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

Is it known who was the beneficiary of the one they're now ditching?

https://www.theregister.com/2020/05/12/vmware_tannzu_nhs_app/

This lot are nearly as bad as Grayling, it’s an absolute shambles.

I saw a tweet that resonated earlier. To paraphrase, this government is like a shit filled advent calendar.

For sure, absolutely awful!

They are hemorrhaging money all over the place and have now shit on all the student nurses who stepped up to the plate and are not honouring the 6 month contracts they promised them when the shit was hitting the fan.

Its a government that is failing, very obviously, do very basic government things. Including being able to sweep minor fuck ups under the carpet. Can't even do that bit of being in government right. Its basic stuff.

not honouring the 6 month contracts they promised them when the shit was hitting the fan.

WTF? I missed this.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/jun/17/student-nurses-irate-after-nhs-frontline-contracts-cut-short

Another very small baby, only 13 days old:

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/jun/18/covid-19-13-day-old-baby-becomes-one-of-englands-youngest-victims

I'm in Shanghai, so things here are still normal. My colleagues in Beijing are all working from home again and anyone who's been to Beijing in the last 14 days is banned from our office building. I was actually planning to go to Beijing next month to see some friends but I guess that won't be happening now :( I'm considering stocking up on essentials in case things do go awry here again, though to be honest my idea of essentials is coffee, soju and crafts I'll never complete.

Look like our phones now have this options sans an app that needed to run it;

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What would you do re my upcoming hospital appt?

My asthma is not well under control and it hasn't been for a while. GP was going to refer me to hospital end of Feb but I said no because of COVID19 looming then... we have been trying to manage it over the phone, that hasn't worked obviously. She then referred me about 4 weeks ago think and hoping that my hospital appt wouldn't happen till much later in the year, but it is actually in 2 weeks time. I am pretty sure it's going to go ahead unless I rearrange, but my guts are telling me I shouldn't go to a respiratory clinic full of people with bad lungs (myself included) when the current global crisis is respiratory related.

Should I rearrange?

I have manged to go on relatively normal day to day...

Hope your colleagues and friends in Beijing are OK and this latest outbreak get controlled with out too much disruption. I like your idea of essentials. 👍

It depends how bad your asthma gets. What advice are hospitals giving now for visits is it emergency only? Or is it relaxed slightly.
If you do go just take as much precautions as you can. I would call hospital and get them to asses the risks.

Good luck

It’s bad but it hasn’t stopped me from carrying on with my day to day, nothing a few puffs of inhaler plus tablets can’t get me back to normal, however temporary it is.

I think they have started non emergency out patient appts in the last couple of weeks.

I wanted to rearrange another out patient appt (for my knee) I was supposed to have mid March, and they were quite arsey about it, I managed to use my asthma as an excuse...

If I had to go, I’d do the usual mask and gloves, but I really don’t see how someone can check out my asthma without being pretty close to me and have me remove my mask AND I’d have to do loads of those stupid breathe in and out and in and out stuff, plus cough on request.

The whole thing is really rather ironic if you think about it. 🤣

Ah yes the civilized human brain and risk, while after some deliberations with a group of fellow cyclists stranded as myself at the side of Oak Hill Road Stapleford Abbotts, and the help of a very nice resident of this place and his son, I was in no doubt to take the Uber they got me to the UCH Euston A&E department on Sunday afternoon three weeks ago, I found my meandering mind thinking whether the doctors floating out really needed to have had their morning brief in the same consultation room I was going to enter as the first scheduled outpatient this Thursday morning.

I'm guessing this is beyond blue and brown inhaler management? Breathing is important, I'd go for the appointment.

I'd go for the appt. Hospitals seem to be managing to separate Covid and non-covid areas very well.

I've had to spend a lot of time in Milton Keynes general with a sick relative recently. I can relate to the anxiety about being exposed to the virus, even though I don't have a preexisting condition. For what its worth, I'd mask up and go to the appointment if I were in your shoes. I'd rather get my asthma under control as soon as possible to avoid being left untreated if there was a second wave and attending hospital becomes even less desirable.

As a fellow asthmatic who has been in and out of GPS and hospital recently for other reasons and was similarly worried about having an exacerbation,I would definitely go. My experience is that hospitals and surgeries are pretty empty and staff all wearing PPE. I know you know this but your asthma could exacerbate quickly and I’d definitely want a controlled hospital visit over a trip to A and E. It is scary though and horrible having to make your own risk assessment.

Whereabouts are you? The number of hospital Covid cases in London is currently tiny:
https://russss.github.io/covidtracker/map.html

One more thing to mention is that in the case of the particular hospital I have been hanging out at, they have plenty of wards and services that haven't even registered a single case of covid. Nobody can deny that visiting a hospital is higher risk, but they're not as riddled as I previously assumed.

For what it's worth, the only bit of the hospital where we couldn't distance and felt at risk was A&E

Obviously your experience will differ, however, been to two seperate surgeries in the last two weeks. Once for my 'wellman' checks which includes bloods and once for a steroid injection for a frozen shoulder. Both times I was the only one there and the doctor / nurse were both masked up.
I felt secure.

Cheers all the reassurance, guess it’s more mask and gloves time ahead then. I suppose if it’s too scary, I could always leg it on the day. Guess my biggest worry is those who don’t wear their marks properly being too close to me.

My asthma is well beyond brown and blue inhaler, it’s pink and blue and steroid tablets... the pink one is brown + blue, 4 puffs a day + 1 tablet at night + maybe a couple of blue one during the day.

Yap, you are right, a clinic is better than A&E.

I shall report back. Thanks!

The hospital building I work in has closed all its waiting rooms. People wait in the car and only come to the door when we call them. Only 2 patients in the building at any time (one upstairs, one downstairs) everybody you see will be in level 2 or 3 PPE. Toilets are shut and you don't touch anything aside from your bottom on the chair. When you leave the room you were in is left for a minimum of 30 minutes then the room is disinfected. Upside is that you and the staff are protected, the downside is that we can see 3 patients a session for each surgery.