals are about 80% out so at the minute 700 a day is nearer the mark.