Statistics about non provision in the NHS

[Cassandra]

• Last night there were 32,000 Covid inpatients in UK hospitals, therefore one half of one tenth of one percent of our citizens.

• On July 5 1948 at it’s foundation the National Health Service took control of 480,000 hospital beds in England and Wales. (source nursing times)

• The total number of NHS hospital beds in England, including general and acute, mental illness, learning disability, maternity and day-only beds, has more than halved over the past 30 years, from around 299,000 in 1987/88 to 141,000 in 2018/19 (source The Kings Fund).

• Therefore in 1948 24,058 (0.05% of population) patients in 480,000 beds would have meant a 5.01% occupation rate

• However in 2019, 32,000 patients in 141,000 beds reflects a 22.7% occupation rate

• So in a period when population increased by 33% Hospital beds declined by 71%

• In 1948 there were 125,000 nurses or a ratio of just over one quarter of one nurse to every bed place

• In 2018 there were 281,700 nurses, or a ratio or nearly 2 nurses to every bed place

One half of one tenth of one percent for Total Covid hospital places is in no way a disaster, but reflects either a crass lack of asset provision for treatment where a population increase of 33% has contributed to this modern day fiasco. Trying to blame the public for rebelling against almost a year of restrictive confinement in a land without proper provisions for allowing this disgrace to occur is shameful and reflects the substandard politicians of all parties who allowed this debacle to occur.

[biglouis]

I doubt if anyone could put it better than your final paragraph Cass.

[Jacqueline]

Those statistics are shocking, our politicians should be ashamed.  Our NHS struggles every winter without Covid which has pushed it over the top.

[klondike]

As I said elsewhere the NHS winter crisis is an annual event but somehow this one is all our fault rather than the politicians fault.

[Bobcat]

I would not argue with the basic statistics but just crude numbers do not take into account the changes in medical procedures and our approach to hospitalisation. If I can give just one example when my three children were born my wife spent two weeks in hospital for each one. My granddaughter has just given birth to her second child, she went into hospital in the morning and was discharged late afternoon the same day. Many many operations that required several days and, on occasion weeks in hospital are now carried out under local anaesthetic and keyhole surgery often as a day patient.[/font][/color]

[Diasi]

But in the meantime we all should be doing our bit to help to stop even more people being hospitalised.

As a poster behind my office desk said, "It's no good debating whose fault it is that the swamp needs draining when you're up to your arse in alligators".

[klondike]

IMO the demographic of those hospitalised is a major problem. The younger generation may well be in and out of a hospital within a day or so or often enough just a day patient but the elderly with a respiratory infection will be there a lot longer. Combined discharges and deaths of covid patients appear to have been running at less than 10% of those hospitalised.

[crabbyob]

two great posts, my mother had half a lung removed and was in hospital for almost six months


i had half a lung removed and was hospitalised for three days
modern medicine is amazing, than the lord, or whoever...ok scientists...lol

[Michael Rolls]

As I have mentioned before, we still have far fewer acute beds than virtually any other comparably advanced nation
Mike

[crabbyob]

thus proving we are not as advanced as we are lead to believe ...

[Michael Rolls]

We keep getting told that the NHS is the envy of the world. Rubbish. It has a good proportion of truly cutting edge facilities,, but a service that routinely fails to provide adequate cover just about every bloody winter, has disgracefully long waiting times in many areas, need I go on......?
Mike

[Cassandra]

But in the meantime we all should be doing our bit to help to stop even more people being hospitalised.

As a poster behind my office desk said, "It's no good debating whose fault it is that the swamp needs draining when you're up to your arse in alligators".

Yes I had my jab tonight

Had phone call this morning at 10am from the GP practice, offering an appt. for this evening at 7.45 pm in the Town Centre, less than a mile away. Got there early, 100's of people (all 20's, 40's mainly, lining up outside), but a nice lady attendant said "You've got an appointment, please go to the queuing area at the front by the doors and give them your name". Lots of moaning about this from all these other people who had no booking at all, as I walked past them. They had been advised that after the 'bookings' were dealt with, the staff would stay on for free to dispense whats left of today's supply for essential workers etc as it won't keep overnight, needing to be stored of course at - 70 ℃.

The whole thing was brilliantly organised and administered. Next one in three months apparently. Well done NHS.

The chap I was talking to there said "we're really rattling through them now, we're days ahead of schedule here". Remarked he got a real feeling of achievement in helping. There are still some decent people around?
The doc who administered the injection (GP volunteer from my new practice was brilliant, never felt a thing). Said they normally get through around 10pm when the supply runs out, till the next day. But did say getting out is becoming more like running the gauntlet nightly! As the crowds who have been turned away through not being relevant and therefore entitled get a bit ugly.

That said I'm totally amazed how busy the roads and shops are. Lots of young people deliberately shirking all restraints and disciplines and quite deliberately attracting response - A very nasty cocktail that seems to be on the increase

Personally I'd give them a custodial sentence, say 14 days under a home arrest curfew and with an ankle clamp. This way they'd have to consider getting a criminal record which might deter their uncivil behaviour.

[Clarence]

Excellent exposition by Cassandra above. Also noted that many treatments are now done as outpatients, and other techniques such as keyhole surgery and body tissue scans have also made surgery less drastic for many and reduced after care times. Another trend has been from small hospitals to larger general hospitals which means that spare capacity is more concentrated, and other devices like regional ambulance control centres, and even having most patients on the telephone, have also allowed capacity to be used more efficiently. But the NHS still complains every year that they are under funded and can't cope, in other words shroud waving, it's what they do.

[Clarence]

Many people have noticed ambulances waiting outside hospitals and assume it reinforced the myth that hospitals are overloaded. In the summer a relative (early 60s) came to stay with us, it was legal then, and she fell ill with flu like symptoms, we realised that hankies were not enough and called the ambulance. Before leaving the site the ambulance crew did the basic testing that in previous eras would have been done by the hospital after admission, all the readings sent in for a doctor's opinion. She was taken to hospital, treatment continued in the hospital grounds in the ambulance, including a lot of form filling and box ticking. She was eventually taken in and discharged later in the day with some antibiotics. That counts as an admission.

[Clarence]

One more thought. If you prevent a lot of people from going to work, they are going to occupy their time somehow, and for many Netflix is not the answer. I am therefore asking, not 'do lockdowns work', they don't, but 'could all this be making a bad do even worse?'