Chat about Novel Coronavirus - 2019-nCoV - COVID-19

You are reading a single comment by @GoatandTricycle and its replies. Click here to read the full conversation.

•

GoatandTricycle in reply to @deleted

Surely age and history of health issues are pretty easy metrics to use. I can’t see much to reason against triaging of covid cases anyway.

•

Stonehedge in reply to @GoatandTricycle

I think the issue is the sheer number of expected old unwell people making it hard to differentiate who will be worst affected.
•

deleted in reply to @GoatandTricycle

Having been involved in triage many times- it’s never as simple as the math would like it to be.
I don’t envy my ITU, medical or A&E colleagues at the moment.

Not 100% what the next month or so brings for us as surgeons.

However, I think- despite the bed situation looking bleak from the outside(and inside)- that the nature of the NHS puts us in an excellent position for better outcomes.

On a side note I think the government and exec have missed a vital opportunity to train a huge potential workforce (med students, nursing students, FY1s), as well as increasing physical capacity(4 floors of a hospital I used to work at are built and empty- for example)- in the period since containment to Hubei had passed.
Fire-fighting remains our mainstay, and lessons must be learnt from this.