There was a good piece on last night's Radio 4 news at 6.00 pm from Chris Mason in Reading (prior to the later Any Questions). He visited the main hospital in Reading and talked to staff and the (I think) chief executive. While I wouldn't say they were laid back, they certainly seemed to be on top of things and were proud of their coping mechanisms (such as virtual hospital beds). Try as Chris tried, he couldn't get much out of them in the way of panic stations.Psamathe wrote: ↑7 Jan 2022, 11:09amLoads of hospitals declaring critical incidents, military being called in to help out hospitals and Johnson thinks this is the NHS coping!https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/omicron-operations-delayed-boris-johnson-b1987507.html wrote:Urgent operations being postponed after PM tells England to ‘ride out’ Omicron wave
Urgent operations such as cardiac and cancer treatments are being delayed in hospitals as the NHS is stretched like never before, health leaders have warned.
Been told a coupe of days ago that my local ENT department now has an 18 month waiting list - coping?
Ian
I have no doubt that the NHS is hopelessly under-resourced and while not pehaps ready for privatisation, I get the impression that a lot of treatment is of the sort that could be farmed out to private companies - it is privatisaion by the back door. While this is bad enough, I reckon it even twists medical treatment in favour of such procedures rather than perhaps more time consuming, person-led medicine, but who knows.
Anyway, the BBC seems to want a crisis even when it's just winter pressures (severe as they are). And if they got rid of the ridiculous isolation rules, we might see lots of NHS staff back on duty which would help.