Hospital forced to send seriously ill patients to other hospitals but now says no longer sending patients to other facilities
Northwick Park hospital in the north-west London borough of Harrow declared a ‘critical incident’ last night after a surge in coronavirus cases overloaded its critical care capacity.
The hospital sent a message to staff to notify them of the news:
I am writing to let you know that we have this evening declared a ‘critical incident’ in relation to our critical care capacity at Northwick Park Hospital. This is due to an increasing number of patients with Covid-19.
In the last hour, the hospital has ‘stood down’ its critical alert status – although it remains under pressure, it is not currently sending patients elsewhere.
A press spokesman told the SKWAWKBOX:
It’s better than it was, that’s all we can say. Everyone is still under a lot of pressure.
The hospital’s formal statement will be added when it is received.
Update: a spokesperson for London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust said:
We can confirm that our Critical Incident status has been stood down. Critical care capacity for patients with coronavirus is being organised on a cross-London basis so that hospitals and organisations work together to deliver the best possible care for patients and that is what has happened in this case.
This kind of coordinated, flexible response is one of the NHS’s strengths but with staff pulling out all the stops they need the public to play their part too, by following the expert guidance on washing your hands, staying at home and using health services responsibly.
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This is how it will be everywhere in 4-6 weeks. Anecdotally NW LONDON is already surging but it’s only too easy for the authorities to smoother the news when very few get tested. That and the lax rules about distancing is a recipe for disaster. Johnson’s bumbling nonsense is meant to disguise the plain truth, we don’t have the hospitals, the staff , the vital equipment, not even the beds. That failure can’t be glossed over in a couple of months. The lack of testing and the lax regime seems almost designed to see the country taking it on the chin just as Johnson thought best weeks ago. Tough policy if half a million or more die but he has no option but to keep saying what a “FANTASTIC” job he’s doing as he has nothing to offer.
hmmm… VERY odd. I was aware of the critical incident alert, but not this “stand down”. Strongly suspect Northwick has been ordered to stand down. Lewisham Hospital also is under extreme pressure. Not a surprise. For the last several years, the Cardiology Wards Medical AND Surgical in Central London, have been having patients from Luton and the far reaches of Kent for eg. In the past, hospitals like the William Harvey, were well equipped to deal with such patients. The idea of running a health service with no slack, is reasonable only according to Tory ideology.
Note well. Germany has at least five times the number of ventilators and critical care beds as we have. Hence they have suffered far fewer fatalities than we have so far for Covid-19. They have conducted many multiples of tests, compared to us, from the start of the outbreak. Johnson & Cummings‘ ”rationale” of “slowing the curve” is pure tosh. Surely if you fail to isolate, test, trace and treat from the get go, then you accelerate the peak of the curve of spread, NOT flatten it.
Be prepared now for the script to come. EXACTLY like with Tony Blair’s invasion of Iraq, despite warnings, we will hear Johnson attempt to say future critics are “claiming the benefit of hindsight”. That would be a lie‼️ Johnson & Cummings have found “experts” to fit their plan rather than the CORRECT way around. Substandard ”leaders” can always find willing “experts” to disgrace their professions for a knight or dame hood, just as of old. The “leaders” are devoid of substance. The “experts” are devoid of dignity. They sell their birthrights, mothers and souls for a mess of shiny baubles and the skins of dead animals. Watch for the next Dishonours List. It dishonours those who are fitting holders and recipients.
Yes indeed, this constant spin and waffle and outright lying from Johnson and co and a compliant journalist ‘lobby’ system of beholden insiders in the mass media , has only weeks, or in some London boroughs, mere days, to go with the bullshit, before the ghastly reality of the epochal disaster the under-resourcing of our NHS is going to produce, makes the real dire situation all too clear to everyone. See this Sky News report and weep, especially if you live in the capital ! https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-whats-coming-is-extremely-big-uk-consultant-says-outbreak-could-be-worse-than-in-italy-11960994
Unfortunately it is unlikely that , when the smoke from the nationwide mass emergency funeral pyres finally disperses, with hundreds of thousands of our friends and relatives unnecessarily dead, it is still unlikely that our ever-gullible fellow citizens will finally grasp what the political elite and their chums have been up to for 30 years, and drag those responsible from their mansions and put them up against the wall (after a suitably brief, but probing, revolutionary legality citizen’s court process of course ). Nope, the mass media will persuade people it was all their own fault – and if they’d only had a fully privatised health service with personal health insurance we’d have managed just fine ! .
My German doctor friend who helped me and my family overcome the virus informed me that his 82year old uncle died 2days ago in a London Hospital,untreated and unable to help in is dying moments.A British national born and bred in England and largley ignored.because of his age.This is what British people are being asked to aceppt Culling and eugenics.I wonder how the old queen and the old racist she married would be treated?And I wonder just how far this entitlement has spread?ITs now clear that it spreads rapidly to the front door of the titled leader of the Labour party Sir keir Starmer(self declared)in the email I received payed for by foreign backers.
Don’t believe Johnson’s lies. He and his contemptible associates, and “experts” willing to flog their professional integrity should be condemned. They lie when they say the have new information. They need not have read Skwawkbox.org . Reputable professionals were saying the same seven or eight weeks ago IN PRINT & IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN. To tow a contemptible line of “herd” immunity and flattening curves with incoherent gibberish are even more despicable. It is not “science” to allow hundreds of thousands to die from an extremely contagious “new” virus. It is not hindsight to point this out. It was pointed out here on Skwawkbox.org and elsewhere including the WHO and the Lancet. ➕ we had the VISIBLE EVIDENCE of the experiences in China and its neighbours. Isolate test test test & trace. Equip the key members of our society with the tools AND proper protection. Aprons, masks, and gloves… PROPER not cheap Tory trash.
Also KEY workers must obviously include those who clear away our recycling and rubbish. Also, the street cleaners, supermarket workers especially checkout staff. Prison staff… ALL OF THEM‼️ Information must be clear. Unambiguous. Johnson has his usual confidence but his announcement are riddled with inconsistencies from day to day. And each announcement is vague. He is thinking of himself and NOT the welfare of this country nor anyone. He never does think of anyone other than himself.
Getting back to the HINDSIGHT canard to come… When the Iraq Research Group … or was it Oxford Survey Group ? anyway when they presented their research that Tony Blair’s invasion of Iraq on a fountain of lies caused the death of a million or three, Blair said their figure was wrong but offered none of his own. I seem to remember that he said he did not know what the casualty figure was. Surely, if the creature had any decency, the creature would know and care, since it was much put about that Saddam was cruel to the Iraqis. Surely were one intending to reduce death and suffering one would have the running total of casualties at the forefront of one’s conscience. No???
WMD Blair dismissed the research published in the Lancet. Oh how history repeats itself. Johnson and Cummings also dismiss sound INDEPENDENT epidemiological science in the Lancet and from the WHO, and from the education available FREE from China and South Korea.
So prepare for the shameless spin now, of HINDSIGHT. The Tory governments lacked the foresight to understand that an NHS stripped to the bone would not be resilient in any epidemic. They DO happen. Germany knows that.
So should we. Fail to prepare. Prepare to fail.🔻🔻🔻