Hospital madness

[Galaxy2]

I’m pretty shocked tonight. I’ve been quite ill this year, spent some time in hospital, had a few trips to a and e, had multiple outpatient appointments over the last few months, my fear throughout was contracting covid when being so unwell and omicron rates were so high. I have to say that through that I was so impressed with the hospitals strict covid policies around mask wearing and precautions in place and have so far managed to avoid it.

However, I had to take my daughter to a & e today, what an awful experience, no one on the door anymore checking for covid symptoms, no requirement to wear masks, absolutely packed in there, 5 hour waiting time to see a doctor, full of people coughing, never felt so vulnerable. People clearly with covid symptoms waiting with the rest of us. Just a sign on the door saying please wear a mask if you have covid symptoms. 1 in 20 they believe have covid and mask wearing not being enforced in hospitals anymore. How on earth do they expect it not to spread like wild there.

I’m just shocked, it’s as if people like us just don’t matter, next time I need to go to hospital in an emergency I’m certainly not walking into a&e and putting myself through that.

Sorry that’s my rant, hope everyone’s ok.

[Hoofprints]

Don't apologize for the rant - I think many here feel the same horror at how lax things have been allowed to get. I'm tired of feeling like a third class citizen.

Hopefully you'll be ok, especially if wearing a mask yourself today.

I also hope your daughter is ok and got the help she needed.

Go treat yourself to some choc - or any distraction from the mad outside world in whatever form works for you 🌻

[Galaxy2 in reply to Hoofprints]

Thanks so much, yes we did wear masks but still felt incredibly at risk. My daughter is ok too thank for your words

[Nadine99]

I agree, no apology needed for the rant. We have been to many hospitals in the last few weeks and have experienced exactly like you describe. We did our best to sit at a distance around A & E, asked people to move away please, thankful that doctors & nurses were still wearing masks when we spoke. I'm sure 95% of the population think Covid has 'gone away' but for us it's still a frightening prospect and it's not me with the Vasculitis, it's my husband. I feel sometimes like I'm shooing people away from him, actually, I don't feel like it, I do it. I actually stand between him and other people with my back to them to shield him. We continue to wear our masks, do the best for ourselves and hope we're doing enough. My husband had Covid last November and nearly didn't make it out of hospital, so just look after you and yours.

[Galaxy2 in reply to Nadine99]

Thank you Nadine, we can only do our best to avoid it. Glad to hear your husband recovered , still such a frightening prospect for us all

[zoe69 Moderator Volunteer Vasculitis UK]

I hope your daughter is ok. I was so glad when my GP surgery made masks compulsory again. Hopefully you neither of you caught it

[Galaxy2 in reply to zoe69]

Thanks Zoe, I really hope they rethink this, not sure if it’s just my local hospitals or everywhere

[May7]

Well ranted! I don't know what my A&E is like at the moment, and hope I won't need to find out, but my consultants and departments all wear masks. I was horrified to find that my GP surgery didn't enforce masks when I went for a blood test a few weeks ago. Having seen a patient come into the waiting room maskless, and be welcomed by a nurse without comment, I mentioned this to the nurse I was seeing, labouring the point that I was immune suppressed. She said she was sorry, but there was nothing they could do because it wasn't the law. Having respiratory problems, I hate wearing my FFP2 masks, and often cut short my supermarket visits in a little distress. So I welcome the chance to wear a simpler mask in medical settings, thinking that others are wearing masks too, only to find that this isn't necessarily the case. When I visited the opticians and went into the room where a technician does the eye map before seeing my optician, I was shocked to be greeted by a maskless lady. When I queried mask wearing, her first thought was to reassure me that I didn't need to wear one because it wasn't the law! I explained my situation, and asked if she would wear one, and she said she does while doing the tests because we aren't socially distanced then. I really couldn't understand why she didn't greet me in a mask in the first place. We are all fighting an uphill battle. It's exhausting.

[Galaxy2 in reply to May7]

Well said, it is exhausting. I don’t understand when rates are increasing why they have made this decision, there are always going to vulnerable people in hospitals , we have enough problems to deal with surely

[StriatedCaracara]

It would be so simple to put something on the TV telling people to wear masks when they go into A&E. Staff must br infuriated too.Took my mum in her 90s to see a physio at her GP surgery about her arm. Physio did nothing other than refer for x-ray at a walk in centre, with no appointment system

I think it is a soft tissue injury and she is being put at risk by by going for the x-ray with the rise in covid cases..

But I guess NSH need to improve screening stats after the pandemic. Seeing the physio was hopeless..so we are trying different things out ourselves., including going to private physio for exercises and possibly ultra sound...so to get basic help it needs private appointment when we thought we had an NHS.

Also warned that there is a shortage of radiographers and results of x-ray could take 2 months to get...

Again so much scanning now going on I guess..

It would help if more first aid and basic medical emergency things were taught in schools. Just leart a young neighbour died this week of sepsis when they had underlying malignancy they sadly knew nothing about.

Learning about what happens in different conditions when blood cells go low neutrophils (infection risk ), platelets (bleeding), red blood cells (lack of oxygen to cells - tiredness) ordinary people could look out for.

GP and 111 were hopeless, neighbour being alert to infection not being fought and to sepsis, should have used 999.

A life lost because info in this country is not shared. The NHS no longer always serve us well and are sometimes a disaster, people need more formation on mask wearing on and on red alert situations. Useless management maybe..

[StriatedCaracara]

I think on the BBC website there is way of providing feedback on programmes.I once used this feedback facility to list programmes I thought people would like to see more...

Later these started to appear a bit more so maybe others were asking for these changes too.

Mentioning because if enough of us raise the issue about a&e and the need for masks, maybe something could result eg.

Public health announcements and maybe a documentary.

Short well worded list of suggestions I think they are looking for. The more help we give, the less time they need to spend working on content and the more likely this will be aired.

[Galaxy2 in reply to StriatedCaracara]

In recent times I haven’t seen people object to wearing masks at hospital, at my local one there was someone enforcing this at the door, everyone seemed ok with it. I think generally people would be fine with it still in a healthcare setting too, you’d think they’d want to protect themselves too in a and e

[lovenothate]

I’ve been considering recently that maybe we are actually just seen as disposable.

[Galaxy2 in reply to lovenothate]

I wonder too

[Paprika60]

The people who make the policy including the medical doctors in top ranking are only concerned about hospital admission and death rates. So this really has become the case of survival of the fittest. The society needs money and the economic revival is more important in the short term now and indeed we are considered disposable as we don't create wealth...instead we cost NHS money. So I don't know why they pretend!What happened to the noble idea of protecting the vulnerable and not be selfish? My husband just returned from Singapore from a business trip and they have completely opened the society as we have but everybody wears mask as a curtesy and NOT because it is not being enforced by law. The west could learn a thing or two from the east! 😂

[Galaxy2 in reply to Paprika60]

Well said